DARWINIAS OF PORT JACKSON AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS. 169 



the same boiling point in all; three gave practically the same 

 specific gravity, while the fourth was a little higher. It is certain 

 that it is a product of alteration formed when the crude oil is 

 saponified by boiling with alcoholic potash under ordinary atmos- 

 pheric pressure, as it does not exist in the oil obtained by cold 

 saponification. When gently oxidised citral was obtained, and on 

 further oxidation a viscid brown substance having an aromatic 

 odour. On boiling with acetic anhydride and sodium acetate a 

 determination showed 24*1 per cent, of ester to have been formed. 

 It should not now be difficult to obtain it in a pure condition, and 

 further investigation will be made concerning it. 



In a paper by Bertram and Gildmeister 1 it is stated that the 

 essential oils of the pelargoniums (the French, African, and 

 Reunion geranium oils) contain a considerable proportion of 

 geraniol which boils at 225 - 230°, but there is also present a 

 second alcohol which has not yet been obtained in a pure condition, 

 and whose properties and composition have in consequence not 

 been determined. This second alcohol, they say, appears to be 

 differentiated from geraniol by its lower boiling point, its lower 

 specific gravity and its behaviour towards hydrogen chloride and 

 towards calcium chloride with which it forms no solid compound. 

 Possibly this may be also a product of alteration. 



Barbier 2 obtained an alcohol by heating geraniol with alcoholic 

 potash, this he stated to be dimethylheptenol C 9 H 18 0. This being 

 questioned, he supports his statement in a paper 3 by publishing 

 results of a synthetical dimethylheptenol. 



Tiemann 4 shows that when geraniol is heated with alcoholic 

 potash the product is methylheptenol C 8 H 16 0. This boils about 

 173° under atmospheric pressure. 



It thus appears that different bodies are obtainable from geraniol 

 or geraniol bearing compounds when these are heated with 

 alcoholic potash under different conditions. 



1 J. Pr. Chem. 1896 [2] 53, 225 - 237— Abstract Journ. Chem. Soc, 

 June 1896, 381. 



2 Compt. reed. 126, 1423. 3 Compt. rend. 128, 110. * Ber. 31, 2989. 



