55 



AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN SANDARACH. 



By J- H. Maiden, P.L.S., F.C.S., Etc. (Curator of the 



Technological Museum, Sydney). 



Communicated hy A. Morton, F.L.S. 



It was a specimen of resin from the Oyster Bay Pine of 

 Tasmania, sent to the Exhibition of 1851, which first drew 

 the attention of experts to the possibilities of Australian 

 Sandarach. For " the fine pale resin of the Oyster Bay Pine 

 {Callitris australis), from the eastern coast of Yan Diemen's 

 Land," and other gums and resins, Mr. J. Milligan was 

 awarded honourable mention (Jury Reports, 1861 Exhi- 

 bition, p. 182). 



This is one of the most valuable of Australian* vegetable 

 products, a market is ready for it, and it seems strange that 

 it should have been so long neglected. There are no statistics 

 available in regard to the importation of Sandarach into these 

 colonies, but to bring it here at all is a veritable " carrying 

 coals to Newcastle." 



Ordinary Sandarach exudes naturally, but the practice in 

 Northern Africa is to stimulate the flow, making incisions in 

 the stem, particularly near the base. In various parts of 

 Australia and Tasmania there are vast numbers of Callitris 

 trees, their resin, often abundant, can readily be collected, 

 and the author is sure that, even with the cheap labour of 

 Northern Africa to contend against, it can be profitably 

 gathered during a portion of the year, by parties of men, or 

 the families of settlers. The approximate price of Sandarach, 

 in London, is 60-11 5s. per cwt., and there is no difference 

 between it and the colonial article. As to the cultivation of 

 the trees, Baron von Mueller (Select extra-tropical plants, 

 Victorian Edition) states, " Probably it would be more 

 profitable to devote sandy desert land, which could not be 

 brought under irrigation, to the culture of the Sandarach 

 cypresses, than to pastoral purposes, but boring beetles must 

 be kept off." It is also to be borne in mind that Callitris 

 timber is valuable. 



The Sandarach, or Gum Juniper of commerce, is the product 

 of a Callitris (quadrivalvis), and the latest classification of 

 Australian Sandarach trees (that of Baron von Mueller), 

 places them under (7a ZZi^Hs likewise. The following summary 

 of the uses of Sandarach, is taken from Morel (Pharm. Journ. 



* This word is here used in its widest sense, and, of course, includes 

 Tasmania. 



