PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 383 
REMARKS ON THE ABOVE TABLE. 
1. Ceratopetalum gums yield, on treatment with cold water, a 
residue which consists almost entirely of phlobaphenes and 
metarabin. That the greater portion of it consists of phlobaphenes 
is proved by the facility with which continued boiling with water 
converts it into an equal weight of tannic acid. In fact, if the 
gums of this genus were boiled with water to begin with, the 
percentage of tannic acid returned would be between forty 
and fifty per cent. in each case. (Actual experiments gave 
C. gummuiperum, 49°78; C. apfetalum, 41:14). 
2. The difficulties surrounding the separation of a mixture of 
phlobaphenes, insoluble in alcohol, and metarabin, are very great, 
and my attempts in this direction have not been entirely “satis- 
factory. I, therefore, have no recourse but to state the result as 
I have done. But from my experiments in converting the 
phlobaphenes into tannic acid, the metarabin into arabin, and by 
observing the physical appearance in water and in alcohol of the 
original mixture, and other tentative methods, I estimate the 
percentage of metarabin to be about eight to ten per cent. in 
each case. 
4.—ON THE COMPOSITION OF LUCERNE 
(Medicago sativa). 
By Wm. M. Douerry, Assistant Government Analyst, New 
South Wales. 
Lucerne, purple medick or alfolfa, now very extensively grown 
in Eastern Australia as a fodder plant, is of great antiquity, and 
well known in Europe and Asia. 
“The Romans brought it, 470 years before the Christian era, 
from Media, hence ie generic name (A. de Candolle). <A 
perennial fodder-herb of great importance, and largely utilised in 
most countries with a temperate clime. . . . Lucerne 
keeps green and fresh in the hottest season of the. year, even in 
dry and comparatively barren ground, and on coast sands, but 
developes itself for field-culture with the greatest vigour on river- 
banks, or when subjected to a judicious system of irrigation, 
particularly in soil rich in lime. . . . One of the most 
valuable of green fodders, but less suited for hay, as the leaves 
so readily drop off. . . . Itis also an important honey plant 
for bees.” 
Analysis of the Fresh Plant. 
The analysis was made on good fresh specimens, obtained in 
the spring of the present year (1889) from the estate of Robert 
Scobie, Esq., M.L.A., of Maitland, Hunter River district, New 
South Wales. 
