AUSTRALIAN MELALEUCAS AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 61 
and a few from the Pacific Islands, New Caledonia, 
Tahiti, etc. With so extensive a geographical distribution, 
they are necessarily a common object in the bush and are 
well known to settlers who utilise the timber for such 
economics as corduroy road making, posts, mallets, etc., 
the wood being very hard and durable in the ground and 
under water. The bushes are also extensively used for 
fascine dyke construction, for which they are more suitable 
than any other Australian shrub. Some species attain 
tree size, thus furnishing timber of sufficient dimensions 
for piles, bridging, wharf-decking, etc. The genus affords 
little study for the ecological student of botany for the 
Species are as much at home on the dry sandstone country 
as in moist swampy ground or even the rich humus of the 
shady gullies. 
The Melaleuca oils of Australia apparently differ among 
themselves in regard to their several constituents and the. 
amount, as do the oils of the Hucalypts, although the genus 
is not so extensive as Hucalyptus, nor does it contain 
nearly aS many species. It is not to be expected therefore 
that the constituents will be anything so numerous or so 
diverse, nor is it considered that the inquiry will be of so 
interesting a nature, when judged from a_ botanical 
and chemical standpoint. 
It is the intention during these investigations to apply 
the same methods in the determination of the Melaleuca 
species and their oils as has already been done by us in our 
work on the Hucalypts; and as the results are obtained they 
will be submitted for publication. It is recommended that 
similar care be taken in the commercial exploitation of the 
Melaleucas as is necessary with the Hucalypts. With the 
HKucalypts, the species name, if authentic, should be a 
guarantee of the quality of the product, and Melaleucas 
should not depart from this rule. An _ indiscriminate 
