1 56 J. C Marquart's Report of the Progress of Phytochemistry 



hence the following composition : 



1 Sugar = 171 = 46*72 



2CaO + 2HO = 74 = 20*22 



PIO+HO = 121 = 33*06 



366 100. 



Baryta and Strontia Saccharates.— By agitating a syrup 

 with either of the hydrates of these earths, and then with the 

 oxides of copper, iron, or lead, we obtain solutions which 

 behave very much the same as the calcareous saccharates. 



Potassa and Soda Saccharates. — When either of the fixed 

 alkalies are united with sugar in their atomic proportions, we 

 obtain solutions which dissolve the hydrated oxides, but which 

 triple solutions continue soluble at 212°, though a further ad- 

 dition of free sugar causes a precipitation of protoxide when 

 the solution of copper is heated. 



Loftus near Guisborough, May 21, 1837. Louis Hunton. 



XIX. A Report of the Progress of Phytochemistry in the year 

 1835, in reference to the Physiology of Plants. By J. Cl. 

 Marquart.* 



[Continued from vol. x. p. 252.] 



T EXAMINED with M. F. Nees von Esenbeckf the bloom 

 of the fruit of Benincasa cerifera, which consisted mostly 

 of a whitish wax (66 per cent.), of resin (29 percent.), and of 

 extractive matter (5 per cent.). The first possessed the same 

 properties with regard to solvents as vegetable wax; but was 

 remarkable particularly on account of its high melting point, 

 viz. at 100—120° Reaum. We found as a discriminating 

 character for this wax, by which it may be distinguished from 

 the numerous resins of difficult solution, its reaction with sul- 

 phuric acid in the cold, as it is scarcely coloured by it, or not 

 at all if the wax is very pure. We examined in regard to 

 this the so-called Japanese wax of Rhus succedanea, the wax of 

 Corypha cerifera, and the wax from the seed-lac of Aleurites 

 lacctfera, which corresponded with the bloom of the Benincasa. 

 According to Boussingault^ the composition of the wax-like 

 envelope of Ceroxylon andicola, which entirely covers that 

 palm, often reaching to the height of fifty feet, is the same 



* From Wiegmann's Archivfiir Naturgeschichte, vol. ii. part iv. p. 139 

 et seq. Translated by Mr. Fram is. 

 f Buchn. Repert. y vol. Ii. part 3. 

 J Annates de Chimic et de Physique , May 1835. 



