NOTES AND ABSTKACTS. 



529 



given which prey upon the larvae. Arsenite of lime is recommended as 

 the cheapest arsenical wash, and is stated to have proved entirely satis- 

 factory.— E. A. Bd. 



Codlin Moth, Arsenic for. By E. Durand (Pom. Franc. August 

 1909, pp. 238-243).— Trees should be banded with thick muslin from 

 middle of June, and these bands should be frequently examined to catch 

 the caterpillars about to change into chrysalides. Spraying was done 

 with a knapsack pump, using a ladder, the face being covered with a wire 

 mask. In the variety ' Keinette gris d'hiver,' out of trees with 800 to 1,000 

 apples, on the sprayed trees only 4 per cent, were worm-eaten, whilst on 

 similar trees unsprayed 32 per cent, were worm-eaten. On analysing the 

 sprayed fruit ^th of a milligram of arsenic per kilogram of fruit was 

 found, on fruit sprayed whilst in flower ^th of a milligram per kilogram 

 fruit, negligible quantities. On the leaves at the fall of the leaf six milli- 

 grams arsenic per kilogram of collected dry leaves was found. — C. H. H. 



CoelOgyne venusta. By R. A. Rolfe (Bot. Mag. tab. 8262).— Nat. 

 , ord. Orchidaceae ; tribe Epidendreae. Yunnan. Epiphytic herb ; leaves 

 5-7 inches long ; scapes many-flowered ; flowers pale yellow, lip white 

 with yellow centre. — G. H. 



Colorado Beetle, Western Spread of. By J. W. Aldrich (Jour. 



Econ. Entom. ii. (1909), 3, p. 235.) —This insect spread on the introduc- 

 tion of the potato from the east side of the Rocky Mountains, where it is 

 native, and feeds on Solanum rostratum, to the Atlantic seaboard in 

 fifteen years, but has scarcely spread westwards in spite of the occurrence 

 of numberless opportunities, — F. J. C. 



Colouring- Matter of the Flowers of Hisbiscus sabdariffa. 



By Arthur George Perkins (Jour. Chem. Soc. vol. 95, pp. 1855-9 ; 

 Nov. 1909). — This shrub is the Red Sorrel of the West Indies and is 

 cultivated in India and Ceylon, the fleshy red calyx being used for 

 food and the stems supplying the " Roselle hemp" of commerce. The 

 yellow flowers, which are just capable of dyeing yellow, are not used for 

 the purpose, but in some districts the red calyces are so employed. 



The investigation was carried out upon the flower-heads, including 

 stalk, calyx, corolla, &c, and the colouring matter, when isolated, was found 

 to be " gossypetin," a substance found in the flowers of the Indian cotton 

 plant (Gossypiwn herbaceum), accompanied by very small quantities of 

 an apparently unknown colouring matter for which the author proposes 

 the name " Hibercetin," and which he purposes more fully investigating 

 when larger supplies of material are obtained. 



He also found protocatechuic acid, which he believes had existed in 

 the fresh flowers as proto-catechu-aldehyde, a substance to which the 

 perfume of many flowers is known to be due. — W. A. V. 



Colouring 5 Matter of the Flowers of Thespasia lampas. By 



Arthur George Perkin (Jour. Chem. Soc. vol. 95, pp. 1859-60). — 

 This small bush is indigenous in India, Burma, and Ceylon. From the 

 yellow sepals a yellow colouring matter was isolated and found to consist 



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