1911.] 



Herbage Studies. 



48:5 



from seed supplied by Messrs. Vilmorin. Dr. Eyre has tested Lotus 

 siliquosus growing in Bologna this year without finding cyanide. We have 

 also failed in finding the cyanide in plants of Lotus Bertlwletti {peliorhynchus), 

 kindly placed at our disposal by Dr. Hugo Muller and by Mr. B. A. Robertson 

 of St. Andrews University. But in Lotus Jacobceus, a native of the Canary 

 Islands, we have found a plant which seems to be as rich both in cyanide and 

 enzyme as L. corniculatus. We have raised this plant ourselves from seed- 

 As it also contains acetone and the enzyme acts readily on linamarin, it is 

 probable that the glucoside and enzyme are identical with those occurring in 

 Lotus corniculatus. A plant was shown to Dr. Eyre in the Bologna botanic 

 garden as Lotus corniculatus which he was informed was grown in Italy as 

 a fodder plant; to judge from the specimen he has sent to us this was 

 Lotus Jacobozus. We shall continue the study of this plant during the 

 coming year and hope to be able to test the other species of Lotus not yet 

 examined. It should be added that we have failed to find cyanide in 

 Hippocrepis comosa, a plant which resembles Lotus corniculatus very closely. 



We have to express our thanks for the assistance that has been given to 

 us by Mr. Hall, Director of the Bothamsted Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, by Dr. Keeble, Professor of Botany at the University College, Beading, 

 as well as by many other willing helpers, particularly by Dr. J. V. Eyre, to 

 whom we are so much indebted for the work he did for us abroad. 



We desire also to ask botanists under whose notice this communication 

 comes to favour us by carefully testing Lotus corniculatus for hydrogen 

 cyanide, at the same time noting any botanical peculiarities the plant may 

 show and the conditions under which it grows. We would ask them to 

 inform, us of the results they obtain and to favour us also with specimens 

 whenever peculiarities are noticed. It will be best to cut the root well 

 below ground and to send whole plants ; we like to have several grammes 

 of the leaf material, if possible, when testing for enzyme. We shall also be 

 glad to have young plants or seed for further study. 



In testing for cyanide we find it most convenient to make use of stout 

 glass tubes, about 3-| inches long and -| inch wide, provided with good corks. 

 The leaf material having been pushed into the tube, two or three drops of 

 chloroform or toluene are added and a slip of moist picrate paper is inserted ; 

 the tube is then corked up. It is conveniently incubated in a waistcoat 

 breast-pocket or in the trousers pocket. When cyanide is present the paper 

 reddens perceptibly within half an hour, as a rule ; to make certain, the 

 test should be prolonged over 24 hours. To prepare the picrate paper, slips' 

 of filter paper about f inch wide are dipped into a solution of 5 grim 



VOL. LXXXIV. — B. 2 N 



