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Webster 1913 Edition

Copal

Co′pal

(kō′pal; 277)
,
[Sp., fr. Mexican
copalli
, a generic name of resins.
Clavigero
.]
A resinous substance flowing spontaneously from trees of Zanzibar, Madagascar, and South America (
Trachylobium Hornemannianum
,
Trachylobium verrucosum
, and
Hymenæa Courbaril
), and dug from earth where forests have stood in Africa; – used chiefly in making varnishes.
Ure.

Webster 1828 Edition

Copal

COPAL

,
Noun.
The concrete juice of a tree growing in Mexico or New Spain, hard, shining, transparent, citron-colored, and odoriferous. It is not strictly a gum nor a resin, as it has not the solubility in water common to gums, nor that in spirit of wine common to resins. In these respects it rather resembles amber. It may be dissolved by digestion in lintseed oil, with a heat little less than sufficient to boil or decompose the oil. This solution, diluted with spirit of turpentine, forms a beautiful transparent varnish.

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