270 T'ransactions.— Chemistry. 
cellulose did not acquire any colour by treatment with ammonia, but chlorine 
water followed by ammonia water did stain it pink. When this fibre, so 
treated (with nitric acid and potassium chlorate) was further acted on by 
means of water at a temperature of 150? centigrade for four hours, it gave а 
yellow acid liquid, and lost a considerable portion of its weight. And yet, 
after this second and most severe purification, the residual cellulose still gave 
the characteristic pink colour after a few minutes’ soaking in chlorine water 
and the subsequent application of ammonia. It is impossible to regard the 
substance susceptible of the colour-change as other than a transformation- 
product of the very substance of the fibre itself. 
9nd. Experiment on the Pink Colowration, etc. 
A similar purified sample of Phormium fibre, but in the preparation of 
which the acid and alkali method had been employed, gave a dark red-brown 
colouration with chlorine water followed by ammonia, ` 
Miscellaneous Observations on Phormium Fibre and the Fresh Plant itself. 
Some experiments on the action of an ammoniacal solution of copper upon 
the constituents of the fibre were made with the hope of gaining some further 
insight into the cellulosic constituents of Phormium. The results were not 
accordant with each other, nor with the deductions from the results of other 
methods of analysis. It was found that the above-named re-agent dissolved 
out only 21 per cent. of cellulose from a fair sample of machine dressed 
Phormium fibre, but that it extracted no less than 40 per cent. of cellulose 
from a sample of the same fibre which had been treated with nitric acid and 
potassium chlorate. Thus it appeared that this latter treatment opened up the 
fibre to the more complete penetration and solvent action of the ammoniacal 
copper solution. In another experiment the residue of the action of oil of 
vitriol upon a sample of Phormium fibre was submitted to the action of the 
re-agent for cellulose. In this ease the presence of some cellulose was also 
indicated, although the previous treatment with sulphuric acid (of sp. gr. 1:53) 
should have removed it altogether. 
It is difficult to effect a complete separation of the various soluble 
constituents of the Phormium plant by means of precipitation with basic lead- 
acetate, as described in $ 1 of this report. The following table gives some idea 
of the partial separations thus effected :— 
Lead precipitate contains pyrocatechin Filtrate from lead precipitate contains 
and acids, a little bitter principle on much sugar and much bitter principle 
agitation with ether. on agitation with ether. 
<. a UE SOO s uo 
The residue contains | The ethereal solu- The residue contains | The ethereal solution 
the acids. e of the | he  bit- 
tion contains traces | the whol e| contains t 
of the bitter princi- | sugar. r principle nearly 
ple and resin. ure, 
