Var. 2. Cellular Piney resin, or second sort white dammer, occurs either in small lumps or in large masses, generally of a shining appearance and balsamic smell. Has a very cellular structure, which is attributable partly to the mode of col lection, and partly to the age of the tree. Notches being cut in the trunk of the trees sloping inwards and downwards, the resin collects in the cavity, and is either permitted to dry on the spot, or is collected and dried by the application of heat. It is of all shades, from light green to light yellow or white, and is usually translucent. Specimens are sometimes seen in which, from the desiccation having been improperly conducted, the resin is moro opaque, of a dull green colour, and full of air-bubbles, presenting the appearance of having undergone a partial fermentation. This resin may be recognised by its cellular appearance and balsamic smell ; but tho balsamic smell, which is duo to the volatile oil it contains, is gradually lost by long keeping or constant exposure to the air. On splitting open old and decayed trees, portions of a dark-coloured resin are often found, having tho solid consistence of the first variety, but the inferior quality of the second.
The finest specimens of Piney resin aro obtained by making incisions in the tree, and aro in pale green translucent pieces of considerable size. The resin that exudes naturally usually contains much impurity. In most of its properties it resembles copal, but it possesses qualities which give it some advantages over tho latter. Like copal, it is but slightly soluble in alcohol ; but, as Berzelius pointed out in the case of .copal, it can be brought into solution by the addition of cam phor to the spirit. It is easily soluble in chloro form, and thus might find a small application as a substitute for amber in photographers' varnish. It differs most advantageously from copal, .by being at once soluble in turpentine, and drying also without the necessity of the preliminary destructive fusion required by that resin, a process which tends greatly to impair the colour of the varnish. The solution of the Piney resin in tur pentine is turbid and milky, but by the addition of powdered charcoal, and subsequently filtering, it yields a solution transparent and colourless as water, and yields a varnish which dries with a purity and whiteness not to be surpassed. The solution in turpentine readily mixes with the drying oils. It is on these properties of the resin that its chance of becoming an article of trade will depend. In price it cannot compete with copal, when supply to the European market is regi,.ilar and abundant. The ordinary price of the best copal in the English market is but £2, 10s. per cwt. Piney resin yields, on destructive distillation, 82 per cent. of an oil of agreeable odour, but not differing essentially from that obtained from much cheaper resins.
East Indian dammer, which is well known among varnish-makers, though frequently con founded with this, is the product of a very different tree, and is not produced in the Madras Presidency.
Damnzers of the Northern and Eastern Districts. —Sal tree dammer, Vatica robusta and other species, occurs in sticks much resembling in shape the black dal:rimer, but differing widely in colour and consistency. In colour it varies frorn a light yellow to a dark brown, the two colours being very frequently blended in the same lump, and giving it the appearance of having a regular grain. It is friable, and differs from the white dammer of the western coast in its inferior hard ness, its opacity, and its peculiar form, and from the black damrner in its colour. There are exten sive tracts of Vatica jungles in the Gumsur and Cuttack provinces. The Khand and Uriya races, living in and near these jungles, wound trees in several places ; the resin issues, and is collected when sufficiently solid. The darnmer collected from the decayed parts of the tree is of a dark colour. The tree is called Guggilarn in Telugu, and Tala gotso in Uriya. The Khand and Uriya races make the leaves into the plates from which they eat their food, and also roll up tobacco in them to smoke like a cheroot. In time of famine, the above tribes live on a soup made from the fruit of this tree.
Vatica tumbuggaia grows also to a limited extent on the west coast, but yields little if any of the dammer collected there. It exudes an amber coloured resin.
The White Dammer of Singapore is the product of Dammara orientalis. The Australian dammer, or kauri or cowri gum, or Australian copal, is obtained from the Damrnara australis.
In Rlaio Lingga. Archipelago, dammer is obtained from the Meranti (Damar vatu), the Meranan (Daniar-kruyong) and Balon trees -(Damar math, knelling).
In Borneo, also, dammer is produced by many kinds of trees quite different from' Marsden's Dammara orientalis. The white dammer is used for the same purposes DS gum-copal. Darnar mata kuching, or the cat's eye dammer, is the least common and most valuable, being beauti fully transparent. The Damar daging, or flesh like dammer, 'takes its name from its veined appearance, which causes it to resemble some kinds of agate. In Sumatra some of the trees producing dammer, yield valuable timber. The Damar laut tree, not mentioned by Rumphius, is employed at Penang for the frame timbers of ships, beams, and knees. Dammer is also the name of a gummy substance found floating on the sea off the E. African coast, which the people believe to be excreta of whales. Captain Burton supposes it to be unripe gum washed seaward during the rains.—Powell ; Beddow, Fl. Sylv. p. 84 ; Burton ; Hawkes ; Mad. Ex. J. Rep.; Dr.