i60 Chemical Examination of the Pollen 



rated a strong smell of ammonia from it j this soap waj 

 therefore of an ammoniacal nature. 



Thirtv-two gran)mes of pollen, which had fermented as 

 above described, submitted tn distillation, furnished at first 

 a white liquid which giadually became coloured ; some time 

 afterwards there passed over a red fetid oil, and some car- 

 bonate of ammonia, one part of which was crystallized upon 

 the sides of the receiver, and another remained in solution 

 in the liquor. A portion of the oil was in the state of am- 

 moniacal soap ; for the acids separated a great quantity of 

 this oil from the filtered liquor. 



There remained in the retort a voluminous charcoal shining 

 and difficult to burn: after some time, however, and with 

 a sufficient heat, we reduced it entirely to a white cinder, 

 which was dissolved completely, and without effervescence, 

 in the nitric acid, from which it was afterwards precipitated 

 by ammonia. This precipitate, washed and dried, weighed 

 0'36 parts of a gramme ; it was phosphate of lime. Wc 

 must conclude from this latter fact, that the quantity of 

 malic acid existing in the pollen of the date tree is not suf- 

 ficient to render soluble the whole of the phosphate of lime 

 contained in it, and that in spite of the manifold washings 

 which this pollen had undergone, there remained a portion 

 of the calcareous salt which the incineration had developed. 

 Thus the pollen contains a greater quantity of phosphate of 

 Jime than that which has been announced above, 



§ IX. Treaiment of the unwashed Pollen with Acids. 



^/V o'raintne of unwashed pollen put into muriatic acid 

 cold, seemed at first as if combined with it and dissolved : 

 eic'ht days afterwards the filtered liquor had a greenish yel- 

 Jow colour, as well as the undissolved pollen. This liquor 

 t)ecan>e very yellow with ammonia, and deposited a powder 

 of the same colour. This experinient proves that the pollen 

 takes with irinriatjc acid a deeper yellow colour than it has 

 naturally, and that a portion of this substance is dis- 

 gpjyed in the muriatic acid, sinpe ammonia separates a co- 

 loured 



