22 THE SASSAFRAS TfiEES OF QUEENSLAND. 



Indian Exhibition in London, and from which the late Mr. 

 Staiger had extracted, by the ether process, the Queensland 

 Sassafras oil. 



Up to 1892 a tree growing in the rich scrubs north of Bris- 

 bane, near Gympie, with a grey rough bark, reddish -Ijrown 

 internally and with a strong aromatic odour and pleasant astrin- 

 gent taste, was mistaken for Nesodaphne obttisifolia, and even a 

 few months ago a commission, comprising Dr. J. Bancroft, Dr. 

 Love and myself, was appointed for the purpose of introducing new 

 Queensland remedies into the British Pharmacopoeia, has sent bark 

 and tincture of this tree to London, erroneously stating that they 

 were derived from Nesodaphne obtusi folia, but being really due to the 

 tree mentioned under the next heading. The bark of the true 

 Nesodaphne or Beilschmidia obtusifolia is about \ inch thick and 

 is more fibrous than the bark of the following tree. In the 

 outer layer sclerenchymatous cells with thin walls are scattered. 

 The oil-ducts are neither as numerous nor as large as those of 

 the following tree. 



The tannic acid of Nesodaphne is identical with that of the 

 following tree, staining green with ferric acetate, and giving the 

 same reactions. 



The second Queensland Sassafras tree belonging to the 

 Laurel order is a new species of Cinnamomum first described 

 by Mr. F. M. Bailey, and named by him Cinnamomum Oliveri 

 or the Brisbane Sassafras. It is a handsome tree with the grey 

 rough bark, reddish-brown internally, growing in the scrubs on 

 the North Coast Line — the tree which was mistaken up to 1892 

 for Nesodaphne obtusifolia. The leaves of this' Sassafras are not 

 half as broad as those of Nesodaphne. They are lanceolate 

 acuminate, 4-5 inches long, entire and shiny. The cyme is not 

 so much divided. The flowers are polygamous, larger than those 

 of Nesodaphne. Tlie bark contains a layer of phylloderma oi;i 

 the outside, and just between the cells of this the oil ducts run 

 along the bark the most copiously. Mr. Thiedecke, schoolmaster 

 at Teutoburg (Landsborough) has sent me a large supply of leaves 

 and bark from a tree growing in Mr. Sommer's paddock. The 

 analysis of leaves and bark gives the following results :— i; ■■•■-^- 

 ."- ''1. The leaves and the bark of the young branches conta-in 

 f per cent, of true dextrorotatory camphor, being identicail with 



