Keegan : The Chemistry of Some Common Plants. 345 



liquid, alkaloid with properties the same as the conicine of Fools'^ 

 Parsley, etc. The root parts consist of a corm which grows 

 horizontally, acts as a storehouse of nutriment, and forms 30 to 

 40 simple rootlets, the half of which are contractile and draw it 

 down in autumn to about a depth of four inches ; the fresh 

 organ contains 58*4 per cent, of water, o*6 fat-oil, 25 starch, 

 5*2 fibre, also gum, mucilage, albumen, resin, saponin (which 

 migrates to the leave's and stem in spring), and alkaloid. The 

 dried leaf-blades on i8th May contained 3*4 per cent, wax, 

 carotin, etc., but no glyceride, also an iron-greening phloba- 

 phenic tannin, much resin and glucose, some mucilage, but no 

 starch, and 10*2 ash having 55*8 per cent, soluble salts, lo'i 

 lime, 3*4 silica, 3.8 SO'^ and 6*8 P-O'^ the black spots occur 

 only in the palisade cells, and not in the epidermis. The very 

 attractive yellow and red pigmentary decorations of the floral 

 parts and fruit are due to carotin contained in chromoplasts 

 in amorphous granules encased in a proteic stroma ; also a red 

 crystallisable pigment has been extracted. 



Garlic. Allium ursinum. This eminently graceful plant 

 lurks under the covert of damp woods and shady hedgerows, 

 and exhibits the usual absence of bright attractive colouration 

 incident to a decidedly repulsive odour. The root appanage is 

 a bulb provided with contractile (formed in spring) and con- 

 ducting (formed in autumn) roots, and contains inulin, but 

 no starch, also mucilage, resin, and a volatile oil (a vinyl 

 derivative) composed of bisulphides of diallyl and allylpropyl, 

 also C^H^*^S^ and C^H^^S^, but no oxygen or sesquiterpene ; on 

 germination a transformation of cane-sugar into glucose has 

 been observed. The leaves on 2nd June contained 2*3 per cent, 

 of wax with a little carotin, but no fat-oil, also much resin 

 and sugar, some pectosic mucilage and a glucoside which 

 precipitates bromine water, but no tannin or starch, and no 

 extractable proteid ; the ash amounted to 9*4 per cent, in dry,^ 

 and had 69*6 per cent, soluble salts, 117 lime, 4-5 P'^O^ 6 SO% 

 and 21 "5 chlorine. It may be observed that the genus Allium 

 represents among vegetables an extreme case of the non- 

 production of starch, although the bulb and roots are not very 

 eminent as reserve-holders. In fact, the enormous quantity of 

 chlorine in the ash is inimical to such production, but whether 

 its presence is a cause or an effect is a question difficult to tackle 

 or decide. 



Mushroom. Agaricus campestris. As is well known, the 

 vegetable portion of this plant is hidden in the ground, the 



1904 November i. 



