which produces mannose, from the bidb of Lilium. 141 
This was removed, well washed and boiled with water. It dis- 
solved and on cooling and standing, separated out in rhombic 
crystalline plates. As finally prepared by crystallization from 
dilute alcohol it was nearly colourless with a melting point of 
195° — 200°. Dissolved in hydrochloric acid it showed levorotation. 
Hence it agrees in all respects with mannose-hydrazone. 
The numbers obtained for the opticity and cupric reducing 
power agree closely with the view that the carbohydrate is one 
which hydrolyses to mannose. According to Fischer and Hirsch- 
berger 1 mannose reduces Fehling’s fluid rather more strongly than 
glucose. From their figures the T7 grams of copper obtained 
above are equivalent to 0874 gram of mannose. This amount 
should give a rotation in the 200 mm. tube of +0°"25 2 , which 
approaches very near the observed angle + 0°'28. Thus there is 
little room for doubt that practically the whole of the carbohydrate 
extracted from the bulb of Lilium candidum by cold water and 
precipitated by strong alcohol, hydrolyses to mannose. 
The same substance has also been prepared from the bulb of 
Lilium auraturn, and mannose-hydrazone made from it after 
hydrolysis. 
The bulbs of six other species examined, viz. L. bulbiferum , 
L. croceum, L. dauricu/m , L. lancifolium, L. longiflorum and 
L. Martagon, contain in their parenchymatous cells mucilage, 
which is in all probability the same carbohydrate, so that this 
additional reserve material may be considered a characteristic of 
the genus. 
Distribution of mannose in plants. A mannose-producing car- 
bohydrate occurs in certain seeds in the form of reserve-cellulose. 
Reiss 3 showed that this variety of cellulose is capable of being 
hydrolysed by strong acids to give a new sugar, which he termed 
seminose, now reckoned to be identical with mannose. He proved 
the presence of this mannocellulose in seeds of several palms, of 
Allium cepa, Asparagus officinalis, Lris pseudacorus, Strychnos 
nux vomica and Coffea arabica. His results have been confirmed 
and extended by other investigators. 
Another mannose-producing carbohydrate differing from re- 
serve-cellulose in being soluble in water and capable of being 
hydrolysed by dilute mineral acids has been called mannan. Its 
presence was first proved in the drug, salep, which is prepared 
from the tuberous roots of certain species of Orchis. The mucilage 
it contains is converted into mannose on boiling with dilute acids 4 . 
1 Fischer and Hirschberger, Ber. Deut. Cliem. Ges. 1889, xxn. p. 865. 
2 [a]D is taken to be equal to +14° '25, the value obtained by Ekenstein for 
crystalline mannose. 
3 Keiss, Ber. Deut. Chevi. Ges., 1889, xxn. p. 609. 
4 Gans and Tollen, Ibid., 1888, xxi. p. 2150. 
VOL. XI. PT. II. 
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