286 R. T. BAKER AND HENRY G. SMITH. 



Essential Oil. — Leaves of tins species were obtained from 

 Black Mountain near Guyra, and distilled 6/8/07; from 

 Uralla and distilled 11/7/07; from Armidale, (where it is 

 known as " Red Peppermint") and distilled 24/6/07; and 

 from Tenterfield, distilled 12/1/10. The material from 

 which the original data were obtained, published in the 

 "Research on the Eucalypts," p. 34, was collected at 

 Walcha, and distilled 15/9/99, at the time of year when the 

 lower boiling terpenes might be expected to be present in 

 quantity. The crude oils of all these samples were red in 

 colour and inclined to be somewhat viscid, owing to the 

 presence of such a large quantity of high boiling constitu- 

 ents. The odour was rank and not at all distinctive. Light 

 did not pass with the crude oil until the colour had been 

 removed, but after agitating with a few drops of phosphoric 

 acid, light passed readily through the yellowish tinted oil 

 thus obtained. The principal constituents of the oil of this 

 species are dextro-rotatory pinene, and the sesquiterpene, 

 of which constituent more than half the oil consists. Traces 

 of phellandrene can occasionally be detected in the portion 

 distilling at about 176° 0., but not always, and the species 

 is thus evidently on the border line where phellandrene 

 commences to come in. Eucalyptol is present in minute 

 traces only at any time of the year. The constituent of 

 peppermint odour (piperitone) does not appear to occur in 

 the oil of this species, so that the vernacular name " Pep- 

 permint " cannot be due to the odour given by the leaves, 

 but more likely to the appearance of the bark, and of the 

 tree generally. 



The following table gives the general results obtained 

 with the crude oils of this species from the four localities 

 given above. The yields of oil were obtained from leaves 

 and terminal branchlets collected as for commercial oil 

 distillation. 



