370 SOME REPUTED MEDICINAL PLANTS GF NEW SOUTH WALES, 



In September, 1878, Mr. A. W. Gerrard experimented with a 

 very small quantity (30 grains) of pituri which had come into 

 his possession. He found an alkaloid, to which he gave the 

 provisional name of "pituria," but, on account of the smallness of 

 material available, he was unable to describe its properties with 

 much definiteness. (See Pharm. Journ. [3], ix., 251). 



Loc. cit., p. 638, will be found a chatty account of pituri taken 

 from the Lancet, to which it was sent by Mr. J. P. Murray, 

 surgeon to a Central Australian Exploring Expedition. 



M. A. Petit having obtained a quantity of pituri repeated and 

 supplemented Mr. Gerrard's experiments. See a paper in the 

 Pharm. Journ. [3] ix., 819. He pronounces the alkaloid contained 

 in the substance to be nicotine, and quotes some physiological 

 experiments by Professors Sydney Ringer and Murrell as support- 

 ing his view. 



On 3rd Nov., 1880, Professor Liversidge of the Sydney Uni- 

 versity, read a paper before the Royal Society of N.S.W. on the 

 subject. He had more material at his disposal than had previous 

 observers; moreover, his research is probably the most exhaustive 

 that has ever been made on the subject. The paper (Proc. M.S. 

 li.S. W., 1880, p. 123) scarcely bears abstracting. Prof. Liversidge 

 isolated a brown, liquid, acrid alkaloid, distinct from nicotine, 

 which he calls piturine. 



This plant is found in the interior of all the colonies except 

 Tasmania and Victoria. In other words, from the Darling and 

 Barcoo Rivers to Western Australia. 



25. DuBOisiA MYOPOROIDES, L'.Br., N.O. Solanese, B.Fl., iv., 

 474. 



Called " Corkwood " and " Elm " by the colonists, and " Onun- 

 gunabie " by the aboriginals of the Clarence River. " Ngmoo " 

 is another aboriginal name. 



The first important statement as to the narcotic ejQTect of this 

 plant I can find, is recorded by the Rev. Dr. Woolls, from a 

 correspondent of his. 



