GUMS, RESINS, AND OTHER VEGETABLE EXUDATIONS. 201 



this resin is is not thoroughly ascertained, and inquiries are being 

 made at the present time concerning it. 



The following are references to the literature of the subject: — 

 Maiden (50, 51). Lauterer (33). The paper of A. Balzer on 



"Sandarac Resin" (Arch Pharm., 1896, 234, 289; Journ. Chem. 



Soc. 70, 493) is valuable. It gives a modern analysis of the 



sandarac of commerce, and hence, I believe, of Australian 



sandarac. 



Callitris verrucosa, R. Br. 



For an analysis of this sandarac by the Elder Exploring 

 Expedition, see (61a.) See also p. 203 infra for an account of a 

 recent and exhaustive research on Callitris resin. 



We have so few references to fossil resins in Australia that 

 the following notes are of special interest. Mr. II. T. Edwards, 

 of Birnima, Monaro, informed me that in sinking a well at Bibben- 

 luke he came across fossilised cypress pine-trees (Callitris) with a 

 quantity of resin as if it had been recently exuded. The place 

 was evidently an old lake-bed and the Pine trees had been sub- 

 merged. The nearest growing Cypress Pine tree is seventeen 

 miles distant. 



I have been unable to trace the amount of reliance to be placed 

 in the statements contained in the following note. In any case, 

 the "amber" cannot be of the genus which yields the Baltic 

 substance; it may perhaps be akin to the preceding fossil resin. 



"A curious discovery, that of a mine of amber, has been made 

 at Rokewood, and some men are now at work at the mine, and 

 others prospecting for the same mineral in the vicinity. A pro- 

 fessional mineralogist of Ballarat thus reports on the substance 

 found : — ' The resinous substance left with me for examination is 

 undoubtedly amber, and has not previously, to my knowledge, 

 been found in the colony; making, therefore, another addition to 

 our colonial minerals. The colour of the said substance is brown, 

 streaked yellowish white, transparent, conchoidal fracture, lustre 

 waxy. Specific gravity 1*1. Acquires resinous electricity by 



