EUDESMIN AND ITS DERIVATIVES. | 449 
EUDESMIN AND ITS DERIVATIVHS, Part I. 
By ROBERT ROBINSON, D.Sc., 
Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of Sydney, 
and 
HENRY G. SMITH, F.C.S., 
Assistant Curator of the Technological Museum, 
[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 2, 1914. ] 
THE object of the present series of papers is to determine 
the constitution of naturally occurring substances of Aus- 
tralian origin, and eudesmin was chosen for the first inves- 
tigation because it appeared to be a substance unlike any 
other which had been found in plants, and also because it 
may readily be prepared in considerable quantity. The 
compound was discovered by Maiden and Smith in 1895, 
(Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W.) during the course of an investi- 
gation on the kinos of the Hucalypts, and so far as has 
been determined, eudesmin occurs only in the kinos of trees 
belonging to the genus Hucalyptus. It does not, however, 
occur in the exudations of all the species, and certain 
regularities and correspondences with earlier classifications 
of these trees have been observed. The distribution of 
eudesmin in the kinos seems to follow roughly the pre- 
dominant oil constituents, and, as these are connected with 
characteristic leaf venations, it may also be said that a 
connection exists between the leaf venation and the occur- 
rence of eudesmin in the kino. The kinos of species of 
Kucalyptus which contain phellandrene as the predominant 
constituent in the oil, all give a violet colouration with 
ferric chloride in aqueous solution, and in none of them 
has eudesmin been detected. This group includes a large 
number of species growing in Hastern Australia, and may 
also be taken to include such species as EH. Risdont, in the 
oil of which cineol is a pronounced constituent but which 
Cc—December 2, 1914. 
