Benzoic Acid. — Cranberries. 73 



may probably have arisen from a slight impurity in tbe hy- 

 drogen, or from some minute unperceived bubbles of air en- 

 tangled in the mercury. 



" Another mixture of common air and hydrogen, in which 

 the latter was in considerable excess, was deprived of its oxy- 

 gen by the pellets, and when the absorption was complete, 38 

 measures of the residual gas were taken, and a fresh pellet, 

 heated to redness, immediately before it was used, passed up. 

 After standing about a quarter of an hour, no absorption had 

 taken place. The tube and the mercury were then placed be- 

 fore the fire, till the whole apparatus was too hot to be touched 

 with the naked hand. It was then removed from the fire, and, 

 when cooled to its original temperature, the mixture occupied, 

 as before, exactly 38 measures. The powder of platina with 

 hydrogen seems, therefore, to be admirably calculated foreudio- 

 metrical purposes. Its application is extremely simple and 

 easy ; it is speedy in its eifect, and no error need be appre- 

 hended from the formation of ammonia, even at considerably 

 elevated temperatures. It appears also to be well calculated 

 for ascertaining the purity of simple gases, at least as far as 

 regards admixture of atmospheric air. The oxygen of a very 

 minute portion of common air, mixed with carbonic acid gas, 

 and a little hydrogen, was immediately absorbed, on passing 

 up one of the little pellets to the mixture." 



BENZOIC ACID IN THE RIPE FRUIT OF THE CLOVE TREE. 



The clove is the flower bud of the Eugenia caryophyllata, 

 and the ripe fruit was formerly used in medicine under the 

 name of Antophylli. In the latter, Mr. W. Bollaert has ob- 

 served crystals of benzoic acid lining the cavity between the 

 shell and the kernel. — Quart. Journ. of Science, vol. xvi. p. 378. 



CRANBERRIES. 



A correspondent who has read Mr. Milne's paper on the 

 Cultivation of the English Cranberry, printed in Phil. Mag. 

 vol. lxii. p. 382, from the Horticultural Transactions, wishes to 

 be informed if the Cranberries which are said to be sold in such 

 large quantities in the town of Langtown, in Cumberland, be 

 really the fruit of the Oxycoccus palusir is, or Vaccinium Oxycoccus 

 of Linnueus. He suspects otherwise, because he has ascertained 

 beyond a doubt, that what are commonly called Cranberries in 

 Scotland, are the fruit of the Vaccinium Vitis-idcca, or Cran- 

 berry, which is a much more common plant than the Oxycoccus, 

 and is in the opinion of many persons not less worthy of cul- 

 tivation. 



Vol. 63. No. 309. Jan. 182 1. K thunberg's 



