35 



ON PANAX GUM. 

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



Panax is a geaus of the Araliaceae, several species of which 

 order are more or less acrid or aromatic. But the recorded 

 instances of gum or resin being found in any of them are 

 extremely few. and in no case, so far as I am aware, has the 

 composition of the exudation been dealt with, much less an 

 analysis given. 



In the common English ivy ( Hedera helix), there is stated to 

 be contained "the gum-resin called Hederine, used by varnish- 

 makers, and said to be depilatory and emmenagogiie." (Lindley, 

 Medical and (Economical Botany.) 



"An aromatic gum-resin comes from A^'alia racemosa, spinosa, 

 and hispida. (Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 



Meryta Sinclairii, Seem., of New Zealand, "is charged with a 

 peculiar resin in all its parts." (Kirk's Forest Flora of Neio 

 Zealand.)* 



All the above quotations refer to resins or gum-resins. 



We now come to guins in the Araliaceae, and the two 

 references I give are all I can find of gums in this natural order, 

 and they both refer to Panax, the genus to which all the gums I 

 have been able to obtain up to the present also belong. 



" Panax Golensoi exudes a gum very similar to gum arabic, 

 and occasionally used for adhesive purposes. " ( Report Neiv Zealand 

 Exhibition, 1865.) 



* Since the above was written I have received from Mr. W. W. Froggatt 

 a quantity of a gum-resin from Astrotriche jloccosa, DC, belonging to this 

 natural order. -It has a very pleasant perfume, and appears to be an 

 interesting substance. It exuded from sickly shrubs whose stems had 

 been wounded by a small GurcuUo, 



