N. 0. CACTEjE. 611 



Datiscin is prepared by extracting the bruised roots with dilute alcohol, 

 distilling off the alcohol, extracting the residue with water, treating the 

 aqueous solution with a small quantity of lead acetate (basic?) and concen- 

 trating the nitrate, from which datiscin separates on cooling. It is repeated- 

 ly recrystallised from boiling water, when the crystals have but a faintly 

 yellow tint. It is very sparingly soluble in ether, and melts at 190°. Air- 

 dried datiscin gave, on analysis, values agreeing with the formula C 21 H 24 

 O n -f 2 H 2 0. and that dried at 130° gave values agreeing with the formula C 21 

 H 24 O n -|-H 2 0. Specimens which had been dried at the latter temperature, 

 however, were frequently found to have undergone decomposition. 



When datiscin is boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, datiscetin separates 

 from the solution on cooling, and a sugar, which is not glucose, but rhamnose, 

 remains dissolved. 



Datiscetin, C 15 H 12 6 , crystallises from alcohol in bright yellow needles, 

 melts at 237° (uncorr.) and dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid, forming 

 a yellow solution, which subsequently exhibits a beautiful blue fluorescence. 

 When datiscetin is fused with potash, salicylic acid is formed. Datiscetin 

 is converted into picric acid on treatment with concentrated nitric acid, and 

 into nitrosalicylic acid (m. p. 226°), on treatment with dilute nitric acid. 



-J. Ch. S. 1894 A. I. 142. 



N. 0. CACTEm 



557. Opuntia dillenii, Haw., h.f.b.i., ii. 657. 



Syn. : — Cactus indicus, Roxb. 395. 



Vern. : — Nag-phana. (H. and B.) ; Pheni-mama (B.) ; Chap- 

 pal-send (Dec.) ; Naga-dali (Tam.) ; Naga mulla (Mai.) ; 

 Zhorhatheylo (Guz.) ; Phadya Nivdung (M.). 



Habitat : — A native of South America, quite naturalized, 

 almost a weed in India., in the Konkan, the Dekkan, extending 

 as far north as the Jhelum in the N.-W. Himalaya, "also 

 the Circars, Canara and Madras. "Apparently," says Gamble, 

 Masulipatam was the place where the Cactus was first grown, 

 and the species 0. Dillenii D. 0." 



A fleshy, perennial, leafless shrub, persistent, jointed. Stem 

 branching, formed of successive joints, which are more or less 

 obovate, mostly flat lft. long, bearing at first some minute 

 awl-shaped bodies answering to leaves, which soon fall off, and 

 dense woolly hairs, with tufts of numerous barbed bristles and 

 long, sharp spines also in their axils. Flowers bisexual, regular 

 yellow, tinged with red, open in sunshine and for more than 



