1 Ocr., 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 285 
ANALYSIS OF MILKY JUICE FROM EXC_LUCARIA DALLACHYANA. 
The juice received for analysis has been kept for some time, was slightly 
decomposed, having a strong smell and slight acid reaction. 
Specific gravity at 15° C. = 1°0578. 
The milk contained: Water... ay 61°65 per cent. 
(Soluble in Naphtha: Caoutchouc, fe. = 19 61 ii 
Total Solids: | y Ether: resins " = i 
36°34 per cent. } Alcohol: tannin, &c. =) 6:52 rn 
Ash: i Water: Potash salts and 
157 per cent. | organic acids 4 OY, 7 
{Insoluble in water: Albuminoids = 6°54 a 
Undetermined and Loss = Diy + 
10000, 
Remarks.—The milk could not be coagulated by leaving it exposed to the air, 
adding water, salt, or sal-ammonia solution. When heating and evaporating a yellow 
sticky mass, soon becoming browner when exposed to the air, which had the properties 
of true caoutchouc. : 
I may add that in many places where caoutchoue is produced certain trees 
(Kickxia and Landolphia) produce milk which does not coagulate, but does so readily 
and produces an excellent caoutchouc when mixed with the milk from trees of other 
species. ts 
J. C. BRUNNICH, Agricultural Chemist. 
Popular Botany. 
OUR BOTANIC GARDENS. 
No. 7. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator. 
Crosr by the position where we left off in our last chat you will note repre- 
sentatives of a somewhat peculiar group of plants. These are the 
Macrozamias, Cycads, and Zamias, representing the order of plants known to 
botanists as Cycadacee. ‘They are only found in Australia and South. 
America, but at one period in the history of this earth of ours they formed-a 
very large proportion of its vegetation. A glance at the history of the advent 
of the different forms of vegetable life will prove interesting, and we may 
learn from it to view the great divisions of the Vegetable Kingdom with a new, 
more comprehensive, and more intelligent interest. 
First, the earth was “ without form and void,” and in the rocks of that 
far-away time there is found no trace of life, no tracing of leaf or stem, nor 
track of bird or lizard. ‘ Darkness was upon the face of the deep.” _ 
A little time passed—some few millions of years; a mere raindrop in 
the ocean of Hternity—and then, to use the words of the most beautiful of 
Records, ‘The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.” Here in the 
limestone we first find life—tiny plants, nematophyts and rhizocarps, the mere 
beginning of organised plants, consisting mainly of single or slightly branched 
cells, flowerless, and living in the water. The animals of the time were what 
are called zoophytes. They had no eyes; they were not required, for it 
was still dark. But the fiat went forth, “ Let there be light,’ and then 
in the rocks we begin to find relics of animals, allied to our lobsters, 
with eyes; and a little later two families of light-loving plants began 
