263 



The crude oil was red in colour, and had a somewhat rank odour, difficult 

 to define ; the secondary odour was not aromatic. It contained phellandrene 

 in fairly large quantity, and cineol appeared to be absent. From the colour 

 reaction with phosphoric acid and also with bromine, together with the specific 

 gravity of the crude oil, there appeared to be a fair amount of the sesquiterpene 

 present. The specific gravity of the crude oil at 15 C. = 0-9039. Owing to 

 the dark colour of the oil, light did not pass. The saponification number for 

 the esters and free acid was 7-1. Although the oil was insoluble in 10 volumes 

 70 per cent, alcohol, yet it cleared with i volume 80 per cent., thus indicating 

 the presence of alcoholic bodies in the higher-boiling portion. 



143. Eucalyptus pilularis. 



(Sm., in Trans. Linn. Soc., iii, 284; B.F1., iii, 208.) 

 Blackbutt. 



Systematic. One of the tallest trees of the Genus. Leaves thick, shining, 

 sometimes over 6 inches long, lanceolate, falcate, oblique, drying a very pale 

 colour; venation indistinct, lateral veins parallel, intramarginal vein removed 

 from the edge. Flowers on axillary, flattened peduncles of about 6 lines long, 

 mostly six in the umbel. Calyx tube slightly over 2 lines in diameter, pear- 

 shaped, on a pedicel of from 2 to 3 lines long ; operculum about 3 lines long, 

 hemispherical or acuminate. 



Fruit. Pedicellate, semi-globose, truncate ; rim 

 sometimes contracted, thin, countersunk 

 or broad and even domed ; valves not ex- 

 serted; about 5 lines in diameter. 



These fruits are very close in form to E. dextropinea, 

 but the rim in the latter case is generally broader and 

 the former mostly countersunk. 



Habitat. Coast district and Tableland, New South Wales; 



Victoria; Queensland. 







REMARKS. " Blackbutt " is a tree well known to timber getters and the trade, and offers no difficulties 

 o determination either in the field or the herbarium, for in the latter it can be named from the leaves alone. The 

 bark varies a little, sometimes being dark -coloured, compact-stringy, and at other times light reddish coloured and 

 loosely stringy. 



ESSENTIAL OIL. Leaves and terminal branchlets for distillation were 

 obtained from the following New South Wales localities : Canterbury, in June, 

 1897 ; Canterbury, in August, 1898 ; Belmore, in November, 1898 ; and Currawang 

 Creek, in November, 1898. The yields of oil from these localities varied between 

 0-08 and 0-18 per cent. The crude oils were of a light-amber colour, with a rank 

 odour, difficult to define. Phellandrene was present, but cineol detected only in 

 very small quantity (5 to 10 per cent.). Pinene was only present in small amount. 

 The higher-boiling portion consisted largely of the sesquiterpene, and it also con- 

 tained a quantity of the liquid form of eudesmol ; this was shown by the increased 

 dextro-rotation. After the oil was acetylated, it had a high saponification number, 

 indicating the presence of free alcoholic bodies, and the saponified oil was also 

 somewhat aromatic. This high-boiling alcohol is characteristic of the oils of 

 several Eucalyptus species, and its presence is shown by the high rotation figures 

 of the higher-boiling fractions. The crystallised form of eudesmol was not 



