432 ODOROGKAPHIA. 



sp. gr. at 0° C. = 0-9388 ; refractive indices at 24.^, n = 1-4614 for 

 X 645, and n = 1-4758 for X 452-6. AVhen heated with alcchoHc 

 potash, this acetate rapidly hydrolises and yields pure geraniol, a 

 colourless, slightly oily liquid, with a fine odour ; it hoils at 

 126^^-127*^ under a pressure of 16 ni. m. : sp. gr. at 0^ = 

 9012 ; refractive indices at 24^, » = 1-4750 for \ 645 

 and n = 1-4904 for \ 452-6. Treated with dry hydrochloric 

 acid gas the geraniol gave a liquid dichlorhydrate C^^ H^^gO.^,, 

 boilino- at 142^-143^, and this decomposed by means of a boihng 

 acetic solution of potassium acetate, formed dipentene. Geraniol 

 is therefore regarded by Barbier as presenting itself as the 

 stable stereo-chemical modification, its passage through the acetic 

 combination resulting in no isomeric change, but only in the 

 purification of the compound. With regard to Bouchardat's claim 

 to have transformed linalool into geraniol, Barbier points out that 

 if linalool is identical with licareol, as the former asserts, the 

 products of the reaction described must be licarhodol and not 

 geraniol, these two alcohols being totally different both in their 

 constitution and properties. Judging from Bouchardat's results, he 

 is of opinion that the linalool of oil of spike is nothing but an 

 unstable stereo-isomeric modification of geraniol, playing the same 

 role with regard to that as licareol to licarhodol, and thus 

 confirming and aiding in the generalisation of facts previously 

 submitted. 



A^OL. I., p. 45. 



Indian Geranium. The authors of the " Pharmacographia 

 Indica" (1893) give the following interesting information con- 

 cerning oil of Anflropogcn Schce nan thus : — "The oil distillers 

 in Khandesh call the grass '' Motiya" when the inflorescence 

 is young and of a bluish-white colour ; after it has ripened and 

 become red, it is called " Soiifij/CL" The oil obtained from it 

 in the first condition has a more delicate odour than that obtained 

 from the ripened grass. The motiya oil is usually mixed with 

 the second kind, which, by itself, would not fetch a good price 

 in the European market. (This may to a great extent account 

 for the considerable difference in the quality of the two commercial 

 "grass oils," the so-called geranium oil" and "ginger-grass oil.") 



