DAM'MAR, or DAMMAR PINE (Hind. dinar, pitch, resin), Aguthis, formerly called Dammam. A genus of trees of the natural order Conifer, distinguished by their broad, lanceolate, leathery leaves, which have numerous nearly parallel veins. The name, originally applied to its resinous product, has been ex tended to a number of different trees, one of which is the Moluccan (laminar (Aga this mien to/is), which grows on the high mountain ridges of the Molucca Islands. It grows to a great height, attains a diameter of nine feet, and gen erally has the lower part of the trunk beset with knots as large as a man's hand. The timber is light and of inferior quality, and the tree is chiefly valuable for its resin, which is soft, transparent, hardens in a few days, and is then white, with a crystalline appearance. The resin often flows spontaneously from the tree in such quantity that it hangs in masses like icicles of a handbreadth and a foot long. At another period of the year it is yellow, and less valued. By incision, especially in the protuberances of the stem, it is obtained in large pieces. So long as dammar resin is soft it has a strong smell; upon drying this odor is lost. It contains only a trace of volatile oil, but consists of two dis tinct resins, one of which is soluble in alcohol, the other not. It is light, brittle, and easily friable, readily soluble in oil of turpentine. It is used in Asia for domestic purposes, and in the arts like other resins; it is an article of commerce, and in Europe is employed in various ways to form varnishes, which dry quickly, have a very bright lustre, are colorless, but readily become viscid again, and are not perm-' ncnt, so that this resin cannot be made a sub stitute for copal and amber. It is almost com pletely soluble in benzoic., and in this solvent makes an excellent colorless varnish for positive photographs on glass. To this genus belongs also Aga this Australis, the Kauu'i pine (q.v.)
of New Zen hind, which produces the resin known as Kauri resin, or Naun gum. The tree at tains a. height of 150 to 300 feet, and a diameter of 15 feet. The timber is straight-grained and very durable. The' Kauri resin is dug from under the trees, masses weighing 100 pounds having been found. Agatlus robusta is a valu able Queensland tree which has been success fully introdueed in California. The resin known as black dammar is obtained in the \lolueca Islands from the trunk of Protium obtusifolium, a tree of the natural order Burseracem. It is a send-fluid, strong-smelling resin, which be comes black when dry; it is used as pitch, also to yield a kind of turpentine, which is ob tained by distillation. Canarinm unicroearpum and Canarium strictun, trees of the same order, also natives of the farthest East, yield by in cision of the trunk a viscid, odorous, yellowish substance, very similar to balsam of copaiva, which is called camar, or dam mar, and is used in naval yards, mixed with a little chalk and the bark of reeds, for calking boats. The resin called white dammar, or piney dammar, in India, often also called copal in India, is the prod uct of Vateria indiea and related species, large trees of the natural order Dipteroearpacere. It is obtained by wounding the tree, and when fresh is clear, fragrant, and acridly bitter; when dried it becomes yellow, brittle, and glasslike. It is used in India as a varnish (`piney var nish') which is hard, tenacious, and much esteemed. It is also made into candles in Mala bar, which, in burning, diffuse an agreeable fragrance, and give a clear light with little smoke. Shorea robusta, the Sal (q.v.), so much valued in India, as a timber-tree, of the same natural order, and some other species of Shorea, yield a resin, also known as dammar and as ral and dhoona, which is much used in dockyards in India as pitch. For illustration of Agathis dam mara, see Plate of DAHLIAs.