ON ALUMINIUM IN THE ASHES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 365 



water into hull and cotyledons, the two carefully separated and then 

 dried on filter paper in the sun. The rice (hulled),* barley, millet, 

 and buckwheat were also picked over and were then bruised in an iron 

 mortar, winnowed, washed and rubbed on a sieve until the water 

 passing through showed scarcely any turbidity, and then dried on 

 sheets of paper in the sun. 



The calcination w^as carried out in large platinum dishes, one 

 hundred grams at a time, and in most cases several hundred grams of 

 the prepared sample were burnt, and the ashes mixed and ground 

 together in an agate mortar. 



The peas, beans, and buckwheat were calcined from first to last 

 over the lamp. Ilice, wheat, and the rest, being more difficult to 

 calcine, the samples were charred and partially burned over the lamp, 

 and then the dish transferred to a capacious blind muflle to complete 

 the calcination. The mufiie was kept nearly closed and at as a low 

 temperature as possible. It was of clay, but well seasoned by work, 

 and the dishes were always removed when charcoal had to be added 

 to the fire, or when the muffle was heating in the morning and cooling 

 at night, and every other care and 'watchfulness taken that no con- 

 tamination with clay or charcoal ash should occur. Generally the 

 calcination was effected with but little fusion of the ash. The 

 prepared ash was boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid and evaporated 

 to full dryness, again treated with dilute hydrochloric acid and 

 filtered through ashless paper. The residue washed and calcined was 

 weighed. 



The filtrate nearly neutralised and mixed with sodium acetate, 

 was boiled and filtered through ashless paper and the precipitate 



* Even the best hulled ric9 of commerce, has iu this country, adhering to it some of the 

 dust which had been employed iu polishiug the grains after hulling, and rendering them trans- 

 lucent. This dust or powder is Bôshû saud, a white tufa containing 10 — 12 per cent, of alumina. 



