183 
As regards its combustibility, Mr. A. 11. Crawford writes to me :—“ It is 
difficult to burn, as it contains an acid. I had a fine sample at the Sydney 
International Exhibition of 1879 ; the judges’ note said it burned freely ; they had 
in mistake tried Olea 'paniculata, which burns like Pitch Pine.” 
In the following quotation* we have the first full account of this wood as a 
dye-wood, and also a useful note on the use of the term Yellow-wood as applied to 
Oxlrya xantlioxyla (Flindersia Oxleyana). I cannot find, in spite of its name, 
that the Flindersia wood is used as a dye-wood, although its yellowish colour is 
evident. 
In this instance little is known with certainty, either scientifically or technically, of the wood in 
question, beyond the fact that a tree, which furnishes an exquisite yellow dye, exists in the virgin forests 
around Moreton Bay. Although we are indebted to the late Allan Cunningham for a botanical account of 
a tree yielding a kind of yellow-wood at the eastern sub-tropical coasts of Australia, which plant, in honor 
of the discoverer of the Brisbane river, generically, and in consideration of the properties of its wood 
specifically, he named Oxleya xantlioxyla , it seems that doubts still exist whether really that tree alone, or 
some other species with similar evergreen pinnate foliage, of which the almost Indian vegetation of the 
East Coast is so rich, produces the only or the preferable dye. 
Not having enjoyed, during a short stay at Moreton Bay, the opportunity to institute direct 
inquiries about this wood, I met hitherto with only vague and contradictory accounts; but it seems, 
according to the best authenticated statements, very probable that the specimen of Australian Yellow-wood, 
which attracted considerable attention at the Great Exhibition in Paris, originated, not from Oxleya 
xanthoxyla, but from an undescribed species of Rhus, a genus previously not found by botanists, represented 
in Australia, although amply developed in many other parts of the globe. 
Probably the most important use of Yellow-wood will be as a dye, as a 
substitute for young fustic belonging to the allied genus Rhus ( R. Cotinus). It lias 
engaged the attention of A. G. Perkin in an important paper. + 
Perkin states that the colouring matter of the wood is jisetin. The glucoside 
of the Yellow-wood is probably not fustin, as the only known glucoside of fisetin is. 
Dyeing properties. —These experiments! were carried out in the usual manner, employing woollen 
cloth mordanted with aluminium, chromium, tin, and iron. The shades given by the Yellow Cedar are 
slightly weaker and differ considerably from those given by Rhus Cotinus (Young fustic) although 
both contain the same colouring matter. 
Chromium. 
Aluminium. 
Tin. 
Iron. 
Young fustic 
Reddish-brown 
Orange 
Orange yellow 
Brown-olive. 
Yellow cedar 
Yellowish-brown ... 
Brownish-yellow ... 
Golden-yellow 
Olive-yellow. 
Size. —Up to 60 or 70 feet in height, and with a stem-diameter of 18 to 
21 inches. 
Habitat. —It grows in the rich brushes of the Northern Rivers of New 
South Wales and of coastal Queensland. In the former State I have no record of 
* Mueller, 0 ]>. cit. 
t Yellow colouring matters obtained from Rhus rhodanthema, Herberts oetn<nsis, and Rumex ohtmifulius — Jourv. 
Chem. Soc. LXXf, 1194 ( 1897 ). 
