96 FOREST CULTURE AND 



Myrtaceous trees. While charcoal, tar, wood- vinegar, 

 wood-spirit, tannic substances and potash, are obtain- 

 able and obtained from the woods of any country, we 

 have in Australia a resource of our own in the Euca- 

 lyptus oil. In no other part of the globe do we find 

 the Myrtacese to prevail; in Europe it is only the 

 Myrtus of the ancients, the beautiful bush for bridal 

 wreaths, which there represents this particular family 

 of plants; and although copious species of Eugenia 

 and other berry -bearing genera, including the aro- 

 matic clove and allspice, are scattered through the 

 warmer regions of Asia, Africa, and America, all per- 

 vaded by essential oil, they do not constitute the 

 main bulk of any forests as here, nor can their oil in 

 chemic or technic properties be compared to that of 

 the almost exclusively Australian Eucalyptus. This 

 special industry of ours exemplifies also, in a manner 

 quite remarkable, how from apparently insignificant 

 experiments may arise results far beyond original an- 

 ticipations. When, in 1854, as one of the commis- 

 sioners for the Victorian Industrial Exhibition, held 

 in anticipation of the first Paris Exhibition, I induced 

 my friend, Mr. Joseph Bosisto, J. P., to distil the oil 

 of one of our Eucalypts, I merely wished to show that 

 this particular oil might be substituted for the com- 

 paratively costly oil of cajuput, obtained in some 

 parts of India, and rather extensively used in some 

 countries for medical purposes. For the exhibition 

 of 1862 about thirty different oils were prepared by 

 the same gentleman, chiefly from various Eucalypts, 

 and from material mostly selected by myself for the 

 purpose. This led not merely to determining the 

 "percentage of yield, but also to extensive experj. 



