523 
BOTANY BAY, OR GRASS TREE, GUM, 
BY THE EDITOR. 
This remarkable resin which is known in different parts of Australia 
under various local names, as "black boy" gum, grass tree gum, &c, 
would seem to be obtained from several species of Xanthorrhoea, of which 
there are six or seven well defined species in Australia. The resin has 
long been known among druggists as gum acroides. It was generically 
named by Swartz from its peculiar colour. 
This resin was first described in Governor Phillips' voyage to New 
South Wales in 1788. Mr. Phillips states that it was employed by the 
natives and first settlers as a medicine in cases of diarrhoea. The resin 
of X hastilis as it occurs in commerce sometimes forms masses of con- 
siderable size, but as it is very brittle, although tolerably hard, it usually 
arrives in small pieces, and in the state of a coarse powder. Its colour 
is a deep yellow, with a slightly reddish shade, and considerably re- 
sembling gamboge, but darker and less pleasing. The colour of its 
powder is greenish yellow. When chewed it does not dissolve or stick 
to the teeth, but tastes slightly astringent and aromatic, like storax or 
benzoin. When gently heated it melts, and when strongly heated it 
burns with a smoky flame, and emits a fragrant odour resembling 
balsam of tolu, containing apparently cinnamic acid mixed with a very 
little benzoin. The quantity of carbazotic acid which this resin yields 
when treated with nitric acid is very great, and it is easily purified. 
Incidental mention has already been made of this resin (Technologist, 
vol. ii., p. 25, iii., p. 19, and v., p. 227), but as it appears to be occupy- 
ing increased attention in Australia just now, some further details 
respecting it may prove useful. 
The grass tree is one great characteristic of the scenery and of the 
vegetation of Australia. It puts one in mind of a tall black native with 
a spear in his hand ornamented with a tuft of rushes. On the spear is 
found an excellent, clear, transparent gum, and from the lowest part of 
the tree oozes a black gum, which makes a powerful cement, used by the 
natives for fastening stone heads on their hammers. The resin may be 
obtained in inexhaustible quantities. X. hastilis, Austrolis, and arhorea, 
seem to be the most generally diffused species. 
A late Melbourne paper thus speaks of the tree : — " There are few 
who have ever travelled any distance in Victoria but have met with the 
grass tree, which is to be found in nearly all parts of Australia. Up to a 
few months ago it was supposed only to be a useless growth encumbering 
the land. A few knew from the natives that it contained a very 
tenacious gum. The blacks used it as a glue for joining parts of their 
weapons, but it is only within the last few months that the following 
valuable articles have been obtained, after great labour and expense, by 
a Mr. Dodd, St. Romain's. The place where Mr. Dodd has erected his 
