A RESEARCH ON THE EUCALYPTS OF TAS- 

 MANIA AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 



By R. T. BAKER, F.L.S., and H. G. SMITH, F.C.S., 

 Technological Museum, Sydney. 



[Communicated by L. RODWAY, F.L.S., Government Botanist. I 



1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



IN the preparation of this paper we have to acknowledge 

 our indebtedness to Mr. L. Rodway, Government Botanist, 

 who placed his knowledge of Tasmanian Eucalypts at our 

 disposal, and gave up much of his time to procuring 

 material. 



We would also like to thank the following gentlemen for 

 assistance rendered: Messrs. T. Stephens, R. A. Black, 

 D'Arcy Addison, G. Ellis, and A. H. Higgs. 



The collector, Mr. L. G. Irby, met with the greatest 

 assistance and help from every one in the island with 

 whom he came in contact in this connection, as did also 

 Mr. C. Laseron when collecting previously. 



2. INTRODUCTION. 



The Tasmanian Eucalypts will always possess an historical 

 interest over their confreres, as it was from Van Diemen's 

 Land that specimens of the genus were first made known 

 to science, the honour being conferred on the well-known 

 " Eucalyptus " of Tasmania E . obliqua, by L'Heritier, 

 in 1788 the " Stringy-bark colonorum/' as mentioned by 

 Hooker in the " London Journal of Botany," when 

 describing this tree under the name of E. gigantea, in 

 1847. Since that date several famous botanists have 

 worked at the genus as represented in Tasmania, the late 

 Sir Joseph D. Hooker giving special attention to it in 

 his classical work The Flora of Tasmania, published 

 in 1860. 



This investigation is, however, the first that has treated 

 the subject from a technological point of view. It is 

 the work of a joint research in botany and chemistry, 

 consequently the results, as might be expected by work- 

 ing on so extended a field, are not quite in accord with 

 past classifications of these Eucalypts. 



