- 58 - 
whilst the mixture was stirred. The benzoic acid esters of the alcohols 
thus formed, were, after adding soda, distilled off with steam, in order 
to remove those parts which had not entered into reaction. At 4 mm 
pressure the benzoic acid esters distilled between 160° and 165°, and 
on saponification they formed a mixture of alcohols of the boiling 
point 95° to 100*^ (at 4 mm pressure) and a specific gravity of 0,9212, 
at 15°. This mixture could be decomposed into geraniol and the 
unknown alcohol, both by treatment with calcium chloride, and with 
phthalic acid anhydride. 
The geraniol thus obtained distilled at 229° to 230^, at atmospheric 
pressure, and was further identified by conversion into its diphenyl 
urethane of the melting point 82°, and by oxidation into citral (melting 
point of the /?-citryl naphthocinchoninic acid 197°). The alcohol separated 
from the geraniol, which did not react with calcium chloride, and reacted 
only incompletely with phthalic acid anhydride, approximately corresponded 
in its constants with the one obtained by saponification of the acetic 
ester: boiling point 94° to 95°, at 5 mm; d^^o =0,951; = -[- 13^46'; 
nj)2o° = 1^49 5 ^2. The optical rotation alone had increased considerably. 
In a dry ethereal solution the alcohol absorbed 2 atoms bromine, calculated 
for the formula C^qH-^^qO. The bromide was a colourless, viscid oil. 
With diphenylcarbamine chloride and pyridine no crystallising product 
was obtained. 
The acids obtained on saponification of the ginger-grass oil were 
purified by conversion into the calcium salts. The mixture of acids 
separated from this, distilled from 220° to 300°, and solidified after 
some time. The crystals collected were obtained after recrystallisation 
from petroleum ether, in the form of fine leaflets of the melting 
point 106° to 107°, and formed a silver salt soluble with great diffi- 
culty in alcohol and water, whose silver-content was found as 3 8,90 ^/q. 
Analysis: 0,3912 gm. contained 0,1520 gm. Ag = 38,90^/0- 
P. Jeancard and C. Satie^) publish the results obtained by 
comparative studies made during the last three years on the effect of 
the weather -conditions on the constitution of the essential oil of the 
geranium plant (Pelargonium odoratissimum). According to these, cold 
nights reduce the alcohol-content, without equalising this reduction by 
a more abundant formation of ester, as is the case with neroli and 
petitgrain oils. This is equivalent to a decrease in the quantity of oil 
present in the leaves. From this it also follows, that the content of 
the terpene alcohols geraniol and citronellol varies; with regard to the 
specific gravity, the geraniol-content decreases, whilst the content of 
citronellol increases. The physical constants are only subject to slight 
1) Bull. Soc. chim. III. 31 (1904), 43. 
