94 



on which is wound the steel cable before referred to. The engine being securely fastened forward, the 

 cable is unwound from the drum and is then carried back to a stump, and the running noose at the end 

 is dropped over it. Then the drum is set in motion, and when the rope straightens the stump starts up 

 out of its resting-place and hurries towards the engine. It must come. Sometimes it is necessary to try 

 back and give a few tugs, but the stump has finally to come up. It facilitates the work to cut the surface 

 roots and clear away the earth to the depth of a foot or so round the biggest ones, but with the small 

 stumps this is not necessarv. When the timber is light, the rope is carried round in a semicircle to a 

 stout stump, and as it is straightened by the strain the intervening small fry are literally "rubbed out." 

 Belar and pine are easily cleared in this way, and the gang makes short work of a 10-acre block, unless the 

 mallee is extraordinarily heavy. When all the stumps are uprooted, the adhering earth is knocked off, and 

 they are readily burned. The holes are then filled and the firewood carted off, and the work of clearing is 

 completed. 



(N. B, McKay, of Mildui'a, in Vict. 7?</y. Comm. Veg. Prod., 8th Animal Report, pp. 118-119, 

 1889.) 



Var. dumosa is usually known as " White Mallee " because of the paleness 

 of its smooth bark. 



It was called " Weir Mallee " by- Victorian aborigines, and " Bunurduk " by 

 the aborigines of Lake Hindmarsh Station, Victoria. 



Fruits. — The fruits vary in size, shape, constriction of orifice, smoothness 

 (ribbed or not), shininess, prominence of rim, exsertion of valves (they are usually 

 sunk). 



Oil. — Baron von Mueller found that 1,000 lb. of fresh twigs of this tree 

 (comprising, perhaps, 500 lb. of leaves) yielded 140 oz. of essential oil. 



Lcrp. — This mallee yields a kind of manna, called Lcrp, or Larp, by the 

 aborigines. It is probably formed on the leaves of other species. 



This substance occurs on the leaves, and consists of white threads, clotted together by a syrup 

 proceeding from the insect (PsyJla eucalypti) which spins those threads. It contains, in round numbers — 

 of water, fourteen parts : thread-like portion, thirty-three parts ; sugar, fifty-three parts. The threads 

 possess many of the characteristic properties of starch, from which, however, they are sharply distin- 

 guished by their form. When lerp is washed with water the sugar dissolves, and the threads swell 

 slightly, hut dissolve to a slight extent, so that the solution is coloured blue by iodine. The threads, 

 freed from sugar by washing, consist of a substance called Lerp-amylum. 



Lerp-amylum is very slightly soluble in cold water, not perceptibly more so in water at 100°, but 

 entirely soluble to a thin, transparent liquid when heated to 135° in sealed tubes with thirty parts of 

 water. This solution, on cooling, deposits the original substance in flocks, without forming a jellv at any 

 time. The separation is almost complete. 



If the material employed in this experiment were entirely free from sugar, the liquid left after the 

 separation of the flocks will also be free from sugar. The flocks deposited from solution are insoluble in 

 boiling water, therefore lerp-amylum suffers no chemical change on being heated to 150° with water. 

 Heated in the air-bath to 190° while dry, it turns brown, and is afterwards merely reddened by solution 

 of iodine : at the same time it becomes partly soluble in hot water, hence it appears that lerp-amylum 

 undergoes a change similar to that which occurs when starch is converted into dextrin. By oxidation 

 with nitric acid it yields oxalic acid, hut no mucic acid; it is neutral to vegetable colours, and is not 

 precipitated by lead acetate, and is, therefore, not to be confounded with the gums, &c. 



It gave, by analysis, 43-7 and 43-07 carbon, G-6 and 6'4 hydrogen, agreeing with the formula 

 C fi H ln O g (44-4 C. and 6-24 H.). Like starch, lerp-amylum rotates the plane of polarisation to the right, 

 and on digestion with dilute sulphuric acid, etc., forms a crystallisahle carbo-hydrate which agrees in its 

 properties with dextrin. Tt is insoluble in ammonia cuprate, and is homogeneous. 



