Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1890. 
Sterculia  Gum. 
25 
gum,  heated  in  a  tube  with  cupric  oxide  in  the  usual  manner.  He 
declines  to  express  an  opinion  as  to  the  proximate  constituents  of  the 
gum.  I  have  referred  to  this  portion  of  his  experiments  below,  show- 
ing how  near  he  was  to  the  determination  of  its  chief  component.  He 
sums  up  his  opinion  of  its  commercial  value  in  the  following  words  : 
"  I  infer  that  the  African  Sterculia  tragacanth  may  be'  used  both  in 
*     pharmacy  and  in  the  arts,  instead  of  the  usual  drug  of  Asia  Minor." 
AUSTRALIAN. 
Benthain,  "  B.  FL,"  226,  makes  twelve  species,  divided  into  two 
sections,  Sterculia  and  Brachychiton,  Mueller,  "  Cens.,"  15,  erects  these 
sections  into  distinct  genera,  adds  a  new  species  to  each,  and  rejects  8. 
Jcetida  as  Australian. 
Baron  Mueller  says  (teste  Blackett,  Chem.  and  Drug.,  Austral,  ed., 
1882,  p.  100),  "  I  have  noticed  gummous  exudations  from  all  the 
Brachychitons  in  Australia."  The  present  writer  has  never  heard  of 
any  from  Australian  species  being  described  more  fully  than  as  being 
"  like  tragacanth." 
8.  diversifolia,  G.  Don,  "  B.  FL,"  i,  229  (Brachychiton  populneum., 
R.Br,  in  Muell.  "  Cens.,"  p.  15).  Found  in  Victoria,  New  South 
Wales  and  Queensland.    A  "  Kurrajong." 
In  the  Clyde  River  district  of  New  South  Wales  a  correspondent 
of  the  writer  came  across  a  tree  about  1  foot  in  diameter  and  30  feet 
high.  About  a  bucketful  of  gum  was  found  at  its  foot,  on  the  ground, 
naturally  exuded  and  partly  viscid.  Enormous  tears  of  the  gum  had 
flowed  down  the  stem  and  were  adherent  to  it. 
I  have  received  a  quantity  of  gum  of  this  species  from  Baron  von 
Mueller.  It  cannot  be  distinguished,  by  any  physical  characteristic, 
from  the  Indian  gums  8.  urens  and  Cochlospermum  Gossypium  already 
described.  It  only  differs  from  the  gum  of  8.  rupestris  (infra)  in 
being  in  rounded  tears,  whereas  the  latter  was  much  broken  and  splin- 
tered when  received. 
8.  rupestris,  Benth.,  "  B.  FL,"  i,  230  (Brachychiton  Delabechii,  F.  v. 
M.,  in  Muell.  "  Cens.,"  p.  15,  8yn.  Delabechea  rupestris).  Found  in 
Queensland.  A  "  Kurrajong."  Called  also  "  Bottle-tree  "  or  "  Gouty- 
stem." 
Delabechia  rupestris. — "  When  boiling  water  is  poured  over  the 
shavings  of  this  wood,  a  clear  jelly,  resembling  tragacanth,  is  formed, 
and  becomes  a  thick  viscid  mass  ;  iodine  stains  it  brown,  but  not  a 
trace  of  starch  is  indicated  "  (Sir  Thomas  Mitchell's  "  Journal  of  an 
