60 FOREST CULTURE AND 
Myrtaceous trees. While charcoal, tar, wood-vinegar, 
wood-spirit, tannic substances and potash, are obtain- 
able and obtained from the woods of any country, we 
have in Australia a resource of our own in the Euca- 
lyptus oil. In no other part of the globe do we find 
the Myrtaceze to prevail; in Europe it is only the 
Myrtus of the ancients, the beautiful bush for bridal 
wreaths, which there represents this particular family 
of plants; and although copious species of Kugenia 
and other berry- bearing genera, including the aro- 
matic clove and allspice, are scattered through the 
warmer regions of Asia, Africa, and America, all per- 
vaded by essential oil, they do not constitute the 
main bulk of any forests as here, nor can their oil in 
chemic or technic properties be compared to that of 
the almost exclusively Australian Eucalyptus. This 
special industry of ours exemplifies also, in a manner 
quite remarkable, how from apparently insignificant 
experiments may arise results far beyond original an- 
ticipations, When, in 1854, as one of the commis- 
sioners for the Victorian Industrial Exhibition, held 
in anticipation of the first Paris Exhibition, I induced 
my friend, Mr. Joseph Bosisto, J. P., to distil the oil 
of one of our Eucalypts, I merely wished to show that 
this particular oil might be substituted for the com- 
paratively costly oil of cajuput, obtained in some 
parts of India, and rather extensively used in some 
countries for medical purposes. For the exhibition 
of 1862 about thirty different oils were prepared by 
the same gentleman, chiefly from various Eucalypts, 
and from material mostly selected by myself for the 
purpose. This led not merely to determining the 
percentage of yield, but also to extensive experi- 
