PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION B. 59 
nature, notably two natives of New Zealand, the Coriaria 
ruscifolia and Corynocarpus levigata. The former is said to be 
excessively poisonous to sheep feeding upon it, and extraordinary 
stories are told of the powerful physiological effects produced by 
eating the nuts of the latter unless they are first pounded and 
washed with water, a practice always observed by the natives. 
Mr. Skey, who examined these nuts, states that he succeeded 
in isolating a crystalline poisonous substance which, however, 
appeared to him to be more closely related to the glucosides than 
to the alkaloids. 
It is scarcely necessary to say that the complete isolation and 
thorough chemical investigation of physiologically active principles, 
whether of the nature of alkaloids or not, is of the greatest im- 
portance, if such principles are to be usefully applied to medicinal 
purposes. The scientific world owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. 
Bancroft, of Brisbane, for the valuable results he has obtained by 
physiological experiments with a variety of Australian plants, 
but the statement will bear repetition that from a chemical point 
of view a great deal still remains to be done. 
As an instance of a glucoside, we have the active principle of 
Smilax glycyphylla, which is asserted by some to have considerable 
medicinal value, but which has not yet, so faras Tam aware, been 
tried medicinally in the pure state and in larger doses than can 
be conveniently administered in the state of infusion. It isa 
crystalline substance closely allied to phlorizin. By the action of 
dilute acids it yields phloretin and isodulcite, the latter, I need 
scarcely tell you, a substance of considerable interest and import- 
ance in connection with the question of the constitution of the 
sugars, and hitherto obtainable with difticulty from a few rare 
sources. 
Colouring matters are not wanting as products of the Aus- 
tralasian flora, and many of these would, without doubt, yield 
results of great interest, if not always of great practical import- 
ance, were they subjected to close examination. You may be 
interested in examining these specimens of colouring matters from 
Drosera whittakeri, a South Australian species. These materials 
are capable of being used as dyes, and appear to bear much the 
same relationship to one of the methyl-naphthalenes as alizarin 
and its congeners do to anthracene. 
My attention has been recently drawn to the fluorescent 
infusion yielded by the leaves of ABursaria spinosa ; the fluor- 
escence proves, on examination, to be due to the presence of 
considerable quantities of @sculin, which, you will remember, is 
found in the horse-chesnut and, as is stated, in the root of one 
other plant, the wild jasmine. This may prove to be an important 
source of this substance, should it ever prove to be of practical 
value. 
