EUCALYPTUS VIMINALIS. 



gallic Acid, 3-47 Encalypto-tannic Acid, -06 Eucalyptoic Acid, -24 Eucalyptin, 1-29 Gum, 13-22 

 Sugar. 



In a solitary experimeut with the leaves of E. Doratoxylon the percentage of sugar was found 

 to be 5-41. 



In all probability the sugary substance in the sap of E. Gunnii and particularly in E. coryno- 

 calyx would prove large also, though it seems not to become at any time concreted and exsiccated 

 into firm masses. 



The " Mellitose " was already in 1843 chemically defined as very distinct from the true 

 Oruus-Manna by Professor Johnston (Mem. of the Chem. Soc. i. 159), who gave it the formula 

 Q12 j£u Qu. |j^^ g^gjj many years before Prof Th. Thomson had shown, that the so-called 

 " Manna" from Euc. viminalis was a peculiar saccharine substance (Organic Chemistry, Vegetables 

 642), and Prof. Vu-ey alluded to this substance in the Journal de Pharmacie, sec. s&r. xviii, 705 

 (1832) ; in 1856 it became further examined by Professor Berthelot (Compt. rend xli. 392 ; 

 Annal. de Chim. et Physiq. trois ser. xlvi. 66, 1856 ; Chimie organique, ii. 260, 1860). The latter 

 gave to the Blellitose its name ; he found also, that it gives off two atoms of HO at 100° C, that 

 the aqueous solution is detro-rotary, and that Mellitose, when heated with diluted sulphuric acid, 

 is separated into a fermentable sugar and into a not fermentable substance, called by him 

 Eucalin = 0"= ff^ 0^. (See Watts' Dictionary, ii. 601, iii. 869 ; Miller's Chemistry, iii. 95 and 111 : 

 Wittstein's Chemical Constituents of Plants, F. v. M.'s edition, p. 129.) This so-called Australian 

 "Manna," when in white crumblike pieces scattered on- the ground, affords a pleasant sweet 

 Xricking for children and stray wanderers ; bat it seems to be of no medicinal value. A " Manna " 

 is said to drop also from a species of Eucalyptus, occurring near Cape LecTiwin. (See Conditions 

 of forests and timber-trade of Western Australia, 1883, p. 22.) Mr. Westgarth seems to have 

 been the first, to give an account of the " Lerp," in his " Australia felix," p^ 73, as pointed out by 

 Dr. Til. Anderson, when giving a full record of this substance in the Edinburgh New Philosophic 

 Journal, July 1849 ; he fm-nished then the following quantitative analysis : Sugar 49'06, Gum 5'77, 

 Starch 4"29, Inulin 13-80, Cellulose 12-04, Water 15-01. Lerp used to be a delicacy of food to the 

 Aborigines in the summer-season. 



In connection with the questions, here discussed, it may yet be mentioned, that the Eucalyptus- 

 blossoms afford a sweet nectar or mellage to bees and numerous other insects, and especially also 

 to honey-sucking birds. 



ExPLAXATiox OF ANALYTIC DETAILS. — 1, an unexpanded flower, the lid lifted; 2, longitudinal section of an uuex- 

 panded flower ; 3, some of the outer stamens detached ; 4 and 5, front- and back-view of an anther witli part of fila- 

 ment ; 6, style and stigma ; 7, transverse sections of two fruits ; S, longitudinal section of a fruit ; 9 and 10, fertile and 

 sterile seeds ; 11, portion of a leaf ; 12, transverse section of wood ; all figures magnified, but to various extent. Fig. 12, 

 enlarged diametrically 220 times. 



