OS CALAOttAtA RCOT. |£jJ 



as indicating the precise value of the first, instead of the 

 sign + or — , which is sometimes annexed for the like' 



purpose. 



W. K. 



XIII. 



Examination of the Root o/Calaguala : by Mr. VauqueliK*. 



JL HIS root has a brown colour and a wrinkled surfacejn External ap» 

 consequence of dessication. In some parts it is covered P e *rance* 

 with scales like those found on the roots of common ferns. 

 It is hard, coriaceous, and difficult to powder. It appears 

 to be the root of a species of polypody. 



Exp. I. Thirty grammes (463 grains) of this root coarsely Digested in 

 powdered were digested in three hundred grammes of dis- water « 

 tilled water for forty eight hours. The water acquired very 

 little colour, but it had a degree of consistence and unctu- 

 osity, so that it would not easily pass the filter. Its taste 

 was slightly saccharine. 



The infusion having been mixed with different reagents, Action of re- 

 the following effects were produced in it. agents on.tfw 



1. By alcohol was thrown down a yellowish white floccu- 

 lent precipitate. 



2. With sulphate of iron it assumed a blueish green 

 colour, but without any perceptible precipitation. 



3. With acetite of lead a very copious yeilowibh white pre- 

 cipitate was produced. 



4. Oxalate of ammonia occasioned a very light precipitate 

 in it. 



5. No precipitate occurred on the addition of nitrate of 

 barytes, infusion of galls, or solution of animal gelatine. 



6. Lastly it was slightly reddened by infusion of litmus. 



The effect of alcohol teaches us, that it contains a mucous inference* 

 substance : that of sulphate of iron, that it contains a resin from thae 

 similar to those of cinchona, of rhubarb, &c. : that acetite * * 

 *f lead indicates an acid, which may perhaps be the malic : j 



♦ ■Annates tfe Cfcimie, vol, LV, p. 2?. 



of 



