SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS 281 



pounds in various plants. Our eventual results will form the 

 substance of a future communication." 



The results of the investigations referred to in the above pre- 

 liminary announcement appear in the following paper, entitled 

 "On the Occurrence of Solid Hydrocarbons in Plants," by 

 Helen C. De S. Abbott and Henry Trimble.] 



WHEN many plants of the higher botanical orders are ex- 

 hausted with petroleum-ether, crystalline compounds may be 

 separated from the extracts which have not been noticed previ- 

 ously to these investigations. These compounds are also obtained 

 when alcohol or ether is used as a solvent ; but it is preferable, 

 on account of the greater number of constituents extracted by 

 these menstrua, to employ petroleum- ether, and thus avoid 

 certain difficulties of separation. Among the plants in which 

 up to this time these compounds have been discovered may 

 be mentioned Cascara amarga, Phlox Carolina, and the Phlox 

 species, Anthemis nobilis, and in different species of the follow- 

 ing natural orders : Rubiaceae, Rhodoraceae, Eupatoriaceae, and 

 others among the Compositae. 



- The crystals from these petroleum-ether extracts first at- 

 tracted attention in the winter of 1884. Samples of " chichi- 

 pate" bark which yielded, on powdering, about two hundred 

 grams, were then obtained and submitted to chemical ex- 

 amination. This bark was subsequently, from chemical analy- 

 sis, identified as Cascara amarga. 1 



Other investigations prevented the announcement of this 

 work until some time later, under the title of "Preliminary 

 Analysis of a Honduras Plant named ' Chichipate.' " 2 In this 

 paper a new crystalline compound was described and identified 

 by its physical and chemical properties as a "camphor-like 

 body." Its analysis gave the following results : 



I. II. 



C. 80.84 80.90 



H. 10.13 io.li 



1 Journal Franklin Institute, vol. cxxiv, p. i, Abbott. 



2 By Helen C. De S. Abbott. Amer. Assoc. Adv. of Science, Buffalo, Aug., 

 1886. 





