INDIGENOUS VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF VICTORIA. 121 



used so extensively as tonics, Australian species may be substituted, such 

 as the Sebcea ovata, which abounds during the spring in our meadows, or 

 Seb&a albidiflora, an annual plant scattered over the subsaline pastures of 

 the coast tract, or Erythrcea Australis, occurring in humid localities. It 

 appears also that the closely-allied order of Goodeniacese offers, in numerous 

 species, a substitute for gentianeous plants. 



Pervaded with tonic bitterness are also most of the Comespermas, 

 which in our colony replace the Polygalas. 



The root of Lavatera plebeia has been brought into practical use 

 instead of Althaea. The bark of the well-known Australian sassafras-tree 

 is employed as a tonic and stimulant. Its powerful bitterness, probably 

 depending on an alkaloid, is combined with a pleasant peculiar aroma. As 

 this valuable and beautiful tree abounds in many of the fern-tree gullies of 

 Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania, it is not unlikely that it will 

 some day, when its medicinal properties are more appreciated abroad, form 

 an article of export from these colonies. 



The numerous Diosrnaceous plants which ornament in varied froms 

 almost every part of the colony, from the summit of the alps to the scrubs 

 and forests of the lowlands, deserve notice, as" possessing more or less 

 sudorific and diuretic properties, in which respect some of them may be 

 compared to the Buchu. 



More attention should be directed to the circumstance, that all the 

 myrtaceous plants, which throughout Australia constitute the main part 

 of the timber, and generally also of the scrub vegetation, yield in a 

 greater or smaller degree an essential oil. Unlimited quantities of 

 Eucalyptus and Melaleuca leaves might be turned to account by the simple 

 process, by which in India, from the leaves of Melaleuca Leucodendron, the 

 Cajeput oil is obtained. The oil of the leaves of the red-gum tree is 

 similar in flavour to the Cajeput oil, and may be safely used instead of the 

 latter in spasmodic and rheumatic affections. The Eucalyptus leaves have, 

 on account of their abundance of volatile oil, been used already for the 

 manufacture of gas in lighting the township of Kyneton. 



It is also worthy of record that a bark of equal properties with that of 

 mezereon may be obtained, as the natural system prognosticated, from our 

 Pimelese. Nothing, for instance, can surpass the mezereon-like acridity of 

 Pimelea stricta. The gum resin of Eucalyptus resinifera and other species 

 has, since the early days of the Australian settlement, been occasionally 

 exported as New Holland kino ; and, being a powerful astringent, it is 

 entitled to our attention, particularly when we remember in what vast 

 quantities it is obtainable in every part of Australia. In domestic medi- 

 cine it has been often employed against diarrhoea. It is not improbable 

 that the Gipps Land Smilax latifolia may serve the purpose of sarsaparilla, 

 this being the only Victorian plant allied to the genuine American drug. 

 The pungent juice which pervades all parts of the so-called pepper-tree, 

 Drimys aromatica (Tasmania aromatica, R. Br.) affords another instance how 

 felicitously the natural system of phytology can be applied for ascertaining 



