178 Keegan : The Chemistry of some Common Plants. 



a brown-red colour. There was also some mucilage, reserve 

 starch, and a considerable quantity of oxalate of calcium. 

 The ash amounted to 6 per cent., and had 25.7 per cent, soluble 

 salts, 20.3 hme, 5.3 P-O*^, 3.8 SO^ and 4 chlorine. There was 

 no soluble carbonate, but considerable manganese and iron. 

 It will be observed that the above analysis recalls that of the 

 more developed composite . It has been averred with regard 

 to the flowers of this species that ' we have few other blossoms 

 of that strength of tint.' A chemical examination thereof, 

 however, reveals that the peculiarly deep colour arises neither 

 from the amount, nor from a special development of the pig- 

 ment. In fact, the chromogen is very far from being fully 

 converted into the appropriate visible colour which it is fitted 

 to produce, and the latter as regards brilliancy, purity and 

 development is far inferior to that of the petals of the Knap- 

 weed, so frequently a co-tenant of the autumn waste. 



Cow-Parsnip {Heracleum Sphondylium) — This plant is con- 

 spicuous in shady places, under walls in fields, etc. The roots 

 are verj- tough and fibrous, and contain much starch, some 

 glucose, and a j^ellow acrid resin yielding a deep brown coloura- 

 tion when treated with sulphuric acid ; there is no tannin. 

 The leaves in mid August contained 1.7 per cent, of a mixture 

 of a little carotin, wax with much chlorophyll, and a resin 

 dissolving in sulphuric with a deep brown colour. The alco- 

 holic extract was highly chlorophyllous, and had a tannoid 

 yielding vivid yellows with alkalis, etc., also there was some 

 cane-sugar, and a resin which was coloured green by alcoholic 

 HCl. There was also considerable mucilage, and much 

 oxalate of calcium, but no reserve starch. The ash amounted 

 to 10.5 per cent., and contained 26 per cent, soluble salts, 

 2 silica, 27.4 lime, 11. 3 magnesia, 5 P^O^, and 2.5 chlorine. 

 With the exception of the large affluence of chlorophyll, there 

 is nothing specially interesting in this analysis. The process 

 of deassimilation has advanced to the tannoid stage merely, 

 but there is decided evidence of a great migration of albu- 

 menoids. The fruit yields a volatile oil which is mainly acetate 

 of octyl C^H^O^, there is also a resin and an acrid principle 

 similar to that in the roots. 



Willow Herb [Epilohium montaniim) — This plant, how- 

 ever pestiferous in cultivated ground, is in many ways one of 

 the most scientifically interesting of our common plants. The 

 wonderful vitality of its root parts, the prohfic production of 



Naturalist,. 



