210 RUBIACEA: 
trinitrophenol. It was noticed in making this experiment, — 
that at the moment the gardenin came in- contact with the 
nitric acid, it assumed a brilliant crimson colour before dis- 
solving. The attempts made to isolate the red substance thus — 
formed were ultimately successful; one part of gardenin was 
dissolved in about thirty times its weight of boiling glacial 
acetic acid, and after being rapidly cooled two parts of nitric — 
acid of sp. gr. 1°45 were added to the clear solution. In a 
few seconds hair-like crimson needles began to form, very 
different in appearance from gardenin. At the expiration of | 
five minates, the mixture, which was kept cold, had solidified 
toa pulp of needles. It was then mixed with about 150 parts 
of cold water, and the gelatinous precipitate collected after — x 
it had stood a few minutes. The pasty red mass, after being — 
well washed, was pressed into a cake and dried. Gardenin 
yields nearly 90 per cent. of its weight of this substance, which 
is insoluble in water and dilute avids, but readily soluble in 
alkaline solutions, and reprecipitated on the addition of an 
acid. It has been provisionally named gardenic acid. It is 
spirit, in which it is but very slightly soluble, and crystalliz- 
ation from glacial acetic acid, it was found to melt at about 
236°. (Phar. Jour. and Trans., July 21st, 1877.) = 
Commerce.—Dikaméli is collected by hand, the leaf bud with 
the drop of resin attached to it being broken off. It is some- 
times made into circular cakes of about a pound weight; @ 
other times it occurs in large irregular masses, often very 
impure. Value, Rs. 8-12 per maund of 37% lbs. 
a small thorny shrub 
of the Western Peninsula and Ceylon, called Kirnt in Marat 
leave | is prescribed in 
stages of flux, and the last is supposed to have anthelmi 
qualities, though neither have much sensible taste ors) 
 . Mat. Ind. ti., 63.) ‘This shrub is best known for its 
