

EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS. 



stems, which exhibited a girth of 40 feet towards their base. Baron von Humboldt stated the 

 height of E. globulus as 230 feet as extraordinary among the records of tall trees known at 

 his time. The Eevd. Th. Ewing actually measured a tree showing a height of 280 feet, and 

 the Eevd. James Backhouse, whose accuracy can also be implicitly relied upon, gives in the work 

 on his missionary travels the height of the tallest tree seen by him in Tasmania as even 330 feet.. 

 Mr. James Dickinson informs me that at South-Port he noticed a tree of E. globulus far exceeding 

 in girth even the mightiest of E. amygdalina ; of this particular tree, a local shipwright declared 

 that it contained as much timber as would fully suffice to build a ninety tons schooner solely from 

 it. The stem of this venerable patriarch of the forests measured about 150 feet to the first limb. 

 Whether in the comparisons of the tallest trees of the globe we perhaps have lost sight of 

 a fact, that a fallen tree of Sequoia (or Wellingtonia or Athrotaxis gigantea) is said to have 

 shown an approximate length of 450 feet, .can now after 30 years perhaps no longer be affirmed, 

 unless similar astounding results are again attained in the vast extent of Sequoia- or Athrotaxis- 

 forests only recently rendered accessible in Southern California. 



The aboriginal appellation of E. globulus among the Gippsland-tribes is " Ballook," according 

 to Mr. A. W. Howitt. 



A chemical analysis of the wood of E. globulus, instituted under the author's direction by 

 Mr. L. Kummel, gave the following results. Air-dried wood contained (irrespective of alkalies, 

 alkaline earths and the ordinary constitutents of the cell-walls) : 



Hygroscopic water ... ... ... ... ... ... 12-00 per cent. 



Matter soluble in boiling water (of which again 74 per cent, were pre- 

 cipitable by neutral acetate of lead, and 38 per cent, by ammoniacal 

 acetate of lead) ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 - 77 per cent. 



Matter soluble in boiling diluted hydrochloric acid ... ... 3 - 30 per cent. 



Matter soluble in boiling diluted soda-ley ... ... ... 3'20 per cent. 



The precipitate obtained by the neutral acetate of lead from the simply aqueous solution gave 

 as soluble in ether : 



1, Eucalyptus-red, forming a reddish, tasteless and inodorous powder, scarcely soluble 

 in water, easily in alcohol and ether with yellow, in ammonia-liquid with orange color (the 

 latter solution becoming soon decomposed). 



2, Peculiar xylo-gallic acid, resembling Eucalypto- Gallic acid, but producing with 

 chloride of iron a greenish tinge, which becomes brown on addition of ammonia. 



As not soluble in ether were obtained : 



1, Peculiar xylo-tannic acid, unless identical with Kino-tannic acid, forming a brown 

 amorphous powder of pure astringent taste ; it loses part of its solubility in water after 

 evaporation to dryness ; it precipitates glue, the chlorides of tin and iron, the latter with 

 blue color ; dissolves in alcohol. 



2, Eucalyptic acid, being light-brown, amorphous, deliquescent, of a strong and pure 

 acid taste ; precipitates chloride of tin, but not glue ; produces with chloride of iron a 

 purplish-blue color, which on addition of ammonia changes to red-brown ; soluble in alcohol. 



The precipitate obtained by the ammoniacal acetate of lead from the simply aqueous solution 

 gave : 



1, as soluble in water : Melitose-like substance, reducing alkaline tartarate of copper 

 incompletely before, but much better after boiling with diluted sulphuric acid. 



