— 135 — 



oils, occurred. For this reason the work on plants yielding hydrocyanic 

 acid in general, whose glucosides do not yield constituents of essential 

 oils, does not come within the scope of our Reports, and we must 

 therefore content ourselves with a bare reference to the following 

 publications: Guignard 1 ), On the presence of a compound forming 

 hydrocyanic acid in Passiflorce; Duns tan and Henry 2 ), On the 

 formation of hydrocyanic acid in plants. 



With regard to other glucosides yielding constituents of essential 

 oils, see under Almond oil, bitter, p. 1 1 . 



During their chemical examinations of the vegetation of the 

 odoriferous plants , Roure-Bertrand Fils 3 ) have taken up 

 the study of the relative solubility of the substances of which the 

 individual organs in the various periods of the plant's life are composed. 

 The experimental plant serving this purpose was Ocimum basilicum L. 

 During the various stages of vegetation, the organs of the plant were 

 separated and weighed; the material was then dried at 105 up to 

 the constant weight, and next calcined. Further, 10 g. each of the 

 dry substance were extracted with water to exhaustion in a Soxhlet 

 apparatus, the aqueous extract was then evaporated to dryness, the 

 residue thus obtained dried at 105 , and weighed. The number thus 

 ascertained represented the "soluble substance"; on calcining the latter, 

 the weight of the "ashes from the soluble substance'' was found. From 

 the difference, the weight of the organic substance could then be 

 calculated. In the same manner the weight of the ashes and of the 

 organic material in the insoluble substance were then ascertained, and 

 finally all the figures obtained recalculated for 100 parts of the total 

 dry substance. 



The authors found that in the first stage of development of the 

 plants, all organs have almost the same content of water; in the later 

 stages the individual organs become poorer in water, and only the 

 leaves retain approximately the same water -content. 



Before the commencement of the blossoming period, the leaves 

 contain in their dry substance most organic material. In the young 

 plants these organs are less rich in soluble mineral matter than the stalk, 

 but this is soon reversed. When the blossoming season commences, 

 a decrease in the content of soluble organic substances and of total 

 soluble material is observed in the dry substance of the roots, stalks, 

 and leaves. The newly -forming inflorescences are at that time the 

 part of the plant whose dry substance appears richest in soluble organic 



1 ) Bull, des Sciences pharmacol. 13 (1906), 603. 



2 ) Annal. de Chim. et Phys. 10 (1907), 118. 



*) Bericht Roure-Bertrand Fils, April 1907, 6. 



