592 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting, 
f  Am.  Jour  Pharru. 
\  November,  1895. 
article  in  New  Jersey  had  been  purchased  for  $6,000,  but  the  fraud  has  been 
detected,  and  this  alleged  compound  will  not  attain  the  commercial  importance 
its  manufacturers  had,  no  doubt,  anticipated. 
Mr.  Beringer  then  gave  a  talk  on  the  Eucalyptus  species,  referring  more  par- 
ticularly to  those  grown  in  the  United  States.  He  said  that  this  genus  is  the 
most  distinctive  of  the  natural  order  Myrtacese,  to  which  it  belongs.  The  leaves 
on  the  older  plants  vary  in  shape  and  size,  and,  like  all  the  other  members  of 
that  order,  are  characterized  by  an  intra-marginal  vein,  and  also  by  their  pel- 
lucid-punctate appearance.  The  seed  leaves  are  round,  oval  or  cordate,  oppo- 
site and  horizontal,  but,  on  development,  becoming  scythe- or  scimeter-shaped 
and  turned  on  edge  so  as  to  be  vertical,  and  alternately  arranged.  The  flowers 
are  white,  red  or  yellow,  but  never  blue,  and  are  peculiar  in  that  the  sepals  unite 
to  form  a  lid  or  operculum  covering  the  stamens  until  the  time  of  anthesis, 
when  the  lid  drops  off  and  the  stamens  appear  more  or  less  exserted.  The 
shape  of  the  lid  is  an  important  means  of  distinguishing  the  different  species, 
as  is  also  the  surface  where  it  is  broken  off.  The  shape  of  the  calyx  in  bud  and 
fruit  and  the  venation  and  shape  of  the  leaf  are  also  very  important  means  of 
distinguishing  the  species.  These  plants  are  indigenous  to  Australia  and  Tas- 
mania, and  the  number  of  species  is  said  to  be  about  140,  with  many  varieties. 
Professor  Bentham,  wTho  has  made  a  study  of  them,  considers  the  shape  of  the 
anthers  and  the  manner  of  discharging  the  pollen  two  important  characteristics. 
Baron  Ferd.  von  Mueller  has  stated  them  to  be  the  most  difficult  to  study  of 
any  of  the  Australian  plants,  with  the  exception  of  the  acacias,  certain  species 
of  which  yield  the  wattle  barks.  The  trees  are  known  by  such  vernacular 
names  as  gum  tree,  fever  tree  and  stringy  bark  tree,  iron  bark,  messmate,  and 
the  Eucalyptus  gunnii  as  the  cider  tree.  The}-  are  noted  for  their  rapidity  of 
growth  as  well  as  the  height  which  they  attain,  the  Eucalyptus  amygdalina 
attaining  a  height  of  over  400  feet  in  their  native  country.  There  are  44  species 
now  grown  in  the  United  States,  at  the  California  Forestry  Station,  at  Santa 
Monica.  Of  these,  specimens  of  40  species  had  been  obtained  by  Mr.  Beringer, 
and  were  exhibited.  These  plants,  produced  from  the  seed,  after  seven  years' 
growth,  are  developed  so  as  to  produce  fruit.  Several  important  products  are 
yielded  by  these  trees,  namely,  a  kind  of  resin  or  kino  used  for  tanning  and 
coloring  purposes,  and  the  wood  for  carpentering  and  fuel.  A  company  has 
been  organized  in  California  for  the  manufacture  of  the  leaves  into  an  extract 
as  an  anti  incrustator  for  boilers.  The  oil  is  also  obtained  in  this  country  by 
distillation,  and  the  eucalyptol  extracted  by  distillation  or  chemical  means, 
the  oil  from  Eucalyptus  globulus  yielding  75  per  cent,  of  eucalyptol,  and  that 
from  Eucalyptus  amygdalina  yielding  pheliandrine.  The  former  alone  should 
be  used  for  medicinal  purposes.  The  leaves  of  another  species,  Eucalyptus 
citriodora,  develop,  on  drying,  an  odor  resembling  citronella,  and  would  likely 
prove  of  commercial  importance.  The  Eucalyptus  globulus  is  utilized  for 
planting  around  the  orange  groves  in  California  to  protect  against  winds,  and 
now  is  the  common  kindling  wood  of  the  lower  portion  of  that  State. 
Some  plants  not  yet  two  years  old  were  sent  by  Prof.  Henry  Trimble,  and 
had  been  grown  in  a  greenhouse  in  this  city  from  seeds  which  he  had  pro- 
cured from  Baron  von  Mueller.  They  belonged  to  the  species  macrocarpa,  and 
were  quite  healthy  in  appearance,  and  exhibited  the  leaf  characteristics  of  the 
genus. 
