Indigenous Vegetable Productions. 29 



tha, is used medicinally as an astringent ; but technically it is 

 employed in all our tanneries, and formed, previous to the 

 Australian gold era an article of export to the English market. 

 The gum resin of the Eucalypti is likewise employed for 

 tanning. 



The abundance of salsolaceous plants, as well inland as along 

 the coast, favors evidently the manufacture of soda. 



There are few plants indigenous to Victoria, as far as 

 known, which may be regarded practically valuable for their 

 perfume ; none of them would supersede in odor or in yield 

 of essential oil any of those already elsewhere in use ; but it 

 should be remembered that many of our native plants are as 

 yet imperfectly examined in this respect, and it is, therefore, 

 possible that future experiments may prove the existence of 

 plants possessing a sufficiently copious supply of scented oil 

 to render them available for distillation. 



The great prevalence of myrtaceous trees and shrubs 

 throughout Australia is a well established fact. All, without 

 exception, are characterized by the presence of a greater or 

 lesser quantity of essential oil, pervading leaves and flowers. 

 This applies not only to the huge masses of Eucalypti, which 

 mainly constitute our forests, and all yield, as stated before, 

 an aromatic volatile, often, however, somewhat camphoric oil, 

 but also to the " tea-trees," species of Melaleuca and Leptos- 

 permum, so called because their oil, which gives to an infusion 

 of their leaves an aromatic taste either strong or pleasant, was 

 used by Cook and other early Australian navigators as an 

 antiscorbutic tea. 



More important as perfume plants are some of the species 

 of Bseckia and Cbamaelauciese, embracing numerous hand- 

 some and common shrubs of the myrtle family, of which some 

 are impregnated with large quantities of truly well scented 

 oil. But of their actual yield we have no exact record. 



How far the plants of the rue tribe, which are all strongly 

 odorous from essential oil, are of value for perfume distillation, 

 future experiments must prove. The impression, however, 

 will probably be correct, that they furnish an oil useful for 

 medicine rather than for the toilette. 



The plants of the mint tribe deserve here particular notice ; 

 for our three kinds of native mint possess an exceedingly 

 pleasant odor, very different from that of the crisp or the 

 peppermint. The species of Prostanthera are nearly all 

 strongly and agreeably scented. Their oil could be cheaply 



