THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Dec. 1, 1864. 



228 THE RESINS, GUMS, AND 



oils but very little. According to Mr. John Kruse, of Melbourne, who 

 examined this substance, and published the results he obtained in the 

 " Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria, July 1858, grass- 

 tree gum contains cinnamic in addition to benzoic acid ; and he also 

 mentions the interesting fact, that the action of nitric acid upon it gives 

 rise to picric acid, which he states to be of practical use for dying yel- 

 lows upon silk or wool. 



The Xanthorrlicea Austrcdis is very common in many parts of Vic- 

 toria, in some heathy localities, as in Gipps Land, covering tracts of 

 many square miles in extent ; and the resin, were its uses properly in- 

 vestigated and determined, and thereby drawn into technical use, might 

 ' be collected in very large quantities. 



A very interesting discovery of fossil resin has been made by Mr. 

 Richard Daintree, of the Victorian Geological Survey, in the tertiary 

 lignites of the Bass River, in the Western Port district. This remark- 

 able substance was obtained at a depth of about fifty feet below the 

 surface ; the formation in which it occurs is of great extent, but not 

 sufficiently explored at present to enable an estimate to be made of the 

 probable quantity of resin available. Like many fossil substances of 

 this class, the resin from the Bass River is fnot easily dissolved in the 

 ordinary menstrua, alcohol and ether take up a portion of it, the former 

 giving rise to a brown-coloured solution, leaving the insoluble remainder 

 in a swelled and bleached state ; the latter forms a clear colourless solu- 

 tion, which by evaporation leaves a pure white residual resin. Turpen- 

 tine does not exert any solvent power, while the essential oils from 

 Victorian Myrtaceous trees appear to be its best solvents, as only a 

 small insoluble portion remains after their action, consisting to a great 

 extent of mineral impurities. This resinous body appears in small 

 rounded masses, somewhat translucent internally, but possessed of a 

 rough opaque covering ; its colour is a pale brownish grey, with a glassy 

 fracture, it is very friable and inflammable. On being heated it fuses 

 with the disengagement of much volatile matter, causing a frothiness 

 that does not subside for some time. It is less fragrant under these cir- 

 cumstances than the fossil resin of New Zealand, the odour resembling 

 that of Sandarac, a circumstance leading to the opinion that this sub- 

 stance was originally the produce of a tree allied to the genus Callitris. 

 It burns readily, leaving unconsumed a quantity of bright and bulky 

 charcoal. 



The genus Acacia furnishes several true gums, of which those from 

 the species A. mollisima, A. dealbata, A. pycnantha, and A. homalophylla 

 are the most important. These substances exude from the trees, as do 

 the Acacia-gums of commerce, and occur in rounded or irregularly- 

 formed masses, at times almost colourless or pale yellow, but not unfre- 

 quently tinged with red or brown. Some samples are occasionally so 

 intersected with an infinite number of cracks as to present an amor- 

 phous white appearance. Generally speaking, the Victorian Acacia- 



