36 ON PANAX GUM, 



" Panax sainhucifolms in Novam Angliam extendit. Truncus 

 cum ramis gummifluus." (Mueller, Fragm. vii., 95.) 



It would appear, therefore, that the Araliaceae exude both 

 gums and resins. It is a fact not generally known that the same 

 natural order, the same genus, and even the same species may 

 exude both a gum and a resin, and some writers have even 

 doubted the exactness of their own observations when they have 

 found both a gum and a resin in closely related plants. I hope 

 to show in another place, chiefly by citing Australian instances 

 which have come under my own notice, that the occurrence of 

 both a resin and a gum in the same genus and even species, is by 

 no means uncommon. 



Returning to P. samhucifolius, I have not yet obtained gum 

 from the normal species, but from a variety, viz., P. aambucifolius, 

 var. angit,sta, or, according to Baron von Mueller's nomenclature, 

 P. dendroides, var. angusta. 



This plant is found on the banks of the Snowy River, amongst 

 boulders of rock, attaining a height of about 8 feet, with a diameter 

 of two inches when grown in tree shape ; mostly, however, the 

 plant is shrubby, with a number of thin stems. 



The gum was obtained from old sickly plants. When obtained 

 fresh it has a peculiar sweetish odour, and when placed in the 

 mouth it has a pleasant flavour, reminding one strongly of a rose 

 jujube. It dissolves wholly in the mouth in a few minutes, and 

 except for the perfume already alluded to, it might readily be 

 taken for one of the readily soluble Wattle gums. 



Nevertheless when I first received it I was informed that in a 

 local family it had the reputation of being injurious, and even 

 poisonous. The gum is credited with having caused vomiting and 

 serious symptoms which lasted three or four days in a young man 

 Vho had eaten the gum as freely as one would Wattle gum. 



Nothing in my analysis shows any poisonous substance in the 

 gum, and as this is the only instance which has come under my 

 notice of alleged poisoning by Panax gum, the sufierer may have 

 been under a misapprehension. At the same time, it must be 



