920 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



extract. The same body appears to be present in H. orientale, 

 H. faetidum, and Statice Bonduelli. 



Passing to tbe fungi, tbe organs of fructification of Peziza aurantia 

 with their yellow disk and lighter outer side, were examined. It 

 was found that the orange colour is due to a new yellow pigment, 

 that has been named pezizin, which is present in the form of extremely 

 minute drops, combined with an oil-like substance that occurs dis- 

 solved in the plasma of the paraphyses. The pigment, which occurs 

 also in P. convexula, may be dissolved out by alcohol or ether. 



Saponin was ascertained to occur in the living roots of Saponaria 

 officinalis and GypsopMla Struthium, dissolved in the cell-sap, from 

 which it can be separated in small amorphous white particles by 

 treatment of thin slices of the root with absolute alcohol or ether. 

 In the dried roots and in quillaia-bark it occurs as an amorphous 

 white or grey substance. By treatment with concentrated sulphuric 

 acid and exposure to air, which gives rise to a yellow, then a bright 

 red, and afterwards a beautiful blue-violet colour, saponin can be 

 detected in the contents of all the cells of the middle bark of Quillaia 

 saponaria. 



Pure Chlorophyll.* — A. Tschirch regards as pure chlorophyll 

 only such as agrees in its spectroscopic properties with the chloro- . 

 phyll of living leaves. This definition will exclude the chlorophyll 

 of chlorophyll tinctures, chloroj)hyllan, alkaline chlorophyll and its 

 derivatives, the blue-green substance obtained by the reduction of 

 phyllocyaninic acid by powdered zinc, and phyllocyanin. Solutions 

 of chlorophyll are of practical value, in consequence of their 

 innocuousness, for colouring articles of food or condiments, but the 

 colour is not very permanent. This is due, in the case of alcoholic 

 extracts, to the vegetable acids being extracted along with the chloro- 

 phyll, which at once cause its transformation into chlorophyllan, or, 

 in the case of the drying of leaves, to the destruction of the proto- 

 plasmic envelope which served to protect it in the living plant. The 

 colour of the chlorophyll can be best preserved unchanged by making 

 an alkaline extract, in which case chlorophyllan is not formed, but 

 chlorophyllinic acid, which combines with the alkali to form a 

 more persistent beautiful emerald green salt, fluorescing a dark 

 blood-red. 



Lime and Magnesia in Plants. | — Observations on plants of 

 Phaseolus midtiflorus, by E. v. Eaumer, show that the functions of 

 lime are connected with the building up of the tissues and the 

 formation of the cell-walls, but that it is not concerned in the 

 formation or transformation of starch. The office of magnesia, on 

 the contrary, is to assist in the starch-forming process, and the 

 development of chlorophyll. Magnesia is always present in the latter, 

 and its presence is necessary to healthy growth and colour. 



* Arch. d. Pharm., xxii. p. 129. See Bot. Oentralbl., xviii. (1884) p. 327. 

 t Bied. Ceiitr., 1884, pp. 46-8. See Journ. Chem. Soc— Abstr., xlvi. (1884) 

 p. 917. 



