429 



ON GRASS-TREE GUM. 

 By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S. 



Part I. — Particulars more or less applicable to all the 



SPECIES. 



Botanical Origin. 



Grass-tree "gum" is the produce of various species of Xan- 



thorrhoia. There are twelve species of this genus, which belongs 



to the Liliacese, and several (perhaps all) exude resin from the 



caudex. A synonym of one or more species is Aearoides resini- 



fera, Gray.* 



Writers on the subject have usually simply alluded to the resin 

 as that of Xanthorrhoea, without denoting the species, and some- 

 times without giving a description of the resin. Under these 

 circumstances, it is frequently impossible to denote with certainty 

 the species alluded to. Still, of the species obtained from 

 Sydney, it may generally be said that the light (yellow) coloured 

 resin is the product of X. hastilis, while the darker (red) one 

 must have been obtained from X. arborea. 



The plants are always known as " grass-trees," 0"'ing to the 

 rush-like or grassy tufts of leaves which adorn the stem. In the 

 very early days they were sometimes called " dwarf palm trees." 

 The term grass-tree " gum " is of course scientifically untenable, 

 as it is insoluble in water; it is soluble in spirit and is a true 



* I have been at much pains to endeavour to trace this genus. It has 

 nothing to do with Asa Gray's visit to Australia, as it was in use at least 

 as early as 1795 (see "Bibliography"). It is not to be found in the 

 Genera Plantarum of Bentham and Hooker, nor in any of the works of 

 similar scope in the French and German languages to which I have had 

 access. I suppose, therefore, that it never had any claim to the acceptance 

 of botanists, and it might be consigned to oblivion except that it originated 

 the names " acaroid resin" and " gum accroides," which are to be seen 

 English standard works by the score. The former is even used in a work 

 of high importance published in the present year (Morley and Muir's Watts' 

 Dictionary of Ghemiiitry). It is apparently a name coined by English 

 druggists to denote a product which came to them without a name, and it 

 has never been used in Australia so far as I can learn. 



