BY J. H. MAIDEN. 433 



The medicinal properties of grass-tree gum appear to be not 

 well marked. As early as 1795 acaroid resin was said by Kite 

 (see "Bibliography") "to neither vomit, purge, nor bind the belly, 

 nor to act materially as a diuretic or diaphoretic. Dr. Fish 

 (Boston Journ., x., 94) employed it in the form of tincture with 

 opium in fluxus hepaticus and the colliquative diarrhoea of phthisis, 

 and it has been recommended in chronic catarrhs. A tincture of 

 acaroid resin which has been given in doses of one to two fluid 

 drams, with milk or a mucilaginous liquid, has been recommended 

 to be made of equal weights of the resin and alcohol, and, accord- 

 ing to another formula, of 2 ounces of resin to 1 pint of alcohol. 

 If used at all, the latter formula would appear to furnish a 

 preparation of the proper strength." [Prof. H. C. Maisch (see 

 " Bibliography ")]. The subject of medicinal qualities is further 

 dealt with under X. hastilis, p. 434. 



The Xa7ithorrhoea resins have been repeatedly suggested as 

 possessing some value in perfumery, but they are inferior for this 

 purpose to benzoin, storax, and the balsams of peru and tolu. 

 Some of them which contain benzoic acid are aromatic when 

 burnt, and owe their pleasant odour wholly or in part to that 

 substance. Abundance of picric acid, a very powerful yellow dye, 

 can be obtained from grass-tree "gum." But this substance can 

 be so cheaply made from coal-tar, that grass-tree gum is not now 

 thought of for that purpose. The result is that many storekeepers 

 in the colonies, who eagerly bought up grass-tree " gum " as a 

 speculation, with the view of exporting it to England, have for 

 years past had stocks on hand, and quantities now sold have 

 frequently been gathered say fifteen or twenty years. 



Part II. — Xantrorrucea hastilis (the species usually 



ALLUDED TO BY WRITERS AS GRASS-TREE " GUM "). 



Xanthorrhcea HASTILIS, R.Br., B.Fl., vii., 115. 



Found in New South Wales and Queensland, 



This remarkable plant, and its exudation of resin, attracted the 

 very early attention of the first colonists. Probably their attention 

 would have been invited to it in the first instance by the blacks, 



