222 journal, r.a.s. (ceylon). [Vol. II., Part II, 



first. It possesses one very curious property, however, 

 which may possibly give a clue to a discovery of one 

 at least of its constituent parts. When added to starch 

 paste, heated till the pellicles burst, it will liquify the same, 

 and, in one instance only, saccharified it. The latter only 

 happened with one parcel of mundi, which I suppose had 

 been kept just long enough to allow of the particular 

 principle which effects this being evolved in proper pro- 

 portion. But the liquifaction took place in more than four 

 trials ; one on the scale of three gallons of water, kept three 

 hours on a water-bath at 150°, with about two ounces of 

 mundi stirred in. Probably this may suggest that a 

 portion of that strange substance, diastase, is present in 

 the mundi, as the nature of the scum or pellicle which rose 

 to the surface from time to time seemed to look like 

 caseine. The dried mundi thrown on a red-hot iron 

 gives out the smell of toasted bread. This may indicate 

 dextrine, and as starch itself exists, it is said, in the sap of 

 all plants, that may be also present. A small quantity of 

 mundi which I had put aside and forgotten for a time 

 became quite saccharine by itself. Diastase is extracted 

 from malt, which is formed by the germination of a grain ; 

 then why not in the bursting of a flower bud ? It is the 

 diastase, acting on the starch in the grain, which saccharifies 

 malt. I trust some able chemist may take up the investi- 

 gation, a most interesting one, even as regards the solution 

 of some of the mystery of the physiology of Jplants, and of 

 the elaboration of their proteine compounds, as they are 

 justly named. 



Whatever they are—and it is all-important for us that they 

 should be known exactly — they seem to exercise under favour- 

 able circumstances no evil influence that we can see, on 

 the liquor which reaches the hands of the manufacturer, — a 

 clear white limpid fluid hardly distinguishable from water. 



