250 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 



ethereal oils, alkaloids, piperin, white resin, and malic acid. 

 Datisca cannabina l contains a coloring- matter and another 

 substance peculiar to itself, datiscin, a kind of starch, or allied 

 to the glucosides. 



Upon the same evolutionary plane among the monocotyle- 

 dons, the dates and palms 2 contain in large quantities spe- 

 cial starches, and this is in harmony with the principles of the 

 theory. Alkaloids and glucosides have not as yet been dis- 

 covered in them. 



Other monocotyledonous groups with simplicity of floral 

 elements, such as the Typhaceae, contain large quantities of 

 starch; in the case of Typha latifolia, 3 12.5 per cent., and 1.5 

 per cent gum. In the pollen of this same plant, 2.08 per cent 

 starch has been found. 



Under the dicotyledonous groups there are no plants with 

 simplicity of floral elements. 



Returning, now, to apetalous plants of multiplicity and sim- 

 plification of floral elements, we find that the Urticaceae 4 con- 

 tain free formic acid; the hemp 5 contains alkaloids; the hop, 6 

 ethereal oil and resin; the rhubarb, 7 crysophonic acid; and 

 the begonias, 8 chicarin and lapacho dyes. The highest apetal- 

 ous plants contain camphors and oils. The highest of the 

 monocotyledons contain a mucilage and oils; and the highest 

 dicotyledons contain oils and special acids. 



The trees yielding common camphor and Borneol are from 

 genera of the Lauraceae family; also sassafras camphor is from 

 the same family. Small quantities of Stereoptenes are widely 

 distributed through the plant kingdom. 



The Gramineae, or grasses, are especially characterized by 



1 Braconnot, Ann. Chim. Phys., II, iii, 277. Stenhouse, Ann. Chim. 

 Pharm., CXCVIII, 166. 



Pftanzenstoffe, p. 412. 



Lecocq, Braconnot, Pharmacog. Pftan., p. 693. 



Gorup-Besanez. 



Siebold and Brodbury, Phar. Jour. Trans., Ill, 590, 1881, 326. 



Wagner, Jour. Prakt. Chem., Iviii, 352. E. Peters, v. Gohren, Jahresb. 

 Agric., viii, 114; ix, 105; v, 58. Am. Jour. Pharm, IV, 49. 



Dragendorff, Pharm. Zeitschr. Russ., xvii, 65-97. 



Boussingault, Ann. Chim. Phys. II, xxvii, 315. Erdmann, Jour. Pract. 

 Chem. Ixxi, 198. 



