KeegaJi : The Chemistiy of Some Coinmon Plants. 79 



the silica is too high (some of it being merely earthy matter 

 clinging to the outer tissues of the roots and stem), and there- 

 fore the other constituents are represented as too low. At all 

 events, the great amount of carbonates in the ash. indicated a 

 powerful acidity of the cell sap. The warmth and richness of 

 the colouration, which sometimes suffuses the whole plant, 

 demonstrates that the process of deassimilation is pushed in 

 this case far beyond the volatile oil stage of the Mints and other 

 of its congeners. The odour of its bruised parts does not arise 

 from a volatile oil, but rather from a decomposed glucoside. 

 The growing plant is only moderately" starch-producing, but 

 rich in sugar, and organic acids, i.e. it is succulent, and grows 

 with only moderate quickness. 



Great Valerian [Valeriana officinalis) — This extremely 

 graceful umbelHferous-looking plant crowned with a splendid 

 corymbose inflorescence of an exquisite fleshy tint must needs 

 command the attentive interest of every lover of natural 

 beauty. The rhizome is very short and thick, and throws out 

 a multitude of long branched adventitious roots in all directions, 

 and its sub-epidermal lay^er bears a number of long cells with 

 corkedt v/alls enclosing volatile oil ; the parenchyma has some 

 tannin, and small starch granules. The fresh root on distilla- 

 tion with water, yields 0.5 to i per cent, volatile oil, composed 

 of a terpene, a camphene, borneol C^°H^^''0 with its oxide and 

 formate, acetate and valerate esters, also a little free valeric 

 acid is developed with age. The root contains also 6 per cent, 

 resin, a reducing sugar, valeric and malic acids with their salts, 

 a strong oxydase ferment, and the ash has much manganese. 

 Medicinall}', it reduces the reflex and other excitability of the 

 nervous system, but in large doses it is a general and digestive 

 stimulant. On the loth August, the whole leaves contained 

 3 per cent, carotin and wax, with a httle resin, also a tannoid, 

 and much caffeatannin, a bitter principle dissolving red brown 

 in sulphuric acid, some sugar and proteid, much pectosic muci- 

 lage, no free phloroglucin, and but little starch or oxalate of 

 calcium. The ash contained 16.2 per cent, soluble salts, 4 

 silica, 37.5 lime, 7.8 magnesia, 5.7 3 SO^, and 4.3 chlorine, 



there were very much insoluble carbonates. The analysis 

 altogether is very interesting, and recalls that of the Umbelli- 

 ferae rather than that of the Compositse or the Rubiaceae. 

 There are the three special features thereabout which merit 

 special attention. Firstly, the quantity of carotin in the leaves 



1908 March i. 



