[All Rights Reserved.] 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 3.] (1912. 
XI—ALCOHOL. 
J. H. HoLtuanp: 
The greatly extended use of alcohol in various industries has — 
suggested that a review of the sources whence it is obtained might 
be of some value. » 
Ethyl Alcohol is the intoxicating constituent of all fermented 
beverages—cider, wine, beer, &c., and when distilled forms the base 
of all potable spirits, receiving different names according to the 
substance from which it is distilled—brandy from grapes; whisky 
from grain—barley,rye, &c.; gin—plain pith usually grain, flavoured 
e 
“d 
with “Genevrier” (hence the name Geneva) or Juniper berries 
which in 
commercial scale are confined to products of a suitable nature, 
which are available in convenient and sufficiently large quantities. 
These consist of plants that naturally contain sugar in sufficient 
proportion—fruits, sugar-cane, beetroot, &c., or starch, which may be 
converted into sugar by fermentation—potatoes, various kinds of 
grain, roots, &c. Lee 
Methyl Alcohol, Wood Naptha, or Wood Spirit is obtained by 
the dry or destructive distillation of wood, usually, to make the 
business profitable, in combination with the production of charcoal, 
creosote, and various acids. (See § (7) Wood, &c.) 
The plants or parts of plants producing alcohol here enumerated 
include the more important, those of local interest, a few that have 
been suggested as possible sources, and finally the Yeast plant 
which is of fundamental importance in all alcoholic fermentation, 
but does not need further mention here. 
The sources under consideration may be conveniently divided into 
(1) Fruits, (2) Roots, Tuberous-roots, and Root-stocks ; (3) Grain ; . 
(4) Stems ; (5) Leaves ; (6) Inflorescences ; (7) Wood or Woody- 
‘substances; (8) Peat. 
(23204—6a.) Wet. 118—9, 1125, 3/12, Disjs. 
