196 Richards and Palmer—Antimony Tannate. 
down to the very beginning of the Glacial period, Magnolias 
and Beeches, a true Chestnut, Liquidambar, Elms, and other 
trees now wholly wanting to that side of the ee though 
common both to Japan and to Atlantic North America. ‘* An 
attempted explanation of this extreme paucity of oa usually 
major constituents of forest, along with a great development of 
the minor, or coniferous, element, a take us quite too far, 
and would bring us to mere conjectu 
uch may be attributed to late slesietion ;+ something to the 
tremendous outpours of lava which, immediately before the 
period of refrigeration, deeply covered a very large part of the 
forest area; much to the saciocenees of the forest belt, to the 
want of summer rain, and to the most unequal and precarious 
distribution of that of winter. 
Upon all these oe questions open which we are not pre- 
save to discuss. I have done all that I could hope to do in one 
ecture if I have distinesly shown that the races of trees, like 
the races of ave come down to us through a pre-historic 
vestiges, and remains, and survivals; that for the vegetable 
kingdom also there is a veritable Archeology. 
AxgtT. XVIII.—WNotes on Antimony Tannate; by ELLEN SwAL- 
LOW RICHARDS and ALICE W. PALMER. 
In the course of some work on the determination of tannic 
acid, we tried Gerland’s method of direct estimation by means 
of a standard solution of tartar emetic in presence of ammonium 
chloride. Gerland’s formula, in which the aot atomic weights 
are used (Zeitschrift fiir Analyse, 1863, ii, page 419), is given as 
SbOs(CisHsOn)s [or in the new pale  Sb,Oa CurEleOn)e] 
which requi 
Sb, 15°60 per cent, ©, 41°43 percent, H, 3°07 per cent. 
The formula that > have been led to adopt, is Sbe(C4Hs09)2+ 
6H,0 which requi 
Sb, 18°59 per cent, ©, 38-41 percent, H, 2°74 per cent, 
in vee tannic ey is considered as di-gallic acid,} with, poss: 
of the Sierra Ppa 9 by fh Lesquereux; Mem. Mus. Comp. Zoology, vi,. 0 2.— 
maorigreperres > of fossil leaves, &e., su such as these, may be relied on to this extent 
by th e general botanist, ho however war 
These must be ma’ mainly left to the expert in fossil il botany. © 
+ Sir Joseph Hooker, in an important lecture delivered to the Royal Institution 
of Great Britain, April 12, insists much on this. 
¢ H. Schiff, Bull. Soe. Chem., I, xvi, 198. 
Sve 
