Hodges — On the Fibre of the Flax Plant. 463 



filtered and the ether distilled off. There remained behind a green- 

 ish mass consisting of wax and essential oil. The latter was dis- 

 tilled off, and, on being submitted to fractional distillation, it proved 

 to be largely contaminated with alcohol from the ether. The oil 

 proper, which had a yellow colour, boiled at 85-100° C, and had 

 an extremely disagreeable acrid smell. Though very large quan- 

 tities of flax were at different times extracted, the quantity of this 

 essential oil which was obtained was too small to prepare a product 

 of constant boiling point for analysis. Though, other workers on. 

 flax have mentioned the existence of this oil, none of them have ever 

 given its boiling point, nor indeed separated it from the other mat- 

 ters extracted with it. I hope, before the conclusion of this investi- 

 gation, to succeed in obtaining a sufficient quantity to enable me to 

 fully study its character. In order to purify the white-coloured sub- 

 stance, it was dissolved repeatedly in hot alcohol, filtered while hot 

 through a hot water funnel, and precipitated by cooling. By this 

 means it could be separated almost entirely from chlorophyll, of which, 

 there was a very large quantity, and from a brown resinous substance 

 very difficult to dissolve, which deposited at the bottom of the vessel, 

 and solidified on cooling ; of this substance there were traces to be seen 

 even after ten repetitions of this operation. By long continued wash- 

 ing with cold ether, and drawing off with a pipette, at last a loose 

 mass was obtained, showing a very slight greenish-yellow colour. 

 Dried over sulphuric acid, it melted at 78° C, already at 74° C. it was 

 partially liquefied. The solidification took place at 72° C. This proves 

 that it was still a mixture of several substances, an opinion which. 

 is confirmed by the results of saponification with melting potash. 



Two combustions of the wax (melted and dried at 100° C.) yielded — 



I. — Substance employed, 0-2090 grm. 



CO2 . . . . 0-6060 



H2O 02483 



Pound C, 79-07 per cent., H, 13-19 per cent. 



II. — Substance employed, 0-1685 grm. 



CO, 0-4940 



HoO 0-2042 



Found C, 79-95 per cent., H, 13-46 per cent. 



The following possible ethers correspond to the percentages quoted 

 beside them : — 



Cerotic ceryl ether, ) . or. n< 10 In ^ 



C,,H,300(a,Hj), j ^^1^^^^^ S2-24 13-71 per cent. 



Palmitic ceryl ether, ) 



C16H31OO (Co^Hss), \ " ^^ ^^ l"'^! " 



Palmitic ceryl ether, , ^^.^^ ^^.g. 



Ci6H,iOO(C,oH33), 



J 



