AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 153 



only slightly on continued boiling. Concentrated nitric 

 acid appeared to have no action in the cold, and it was 

 but very slowly attacked on boiling, acting in this respect 

 similarly to the paraffins themselves. A solution of potas- 

 sium permanganate in the cold had no action on it after 

 many davs. It thus acted similarly to the solid members 

 of the paraffin group of the general formula C„ \\.l■^^ + 2. 

 When the alcoholic filtrate from the precipitated oil was 

 cooled in ice, a further solid substance separated, which 

 was thought to be more of the same stearoptene ; it was fil- 

 tered as cold as possible, but the solid, which was removed 

 quickly, became liquid under ordinary temperatures, and 

 remained as an oil. It was small in amount, but it is 

 apparent that at least two members of this group were 

 present in the oil of this Eucalypt. 



EUCALYPTUS CORDATA, Labill. 



Botany. 



Historical. — This species was described by Labillardier 

 in his " Plants of New Holland," published'^in 1799. 



Remarks. Th\?> Eucalypt is endemic to Tasmania, and is 

 in the fortunate position of having no synonyms. Deane 

 and Maiden (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1901, p. 125) state 

 that it grows in New South Wales, but Maiden later (same 

 Proceedings, same year, p. 551) does not appear to support 

 this claim. The species recorded for New South Wales 

 under this name is E. pulverulenta, Sims., as maintained 

 by one of us in a paper read before the A.A.A.S. Hobart 

 in 1902, and this contention now is supported by investi- 

 gations made by us since that date. Our researches go to 

 prove that E . cordata, E . pulverultnta, and hJ . finer ea are 

 specifically distinct. 



Chemistry. 



Essential Oil. — The oil of this Tasmanian species was 

 determined some years ago, and the results published in 

 our work " Research on the Eucalypts " (p. 210). The 

 yield of oil from leaves and terminal branchlets was large 

 for a rich eucalyptol-pinene oil, and was equal to 2*32 per 

 cent. 



Eucalyptol was the chief constituent ; pinene was present,, 

 but phellandrene was absent. The oil was very soluble, 

 requiring onlv 1] volumes of 70 per cent, alcohol. The 



