CHAP. I. 
ELEMENTARY ORGANS. 
295 
taken place, he found these proportions materially altered; 
the numbers being 
Oak. 
Beech. 
Herminiera. 
Carbon 
54 -44 
54-35 
47-18 
Hydrogen 
6*24 
6-25 
5-94 
Oxygen 
39-32 
39-5 
46-88 
When, however, the tissue was acted upon by such agents 
as have the property of destroying the matter of lignification, 
the proportions of the three fundamental principles ap- 
proached more nearly those of primitive tissue. 
Oak 
treated with 
Soda. 
Beech 
treated with 
. Soda. 
Aspen. 
Oak and Beech treated 
in concentrated Nitric 
Acid, and afterwards 
washed with Soda. 
Washed 
once with 
Soda. 
Washed 
twice with 
Soda. 
Carbon 
49-68 
49-4 
48- 
47-71 
43-85 
Hydrogen 
6-02 
6-13 
6-4 
6-42 
5-86 
Oxygen 
44-30 
44-47 
45-56 
45-87 
50-28 
With reference to the discrepancy between the first and 
last of these tables, Payen remarks that, as alkalies do not 
remove all the matter of lignification, it is possible that this 
substance may consist of two kinds of matter, one of which 
only is capable of being acted upon by azotic acid. He also 
adds that, although concentrated sulphuric acid has the same 
power as nitric acid of separating from the primitive tissue of 
plants their sedimentary matter, yet it possesses this differ- 
ence, that it gives it the property of becoming blue when 
acted upon by iodine ; a circumstance which has doubtless 
given rise to the statement that lignine may be transformed 
into starch. (Comptes rendus^ vii. 1055. 1125.) 
