copal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several brittle aromatic yellow to red resins of recent or fossil origin, obtained from various tropical trees and used in certain varnishes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A hard, transparent, amber-like resin, the product of many different tropical trees, melting at a high temperature, and used in the manufacture of varnishes. Some of the softer kinds are also called anime. Copal may be dissolved by digestion in linseed-oil, with a heat a little less than sufficient to boil or decompose the oil. This solution diluted with spirit of turpentine forms a beautiful transparent varnish, which, when properly applied and slowly dried, is exceedingly durable and hard. There are various methods of preparing it. The most highly prized copal is that obtained from Zanzibar and Mozambique, the product of leguminous trees, Trachylobium Hornemannianam and T. Mozambicense, and often dug from the ground in a semi-fossil state. Several varieties are obtained from the western coast of Africa, all probably furnished by species of Copaifera. Manila or Indian copal is obtained from Vateria Indica. Kauri copal, from New Zealand and New Caledonia, is found in the soil in large masses, the product of species of Agathis (Dammara). South American copals are obtained from Hymenæa Courbaril and other allied leguminous trees, as well as from some burseraceous species. (See anime.) The Mexican copal-trees are species of Bursera or other genera of the same order.

Wiktionary

1. n. A resinous exudation from various tropical trees used chiefly in making varnishes and printing ink.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a brittle aromatic resin used in varnishes