BLACKBOY AND ITS USES. 
Blackboy and its Uses. 
By C. E. LANE POOLE. 
aN HE Western Australian “ Blackboy” (Xanthorrhwa Preissit) 
CAs belongs to the same species as the “grass-tree” of 
9 the eastern portions of Australia. It is a familiar feature 
in the forest areas of Western Australia, and it is to be 
: found in more or less abundance throughout the agricultural 
areas. ‘The stems of the common Western Australian species are 
ordinarily from 7 to 8 feet high, but often run up to 15 feet 
in height, and are usually branched. It may interest many to know that 
the “ Blackboy” belongs to the lily family, a botanical paradox more ~ 
readily appreciated by the scientist than by the layman. It is constructed 
of a centre core, and a very fibrous, somewhat spongy, material, some- 
times hard enough to be termed wood, which contains a large amount of 
easily fermentable, sugary substance, surrounded by a thick coating of 
“husk,” formed of the persistent bases of the old leaves lying 
very closely packed together, and more or less cemented by resin 
into a hard, coherent mass. When fire spreads through an area in 
which “ Blackboy ” is found, it readily attacks this hard outside layer. 
burning and scorching it, and this accounts for the fact that the barrel 
of the tree is always black, with all the appearance of having suffered 
from recent fire. When the “husk” is broken up and beaten, the brittle 
resin is easily reduced to a fine powder, which may be with little difficulty 
separated from the fibrous skeleton on which it is built up. When heated, 
this powder forms into lumps, and becomes a substance known as “ Black- 
_ boy gum.” In areas covered by “ Blackboy,” this gum is found in lumps 
in the ground, the gum having probably been separated from the tree 
by fire, and coagulated where it reached the surface of the ground. As 
the “ Blackboy ” covers very large tracts in Western Australia, its trunks 
can be obtained in enormous quantities, and the gum or resin might well 
form the basis of a large industry. From experiments made by com- 
petent analysts, something of the potentialities contained in “ Blackboy ” 
have been ascertained. Among the products obtained have been glucose, 
treacle, scents, alcohol, and certain tar products, and-from these latter, 
again, two dyes have been obtained. Picric acid, so much used in 
explosives, is also yielded by the tree, the gum, on treatment, giving up 
to 50 per cent. of its weight in the form of picric acid. The Munitions 
Department in England, during the war, made experiments with. 
“ Blackboy ” gum as a producer of picric acid, and was highly satisfied 
with the result. ‘There would seem to be a great future for “ Blackboy ” 
by-products. The subject, although well investigated by competent 
authorities, has not yet been exhausted. In, the early days of Western 
Australia, the settlers obtained a form of alcohol from “ Blackboy,” 
which they used as a stimulant. This aspect of the question has been 
further treated by Mr. E, A. Mann, Analyst to the Government of 
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