84 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 



derived from the study of the oils suggested the possibility also of 

 obtaining assistance from the systematic study of other chemical 

 groups of the genus, and for this reason the kinos were chosen as being 

 definite plant productions. 



The questions which naturally arose were : — 



(a) Are the chemical properties of the exudations sufficiently 



distinctive to assist in the phytochemical study of the 

 genus ? 



(b) Are the kinos reasonably constant in chemical characters 



for each species ? 



(c) Does the kino of each species vary in constituents in agree- 



ment with the oil ; and, if so, in what directions ? 

 {d) Is it possible to trace by chemical evidence indications of 



evolutionary progress in the genus through the kinos of 



the several species, the same as obtains with their oils ? 

 {e) In what directions might it be possible for them to be utilized 



industrially ? 



It will be more satisfactory, perhaps, to answer these questions 

 later, first describing the peculiarities showia by representative members 

 of the several classes of these exudations. It would make the paper 

 altogether too long to describe the kin,o of each species, together with 

 its chemical properties, so that only general conclusions will be given. 



Historical. 



It was very early in the history of Australia when the attention 

 of the new arrivals was directed to the exudations of the eucalypts, 

 and in White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, published 

 in 1790, reference is made to "a very powerfully astringent gum-resin, 

 of a red colour, much resembling that known in the shops by the name 

 of kino, and, for all medical purposes, fully as efficacious." That 

 material •was collected from a tree stated to be Eucahjftus resinifera. 

 To what present day species the above refers cannot now be decided, 

 but it could hardly be the tree known to-day as E. resinifera. Numerous 

 references and opinions might be quoted dealing with this subject, 

 lint they do not assist in the present inquiry. 



The first serious attempt to generally classify eucalyptus exuda- 

 tions on their differences in chemical properties was undertaken by 

 Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., when Curator of the Technological Museum, 

 an investigation in which I had the privilege to assist. These results 

 were published in the Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., in 1889-1891. 



The late Dr. Lauterer, in a paper "On Gums and Resins Exuded 

 by Queensland Plants," Botany Bulletin, No. XIII., Brisbane, also 

 dealt with the properties of the exudations of some eucalpytus species, 

 much on the same Unas. 



