Copals, as they are called, come from New Zealand, Mozambique, Zanzibar, West Africa, Brazil, and the Philippines.

The best of the Copals is said to be the Kauri gum, originally exuded from the Kauri pine tree of New Zealand.

The tree is still existent and produces a soft, spongy sap, but the resin used in varnish is dug up from a few feet under ground in regions where there are now no trees.

A commercially important copal and one noted for its hardness is the Zanzibar or East African Copal.

It is found imbedded in the earth at a depth not greater than four feet over a wide belt of the mainland coast of Zanzibar, on tracts where not a single tree now grows.