eg 
APOCYNAOEA. 409 
nut, light brown in colour, and triangular, with a deep groove 
along the edge corresponding to the base of the triangle; each 
nut contains two pale yellow, slightly winged seeds. The seeds 
and the inner layer of the bark give, when boiled with hydro- 
chloric acid, a deep blue or bluish-green colour. 
Chemical composition.—De Vrij has obtained from the ker=- 
nels of the seeds from 35°5 to 41 per cent. by expression and 
57 per cent. with benzol ofa limpid almost colourless oil. 
The oil had an agreeable mild taste like that of fresh almond 
oil; its density: at 25° C. was 0°9148, and at that temperature 
it was perfectly liquid and transparent, at 15° C. it became 
_ pasty, and at 13° C. entirely solid. Oudemans found it to con- 
sist of 63 per cent. triolein and 27 per cent. tripalmitin and 
tristearin. After expression of the oil De Vrij obtained from 
_the cake about 4 per cent. of a beautiful crystallised white 
_ glucoside, to which he gave the name of Thevetin. A solution 
f 
10 cubic centimetres yielded in the polarimeter a levogyre 
nr With concentrated sulphuric acid thevetin 
‘lds a clear, dark yellow liquid, which by exposure to the air 
ssumes after a few minutes a beautiful purple colour. This 
colour disappears after some time under separation of a floceu~ 
lent matter. Nitric acid yields no reaction with thevetin at 
the ordinary temperature. De Vrij has also found thevetin 
in the bark of the shrub. (Fora further account of thevetin 
_ theveresin, see a paper by Dr. Blas in the Transactions of 
, Académie des Sciences de Belgique (3) 2, No. 9—.) 
arden has described a principle contained in the seeds which 
led pseudo-indican, and which affords a blue coloration 
| hydrochloric acid: -he points out that this reaction might 
tilized in toxicological investigations. (Pharm. Journ., Nov. 
-) In another communication to the same journal, he. 
s to the presence of a second toxic principle in the — 
which he considers to pomens meats N toxic DOM 
