364 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO PLANT-CHEMISTRY. 
SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO PLANT-CHEMISTRY. 
Br A. H. Cuunrcu. 
(Continued from Vol. V., New Series, p. 75.) 
Coleus Verschaffeltii,—The red colouring matter of this plant 
has ie made the subject of a long continued investigation. By 
operating upon large quantities of the stems of the darker varieties of 
1 ient material was obtai 
e 
to which these plants owe so much oftheir beauty. To the colouring 
matter when pure I have given the provisional name of colein, 
although I am inclined to think that it is identical with cenolin, 
from red wine, as well as with the substances anthocyan, ariel 
and cyanin, described by other chemists as extracted from blue and 
urple flowers of many kinds. The properties of colein are fully 
described in the Chemical Society’s Journal for 1877.* The following 
is a highly condensed account of this substance. 
-  Colein occurs abundantly in the dark parts of the stem of the 
urs n 
lant. It in the e , and also in the parenchyma 
of the pith, but not in the fibro-vase dies nor in the cortex. 
i u ng and weak alcohol; insoluble inether. I 
the colour returns. Pure colein occurs as an amorphous reddish-purple 
resinous mass, fusible in hot water, though but slightly dissolved 
thereby. Acids redden a solution of colein ; alkalies turn it violet, 
lead, bariu 
tin, platinum, and other metals. It is pr obably fe chief colouring 
matter of the 2 majority of sa purple, blue, and violet: coloured flow: 
Iti is, , however, | perfectly distinct from the colouring matter of the 
‘leaves and root of the eet. I am in hopes of being able to deter- 
mine its relation to other vegetable colouring matters, such as chloro- 
y es curcumin. 
raxinus excelsior.—A supply of ae was obtained as they 
fell (lightly withered) from the tree in May, 1876. A determination 
of water would have been unsatisfactory, owing to the incipient drying 
of the sample, the results of the analysis are therefore calculated on 
the perf dry samp. 
Per cent. 
Witeogt coe and oe ° 87°63 
Nitro s 4°37 
Pitek . : . ‘ 3°15 
Phosphorus pentoxide : ang. 2°32 
Silica . a ‘ : ‘ trace. 
ime , . ;: ‘ 1-06 
..Y..t.. oe + a 
SUL pi 
} See ee 1- ‘A7 
100°00 
* Vol, i, 1877, pp. 253-262, 
