Nov l Keble, Picyic Acid and Grass-tree Gu»i. 10; 



1915 J ' •> 



Small (irass-tree 

 A'. Tateana, F '. v. Mueller .. Tate's (rrass-tree .. .. S.A. 



There is little information to be obtained as to the amount, 

 quality, or individual advantages of the gum from the various 

 species. Very little analytical work seems to have been done 

 either in Australia or in Germany. 



The usual method of collecting gum is as follows : — The 

 articles required are an axe, sieve, flail, and sheet. The stems 

 of the grass-trees are hacked down, broken into convenient 

 pieces, and allowed to fall on to the sheet. A stout stick or 

 flail completes the work of disintegration. The substance is 

 then passed through a sieve, the ligneous portions failing to 

 pass through the meshes. A gentle breeze is sufficient to winnow- 

 that which has passed through the sieve.* 



The Legislative Assembly of Western Australia lias recently 

 passed a bill authorizing an agreement whereby the Black-boy 

 or Zamia Palm, Macrozamia Fraseri, Miquelli, may be removed 

 from Crown lands f for its gum and other products. 



If picric acid is still of primary importance (there is a general 

 statement that trinitrotoluene is replacing it), it seems incon- 

 ceivable that any inconvenience thai may have been caused 

 in the first days of the war by the shutting out of supplies from 

 Germany would not have been speedily remedied. I oal tar 

 is distilled in considerable quantity from plants in all the 

 larger towns throughout the Empire, and the supple should 

 be adequate for all requirements. The development of the 

 coal tar industry, with that mighty adjunct, the extraction of 

 its by-products, is. however, a sad chapter in the history of 

 British enterprise — one that must brtore long be reviewed, 

 disagreeable as that task may be. Until this has been done, 

 and the industry (irmly re-established, grass-tree gum may 



* See Appendix, No. l. 

 t See Appendix, N<>. 7. 



