1886.] 



NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 



353 



Mordanted cotton fabric was dyed with hsematoxylin, extracted 

 by ether from the Saraca bark, and presented the characteristic 

 logwood dye colors. 



The following is a table of dye wood colors with reagents, 

 yielded by Brazil wood and logwood :^ 



The extracts of Saraca Indica bark, containing the coloring 

 principle, were tested with these reagents, arid it was observed 

 that the reactions agreed with the hsematoxylin colors, and in no 

 case with those of brasilin. However, the colors produced by 

 different alkalies varied in tints as she had found in both the 

 logwood and Saraca extracts, but the general term " reddish 

 purple solution " is comprehensive. A rose-violet precipitate 

 was yielded by stannous chloride solution with the neutralized 

 acidified extracts of the barks. 



The bark of the logwood-tree is not used for making the com- 

 mercial logwood extracts, the wood of the tree being employed 

 for this purpose. The presence of a small quantitj^ of hsema- 

 toxylin was determined in the specimens of logwood-bark which 

 she examined, and with the bark extracts the same reactions with 

 reagents were obtained as with the logwood extracts, but owing 

 to the smaller percentage of dye in the bark the colors were less 

 intense. In the case of the Saraca Indica bark the colors were 

 very brilliant and indicated the presence of a larger proportion of 

 the coloring matter than in the logwood bark. These results 

 should encourage investigators to secure specimens of the wood 

 of the Saraca^ in order to determine if it contains the coloring 

 principle, and should this be ascertained affirmatively, whether it 

 exists in sufficiently large quantities to warrant its introduction 

 as a new source of this commercial product. 



To exhibit the colors produced by alkalies upon the dye from 



1 S. P. Sadtler and Wm. L. Rowland, Am. Jour, of Phar., Feb., 1881. 

 24 



