BY THOS. STEEL. 349 



At the meeting' of this Society in September, 1918, Mr. Fletcher 

 exhibited specimens of the water-storing roots of the Red Mallee 

 {Eucalyptus oleosa), and of the water obtained therefrom, which 

 had been sent to him from Fowler's Bay, South Australia, through 

 the good offices of Messrs. G. Murray, T. Gill, C.M.G., and H. S. 

 ("rummer. Mr. Fletcher kindly gave me the water for chemical 

 examination, and I desire to thank him and the gentlemen named 

 lor the opportunity of conducting so interesting an investigation. 



When the water is freshly extracted, it is stated to be colourless 

 and practically without taste, and furnishes a cool refreshing 

 drink. Tt is obtained by cutting lengths of the roots, and allowing 

 them to drain into a vessel. When the tightly-corked sample 

 reached me, it had been in the bottles several months, and had a 

 pale brown colour, which darkened considerably soon after the 

 bottles were opened. When I examined the sample it had a slight 

 flavour, resembling that of water in which leaves had been soaked 

 or that from a peaty source, but was quite palatable. It was 

 neutral to litmus. The figures below give the results of the 

 analysis. For comparison, I have put in the average of a number 

 of representative analyses of soil waters obtained by Morgan at 

 Michigan Agricultural College, U.S.A.* 



These samples were obtained by [lacking the soil firmly into an 

 iron cylinder, screwing on a tightly-closing lid, and pumping 

 kerosene in on top. The kerosene displaced the soil solution, 

 which was collected through a small pipe at the bottom. Morgan 

 states his results on a different scale and system, hut for purposes 

 of comparison I have calculated them to the basis used by me. 



Michigan Agrioult. ('nil. Tech. Bull, No. '28, Oct. 1916. 





