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Sin (Friable dry almost transparent)

a friable, dry, almost transparent, tasteless, yellowish white resin, which is imported from Mogador, Mo- It is completely soluble in oil of rocco. turpentine, but not completely soluble in alcohol. When heated, or sprinkled on burning coals, it emits an agreeable balsamic smell. It exudes from the bark of the sandarac tree (Callitris quadrivalvis), a native of the N. of Africa, of the natural order Coniferæ. It is employed in making varnish, and generally speaking for the same purposes as mastic. The Australian species also exude sandarac.

The finely powdered resin is rubbed, as pounce, on the erasures of writing paper, after which they may be written on again without the ink spreading. The mottled butt wood of the sandarac is highly balsamic and odoriferous, extremely durable and valuable for cabinet makers .