180 H. G. SMITH. 
NoTES ON THE OHEMISTRY or CERTAIN AUSTRALIAN 
PLANT PRODUCTS, Parr I. 
By HENRY GEORGE SMITH. 
With Plate VI. 


[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, November 1, 1922.] 
Durine the long period throughout which the writer 
occupied the position of Hconomic Chemist to the Sydney 
Technological Museum many chemical problems connected 
with Australian plants were submitted for investigation. 
The present notes are designed to place on permanent 
record a number of results obtained in this way, and which 
for various reasons have hitherto remained unpublished. It 
should. be added that in every instance the writer is 
indebted to his colleague, Mr. R. T. Baker, F.L.s., for 
botanical assistance. 
1. Resin coating the leaves of Acacia vernicifiua. 
The material for investigation was sent from Eden, New 
South Wales, by Mr. W. Stafford. As received, the foliage 
was cemented together with a sticky glutinous material 
which had exuded from the leaves and terminal branchlets, 
and which proved to be a resin consisting of resin acids 
and neutral resins in approximately equal proportions. 
Although the resin was soft, it is doubtful whether it con- 
tained any essential oil at the time of examination. Resin 
is a very unusual constituent in members of the N.O. 
Leguminose, the principal secretion in this group of plants 
being rather of a carbohydrate nature.’ It has been sug- 
gested, however, that under certain conditions tannin may 


1 See in this connection Solereder, Vol. 1, page 292, for resin from _ 
A. dodoneifolia. 
