54 



Gums, and a. Resin, produced by Australian 

 Proteage.^. 



By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.S., &c., Curator of the Techno- 

 logical Museum, Sydney. 



(Communicated by Professor Rennie, M.A., D.Sc.) 

 [Read September lo, 1889. J 



It is only of late years that the presence of gum in the Pro- 

 teaceae has been recorded. It has not even yet, the author 

 believes, been noted as having been found on non- Australian 

 species. In reproducing Deputy-Surgeon-General Shortt's state- 

 ment as to the gum of GreviUea rohustct (infra) the Gardeners^ 

 Chronicle excusably said (1882) — "The statement is a remarkable 

 one, as none of the Proteacea? were known to yield gum." The 

 first record I can find of a Proteaceous gum is in Captain Lort 

 Stokes' "Discoveries in Australia," ii., 132. The work was 

 published in 1846, and he records gum from a Western Australian 

 Hakea, termed "Holly" by the colonists and "Tool-gan" by the 

 blacks. The second is a statement in the Catalogue of Western 

 Australian Products at the Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne, 

 1866 — "Gums of Hakea species are found plentifully (my italics) 

 after the autumn rains." The next is by Dr. Cooke, wlie describes 

 (1874) a sample of GreviUea rohusta gum in the India Museum. 

 This endemic Australian species is a common avenue-tree in 

 Southern India and Ceylon. Then follow Surgeon-General 

 Shortt's observations in South India in 1879-81 on gum of the 

 same species. Still the same species yielded gum for Fleury's 

 experiments in 1885, and the author now follows with records of 

 the gum of five additional Proteads and the resin of a sixth. 



These Proteaceous gums are not only of much botanical inter- 

 est, but of high chemical importance. The present is the second 

 occasion on which the presence of Pararabin has been recorded in 

 any gum, so far as the author is aware. The first announcement 

 of it having been found in gums is that of its discovery in 

 Sterculia (" Kurrajong") gum by the author, and recorded in a 

 paper in the Pharmaceutical Journal of London, vol. xix.) 

 Pararabin had only been previously recorded from beetroot and 

 carrots and from certain seaweeds. Pararabin differs from 

 Metarabin in its solubility in dilute acids. 



