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Exudations. —Following is a paper I wrote some years ago on Panax gum:— 
Panax is a genus of the Araliacem, several species of which order are more 
or less acrid or aromatic. But the recorded instances of gum or resin being found 
in any of them are extremely few, and in no case, so far as I am aware, has the 
composition of the exudation been dealt with, much less an analysis given. 
In the common English ivy (Hedera helix), there is stated to be contained 
“ the gum-resin called 4 Hederine,’ used by varnisli-makers, and said to be depilatory 
and emmenagogue.” (Lindley, Medical and (Economical Botany.) 
“An aromatic gum-resin comes from Aralia racemosa, spinosa, and hispida .” 
(Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 
Meryta Sinclairii, Seem., of New Zealand, 44 is charged with a peculiar resin 
in all its parts.” (Kirk’s Forest Flora of New Zealand.)* 
All the above quotations refer to resins or gum-resins. 
We now come to gums in the Araliacem, and the two references I give are all 
I can find of gums in this Natural Order, and they both refer to Panax, the genus to 
which all the gums I have been able to obtain up to the present also belong. 
44 Panax Colensoi exudes a gum very similar to gum arabic, and occasionally 
used for adhesive purposes.” (Beport New Zealand Exhibition, 1865.) 
44 Panax sambucifolius in Novam Angliam extendit.. Truncus cum ramis 
gummifluus.” (Mueller, Fragm., vii, 95.) It would appear therefore that the 
Araliacese exude both gums and resins. It is a fact not generally known that the 
same Natural Order, the same genus, and even the same species may exude both a 
gum and a resin, and some writers have even doubted the exactness of their own 
observations when they have found both a gum and a resin in closely related plants. 
I hope to show in another place, chiefly by citing Australian instances, which have 
come under my notice, that the occurrence of both a resin and a gum in the same 
genus and even species, is by no means uncommon. 
Returning to P. sambucifolius, I have not yet obtained gum from the normal 
species, but from a variety, viz., P. sambucifolius, var. angusta, or, according to 
Baron von Mueller’s nomenclature, P. dendroides, var. angusta. 
This plant is found on the banks of the Snowy River, amongst boulders of 
rock, attaining a height of about 8 feet, with a diameter of 2 inches when grown in 
tree shape; mostly, however, the plant is shrubby, with a number of thin stems. 
The gum was obtained from old sickly plants. When obtained fresh it has a 
peculiar sweetish odour, and when placed in the mouth it has a pleasant flavour, 
reminding one strongly of a rose jujube. It dissolves wholly in the mouth in a few 
minutes, and except for the perfume already alluded to, it might readily be taken 
for one of the readily soluble wattle gums. 
* Since the above was written I have received from Mr. W. W. Froggatt a quantity of a gum-resin from Aslrotriche 
floccosa, DC., belonging to this Natural Order. It has a very pleasant perfume, and appears to be an interesting substance. 
It exuded from sickly shrubs whose steins had been wounded by a small Curculio. 
