GRASS-TREE (so called from the grass-like foliage), Xanthorrhcea. A genus of the natural order Juncacen, natives of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, which constitute a very pe culiar feature in the vegetation of that part of the world. There are six or eight species, of which the widest known are Xanthorrhcea ar borea, Xanthorrhcea pumilo, Xanthorrhcea Tate ana, and Xanthorrhcea hastilis. They have upright stems, which bear tufts of long narrow foliage at the summit, somewhat resembling small yuccas; a long cylindrical spike of densely aggregated flowers surmounts the centre of the tuft of leaves. The base of the inner leaves of some species is edible, and forms, particularly when roasted, an agreeable article of food. The centres contain as much as 5 per cent. of sugar, which has been utilized to some extent. All the species abound in a resinous juice, which, on exposure to air, hardens into a reddish-yellow, inodorous sub stance, with a shining fracture, soluble in alcohol.
and useful as a tonic in dysentery, diarrhoea, and other intestinal maladies; used also by the na tives of Australia for uniting the edges of wounds, and with a' clayey earth for calking their canoes, and as a cement for various pur poses. This substance, usually called grass-tree gum, burns brightly, and has been used for can dles. If treated with nitric acid, it is almost completely transformed into picric acid, and it was thus employed before the process of making picric from carbolic acid had been discovered. Grass-tree gum has also been used for making colored varnishes. The common grass-tree (Xan thorrhoea hastilis) has a stem about four feet high, but sometimes a foot in diameter. It is of very slow growth, and is supposed to be several centuries old when it has reached such dimensions. Several species are found in East ern Australia, where their leaves are used as fodder for all kinds of cattle.