N. 0. LEGUMIN0S.E. 461 



408. Sophora tomentosa, Linn, h.f.b.l, i. 249, 

 Roxb. 343. 



Habitat: — Shores of the Eastern and Western Peninsulas 

 and Ceylon. 



An evergreen shrub or small tree. Branches, leaves and 

 inflorescence shortly and thinly grey-tomentose. Branches 

 virgate and persistently downy. Leaves Jft long. Leaflets 

 flexible, subcoriaceous, thick, obliquely elliptic-obtuse, 2in. 

 long, 11-17, dull grey-green, the veins immersed on both surfaces. 

 Flowers sulphur-yellow, 'in terminal racemes, which latter are 

 |ft. long ; pedicels densely silky, articulated a little below the 

 Calyx. Calyx nearly truncate, very oblique J-|in. Corolla 

 f-fin., blade of standard round, veined. Pod without wings 

 or ridges, 4-6in. long, hoary, 6-10-seeded, the oblong, hoary, 

 seed-bearing joints separated by a narrow, long, seedless neck 

 as long as or shorter than the seed-bearing joint. 



Use : — Mr. F. M. Bailey states that the roots and seeds 

 have been considered as specifics in bilious sickness in New 

 South Wales (Air. Maiden in the Ph. Journal, for Sept. 1st, 

 1889, p. 180). 



Considerable quantities of sophorine were extracted from Sophora tomen- 

 tosa, and very carefiUly compared with pure cyfcisine, C u H 14: N 2 0, with the 

 result that these two alkaloids proved to be identical. During this investi- 

 gation, many new characteristics of cytisine were determined, and new 

 derivatives formed. 



The rotatory polarisation of cytisine nitrate is [d]D — 93°26, the co-effi- 

 cient of refraction, 1-34419. Cytisine gives no reaction with strong sul- 

 phuric acid, or with that acid and sugar, cerous oxide, or Vanadic acid. 

 Fronde's reagent, and evaporation with phosphoric acid, likewise yield no 

 reaction. Erdmann's reagent causes an orange-yellow coloration ; concen- 

 trated nitric acid, on warming, a reddish yellow coloration, which becomes 

 rather darker on the addition of potash ; strong sulphuric acid and potassium 

 dichromate, a green coloration ; evaporation with hydrochloric acid leaves 

 a yellow residue ; calcium hypochlorite gives no coloration. 



M ethyloytisine lujdriodide, G r2 H 10 - N 2 O, HI ; prepared by the action 

 of methylic iodide on the free alkaloid, yields colourless crystals ; its 

 solution gives a rotary polarisation, [d] D = -81°, and a refractive index of 

 1-35427. The platinochloride crystallises is orange-yellow needles; the 

 aurochlovide in?golden -yellow needles. 



With bromine, cytisine yields an orange-red compound containing 4 atoms 



