23 
It is quite free from odour, and has a dark reddish colour. When pure it 
has a bright fracture, but much of it is mixed with woody matter in a fine state of 
division. The warmth of the hand is sufficient to cause the resin to adhere to it. 
It sticks to the teeth, but is without taste. It is reduced to powder with the 
utmost facility, forming a dull powder. It is rather opaque-looking. 
In cold water the substance whitens slightly. If the water be boiled, the 
liquid becomes very turbid, reminding one of coffee with excess of milk and with 
abundant “grounds.” No odour is developed. 
Petroleum spirit extracts 52 per cent, of a hard, transparent, brownish resin. 
The residue is acted upon by alcohol, which extracts GOT per cent, of a 
brownish resin. 
This residue is then digested in water, which extracts 5'fi per cent, of a 
yellowish substance, consisting chiefly of' arabin. The residue consists of 26'5 per 
cent, of a brownish substance, which swells enormously in water, and which 
consists of metarabin (14 per cent.), while the remainder is accidental impurity. 
SUMMARY. 
Resin soluble in petroleum spirit ... ... ... ... 5 2 
„ ,, alcohol ... ... ... ... ... 604 
Soluble in water (arabin) ... ... ... ... ... 5 - 6 
Metarabin ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14-0 
Accidental impurity ... ... ... ... ... ... 12-5 
Moisture... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1*7 
The presence of metarabin in this exudation is remarkable, in view of the 
fact that pararabin is the main constituent of gums of this family. It contains no 
tannic acid. 
The present is the first occasion in which a resin (or to speak more correctly, 
a substance consisting mainly of resin) has been recorded from any Protead, so far 
as the author is aware, and certainly from any Australian species. 
The Western (Q.) blacks make use of the resin of G. striata to manufacture 
a kind of asphalt wherewith to cement on flints to the adzes and carvings. (Dr. 
T. L. Bancroft in a letter to me.) 
Dr. Lauterer* has also examined the resin from this tree. 
Dr. Roth gives the following account of the collection and utilisation of this 
resin by North Queensland aborigines. 
The cement is obtained from the roots of young trees only, that from the older ones not being 
removable. Convenient lengths, from 10 to 12 inches, having been cut away from the underground 
saplings, they are heated over a fire, and their outer sticky bark scraped off' with a sharp-edged stone. 
* “The Gums and Resins exuded by Queensland plants chemically and technologically described.” From pages 35 
to 80 of F. M. Bailey’s Botany Bulletin No. xiii (April, 1896), “Contributions to the Queensland Flora.” 
