596 R. T. BAKER AND HENRY ft. SMITH. 



E. polybractea, and other oils of this class now used for 

 pharmaceutical purposes. It has an advantage, too, in 

 colour over many of these oils, such as those of E. globulus, 

 E. goniocalifx, and simitar species of this group, as the oils 

 distilled from these are often tinged yellow, while the 

 rectified oil of this Melaleuca is water white, and agrees 

 in this respect more closely with the oils of /•>. touiwthilhm, 

 and the more pronounced terpene-oil yielding species of the 

 genus Btacalyptus. It is indeed difficult to detect any 

 differences in physical or chemical properties, except 

 perhaps that of colour, between the rectified oil of this 

 Mri i|. u<-;t and the best cineol bearing Eucalyptus oils so 

 far known. The range of the species, too, is somewhat 

 extensive in Eastern Australia, and we give herewith 

 analyses nf two samples of oil, one distilled by us from 

 material sent to the Technological Museum by Mr. T. D. 

 Ferguson of Gladstone, Queensland, in May of this year, 

 and the other from material collected at Port, Maequarie, 

 New South Wales, last November. Although these locali- 

 ties are hundreds of miles apart, yet, the characters of the 

 oils vary in no degree from each other, except in that of 

 yield, and this is due more largely to the difference in the 

 time of year when the material was collected. The month 

 of November is generally recognised in Eastern Australia 

 as being better for yield of oil from Myrtaceous plants 

 than is June, the latter month being the middle of the 

 Australian winter. The results of this investigation is 

 another confimation of the comparative constancy of 

 chemical products obtainable from ide.it i.-al species, belong- 

 ing to genera of the Myrfaceae family, and growing under 

 natural conditions. 



The leaves of this Melaleuca are comparatively small, 

 and thin, and the oil glands large, consequently the oil can 

 be easily separated by steam, and it comes over rapidly, so 



