EUCALYPTUS VIMINALIS. 



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

 Sugar. 



In a solitary experiment 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 

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

 Q12 jju Qu. ^^^^ g^gj^ 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. Virey alluded to this substance in the Journal de Pharmacie, sec. s6r. xviii, 705 

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

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

 gave to the Mellitose 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 = C« Hi" O". (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 

 picking for children and stray wanderers ; but it seems to be of no medicinal Value. A " Manna " 

 is said to drop also from a species of Eucalyptus, occurring near Cape Leeuwin. (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. Th. Anderson, when giving a full record of this substance in the Edinburgh New Philosophic 

 Journal, July 1849 ; he furnished 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. 



Explanation of Analytic Details. — 1, an unexpanded flower, the lid lifted ; 2,' longitudinal section of an unex- 

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

 ment ; 6, style and stigma ; 7, transverse sections of two fruits ; 8, 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. 



