in the Year 1 8 35, in reference to the Physiology of Plants. 165 



benzoic acid; and M. Landerer* extracted from the roots of 

 Inula Helenium scales similar to sebacic acid, which possessed 

 a pearly lustre, were soluble only in Aether and caustic potash, 

 and devoid of smell and taste; the solution acted as an acid. 

 Dumas describes a similar crystalline formation, which could 

 be seen with the naked eye in the form of warty excrescences 

 in the interior of the above-mentioned rootf? which consisted 

 ofC 7 H 9 0. 



Prussic acid was found by ProctorJ in the bark of Prunus 

 virginiana, and by O. Henry § in the sap of the root of 

 Jatropha Manihot, or at least, as in most cases, a radical from 

 which it might be formed. 



Between these azotic acids and the alkaloids must be 

 placed, on account of their containing nitrogen a division 

 of vegetable formative parts, which for this reason have 

 been termed indifferent, and among which many substances 

 too little known have been classed : the following however have 

 found their right place. Emetine may, according to Lan- 

 derer ||, be prepared in small white cubical crystals, the solu- 

 tion of which acts as an alkali and is precipitated by tincture 

 of galls ; it must for this reason take its place in the following 

 division, the alkaloids. The microscopico-chemical experi- 

 ments on the pollen by M. Fritschef have further shown that 

 the Pollenin of authors deserves no place amongst the proper 

 vegetable formative parts, being unaltered pollen, from the 

 epidermis of which several soluble substances were extracted 

 by means of various solvents, while the contents remained un- 

 changed. He made his experiments with the pollen of Corylus 

 Avellana. What was formerly described in this division under 

 the name of Asparagin is, according to the experiments of 

 MM. Wittstock, Regimbeau**, and Schmidt ff, confirmed to 

 be aspartate of ammonia, and is not contained as such in 

 the roots of Althaea officinalis, nor in the young sprouts of 

 Asparagus officinalis or acutifolius, but is a product of decom- 

 position. The latter found this salt in the sap of the leaves 

 of Atropa belladonna which had been evaporated to consist- 

 ence. The bitter substance from Cetraria islandica may be 

 justly considered to belong to this division. Rigatellijj: has 

 described a method of preparing this new substance in cry- 



• Buchn. Repert. y vol. xlix. p. 275. 



f Journ. de Chimie Med. June 1835. J /bid., 18.34. 



§ Journ. de Pharm., 1834. Nov. |j Buchn. ReperL, vol. Hi. 



% PoggendorfF, Annalen, vol. xxxii. n. 31. 



** Journ. de Pharmacie, 1834. November. 



ft Anna/, der Pharm., vol. xii. 



XX Gazetta eclett. di Farmacia, 1835. Nov. 11 et 12. 



