44 KEEGAN : THE CHEMISTRY OF SOME COMMON PLANTS. 
the Dandelion, to which its diuretic, tonic, and stomachic effects 
due, is called taraxacin, and is crystalline, neutral, and non-volatil 
it is soluble in hot water, and sulphuric acid dissolves it with a pi 
coloration. The root contains inulin, especially in the autum 
by yielding protocatechuic acid only when fused with caustic alka 
he red pigment of the stem and leaf stalk is identical with antho- 
cyan (isomorin), and all the tannin in this part of the plant see 
used up in its production. y 
Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia). Save for the stainless 
azure blue of the corolla, nobody would imagine that a meddling 
chemist could make anything out of this lean and wiry herb. Its 
analysis, however, proves rather a surprise ; for it contains a very 
considerable quantity of resin, wax, and fat. There is also a tanniD 
similar to that which prevails in the allied order Composite ; al 
a bitter or acrid principle which is not a phloroglucide, and yiel 
fine reactions with strong mineral acids. Mucilage and sugar ay 
‘etc., in not yielding coloured anhydrides, and also indicate a nice 
balancing of the acids and bases present in the sap of the petal cells. 
strongly coloured pigments as phlobaphenes and humus matter with 
much mucilage abound in the tissues. In early summer quinic acié 
and quercetin are present in notable quantity, while later on an easily 
oxidisable tannin predominates which is very similar to that of t 
horse-chestnut bark, yielding anhydrides, phlobaphenes, and colo 
matters readily. This tannin, when fused with potash, yi 
protocatechuic acid and phloroglucin, whereas the latter body is ® 
‘obtained from the tannins of the higher plants we have hithe 
Na 
