BY J. H. MAIDEN. 441 



Three different Xa^ithorrhoea resins were found by Hirschsohn 

 to be incompletely soluble in chloroform and ether, but to dissolve 

 completely in alcohol, the solution acquiring a brown-black colour 

 with ferric chloride. "The solution of the acaroid resin is yellow,* 

 and yields with lead acetate a precipitate, while the solutions of 

 the other two resins are red, that of X. quadrangulare being not 

 disturbed by acetate of lead, while that of X. arhorea produces 

 with the same reagent a turbidity ; the chloroformic solution of 

 the latter is yellow ; that of the former coloui'less." 



The specimen labelled X. arhorea at page 148, Cat. Museum 

 Pharm. Soc. (London), is X. hastilis, from the description of the 

 resin given. 



Xanthorrhcea australis, R.Br., B.FL, vii., 116. 



Found in Tasmania and Victoria. 



The shapes which the resins of the various species of Xan- 

 thorrhma assume are quite accidental. Some of these forms are 

 described under various vspecies, and refer to specimens which 

 have actually been examined. The resin of this species " is found 

 in masses of irregular globular shape, within the body of che tree, 

 and exuding in large tears and drops near its roots. It is a dark 

 red friable substance, the purer homogeneous specimens exhibiting 

 a most brilliant ruby colour when crushed into fragments; it fuses 

 readily with the same deep colour, and exhales the characteristic 

 odour of gum benzoin and dragon's blood Under such circum- 

 stances. In many respects it resembles the last-named substance, 

 but its solutions are less intensely red, inclining to yellow, while 

 as a varnish it has much moi-e body and gloss. It is very soluble 

 in alcohol, and in the essential oils from the Eucalyjyti, that from 

 the Dandenong Peppermint (E. amygdalina) proving an excep- 

 tion. Ether takes up a portion only, leaving behind a resinous 

 substance coloured more intensely red than that which it dissolves; 

 turpentine exercises no solvent action upon it, and the drying 

 oils but very little " (Report on Indigenous Vegetable Substances, 

 Victorian Exhibition, 1861). 



* X. hastilis is evidently meant here. 



