<hw>Red Gum</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) A tree. See <i>Gum</i>. The two words are frequently made one with the accent on the first syllable; compare <i>Blue-gum</i>.
(2) A medicinal drug. An exudation from the bark of <i>Eucalyptus rostrata</i>, Schlecht, and other trees; see quotation, 1793. Sir Ranald Martin introduced it into European medical practice.
177 J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 178:
"At the heart they [the trees] are full of veins, through which an amazing quantity of an astringent red gum issues. This gum I have found very serviceable in an obstinate dysentery."
Ibid. p. 233:
"A very powerfully astringent gum-resin, of a red colour, much resembling that known in the shops as Kino, and, for all medical purposes, fully as efficacious."
1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' p. 10:
"This, Mr. White informs us, is one of the trees (for there are several, it seems, besides the <i>Eucalyptus resinifera</i>, mentioned in his Voyage, p. 231) which produce the red gum."
[The tree is <i>Ceratopetalum gummiferum</i>, Smith, called by him <i>Three-leaved Red-gum Tree</i>. It is now called <i>Officer Plant</i> or <i>Christmas-bush</i> (q.v.).]
1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 42: