A research on the pines of Australia / by Richard T. Baker and Henry G. Smith.

  • Baker, Richard Thomas, 1854-1941.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A research on the pines of Australia / by Richard T. Baker and Henry G. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/538 page 9
    37- The characteristic structure of the barks shows anatomical features distinctive from that of any other Australian Conifer. 38. The results here recorded further emphasise the great value of these trees for forest cultivation. Being endemic to the Continent, they would provide a splendid supply of soft-wood timber for future use by proper sylviculture. 39. The oil obtained from the latex of A. Cunninghamii contained a hydrocarbon of the C10H20 series, and possibly of the Ci0H18 also. 40. Some of the chemical compounds of this plant are evidently formed, or at any rate the process completed, in the root portion of the tree, as the supply continued after the upper portions of the trees had been cut down. 41. The resin from the latex of A. Cunninghamii closely approaches, in appearance, the sandarac resin from the Cattitris. It consists largely of two acids, one of which is identical with one of the acids in the resin of Agathis robusta. 42. Manganese was present in the latex of A. Cunninghamii and was precipitated by alcohol together with the gum. It changed, however, to the higher oxide on drying the gum precipitate. 43. The gum of the latex closely approaches that of gum-arabic, and differs in some respects from that of A. Bidwilli. 44. The exudation of A. Bidwilli consists almost entirely of a carbohydrate allied to ordinary gum. Although soluble in water, it was rendered quite insoluble by agitation with ordinary ether, a reaction which does not appear to take place with the gum of A. Cunninghamii. 45. Resins and essential oils were almost absent in the exudation of A. Bidwilli. Agathis. 46. That a close botanical alliance exists between the Australian species A. robusta and those of the Pacific Islands and of New Zealand. 47. The microscopical sections of the timber show features which bear some resemblance to those of Araucaria, but yet have some points of difference. 48. The exudation of this tree consists of an oleo-resin, containing some gum, and the essential oil is practically identical with ordinary American oil of turpentine. 49. The exudation also contains a manganese compound precipitated with the gum, and it thus agrees, in this respect, with the latex of Araucaria Cunninghamii. 50. The resin consists principally of two new acids.
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