100 NATIVE MEDICINAL, PLANTS OF QUEENSLAND. 



and quite unfit for medicinal purposes. The spotted gum 

 (E. maculata) exudes a great abundance of a yellow-brownish 

 gum, containing a resin soluble in spirits, and swelling 

 up and softening in hot water so as to give a nice emulsion. 

 It differs widely in this respect from shellac, to which 

 the late Mr. Staiger used to compare it, who also averred 

 that the gum contained benzoic acid in an impure state, 

 although it ia not possible to elicit this latter by dry distillation. 

 For external use this gum resin is good enough, and some years 

 ago I found an old man in the bush who used it with apparently 

 good effect for chronic cystitis. According to the notions pre- 

 valent in Europe about the kinos, those must be considered of 

 the highest value which contain about 50 per cent, of tannic acid 

 and which are entirely or nearly entirely free from any acid, bitter, 

 oily, or resinous additions. In this respect the kino of the iron- 

 bark deserves the foremost place. In a fresh state it dissolves 

 easily in water. The colour of this kino is darkened through the 

 influence of ammonia or alkali, and lightened or turned into 

 yellow by the action of acids. For medicinal purposes (diarrhoea, 

 throat diseases, bleeding) it is the very best astringent. Next to 

 this in value ranges in Queensland the red gum of the bloodwood 

 [Eucahjptus corymbosa). It dissolves entirely in hot water, but 

 makes a sediment when the solution gets cool and is allowed 

 to stand. The bright-red colour of this gum and its solutions is 

 changed into a dark-brown when alkalies are added. Acids 

 restore and enhance the bright red. Its action is less 

 beneficial to the system than that of the ironbark gum. Still, 

 it is an excellent bush medicine for all diseases where profuse 

 discharges have to be checked. Nearly all other Eucalypts near 

 Brisbane yield only a small quantity of gum, mostly of a bitter 

 taste, and not fit for a profitable gathering or export. Dr. J. 

 Bancroft found an ingenious method to obtain the kinos in a 

 purified state. He dissolves them in water and lets the solution 

 evaporate on hot tin. He obtains very nice " scale preparations," 

 resembling in appearance the citrate of ammonia and iron or the 

 same double salt of iron and quinine, but sometimes the scales 

 get insoluble by overheating. Besides the Eucalypts there is 

 another genus of Myrtaceae yielding gum. Angophora lanceo- 

 lata, by timber-getters mistaken for spotted gum, exudes larger 



