COPAL, a hard lustrous resin, varying in hue from an almost colourless transparent mass to a bright yellowish brown, having a conchoidal fracture, and, when dissolved in alcohol, spirit of turpentine, or any other suitable menstruum, forming one of the most valuable varnishes. Like many other commercial substances, copal is obtained from a variety of sources; the term is not uniformly applied or restricted to the products of any particular legion or series of plants, but is vaguely used for resins which, though very similar in their physical properties, differ somewhat in their constitution, and are altogether distinct as to their source. Thus the resin obtained from Trachylobium Hornemannianum is known in commerce as Zanzibar copal, or gum animé. Madagascar copal is the produce of T. verrucosum. From Guibourtia copallifera is obtained Sierra Leone copal, and another variety of the same resin is found in a fossil state on the west coast of Africa, probably the produce of a tree now extinct. From Brazil and other South American countries, again, copal is obtained which is yielded by Trachylobium Martianum, Hymenaea Courbaril, and various other species, while the dammar resins and the piney varnish of India are occasionally classed and spoken of as copal. Of the varieties abovo enumerated by far the most important in a commercial point of view is the Zanzibar or East African copal, yielded by Trachylobium Hornemannianum. The resin is found in two distinct conditions :—1st, raw or recent, called by the inhabitants of the coast sandarusiza miti or chakazi, the latter name being corrupted by Zanzibar traders into “jackass” copal; and 2d, ripe or true copal, the sandarusi inti of the natives. The raw copal, which is obtained direct from the trees, or found at their ...