94 



Essential Oil from the Fruits of calutris 

 verrucosa, 



By H. H. FiNLAYSON. 

 (Communicated by Professor Kennie.) 



[Read May 13, 1920.] 



The tree yielding the fruits was found in fairly dense scrub 

 about' nine miles south-east of Tailem Bend, and its striking 

 appearance at once attracted attention. The pines in the 

 neighbourhood, although numerous, seem to be all either C. 

 ro'husta or C . calcarata, and their foliage is a very dark green, 

 and their fruits, which are restively sparsely distributed over 

 the tree, are large and fairly smooth of surface; the pine in 

 question, on the other hand, was about 15 ft. high, and the 

 foliage, which was covered with a peculiar bloom, appeared 

 almost white; the fruits were small, very numerous, and 

 covered with wart-like protuberances from which, by simple 

 pressure between the fingers, oil could be expelled in consider- 

 able amount. 



An examination of the cones by Miss Collins, of the 

 Botanical Department, University of Adelaide, revealed a 

 close correspondence with those of C. verrucosa, a common 

 species in New South Wales, and the identification of the tree 

 as C. verrucosa has been confirmed by Mr. Maiden, Curator 

 of Botanic Gardens, Sydney, as a result of an examination of 

 samples of both foliage and fruits which were submitted to 

 him. Since, however, the oil-content of the fruits was 

 obviously very much higher than the 44 per cent, which is 

 the yield obtained by Baker and Smith from the cones of this 

 species, it was resolved to steam-distill a small quantity, to 

 determine the yield and to examine the oil in some detail. 



The fruits were picked from the one tree on August 29, 

 1919, in warm weather, and were steam-distilled seven days 

 later, the steaming being continued for twelve hours, dunng 

 which time 9 1. of distillate were collected. (The material 

 was not completely exhausted of volatile matter, but the 

 quantity coming over was sufficiently small to be neglected.) 



After standing for twenty-four hours the oil was run off 

 from the milky aqueous layer and the latter redistilled, about 

 200 cc' being collected; the small quantity of oil was separated 

 from this second distillate, combined with the main bulk, and 



