- 11 - 
The wood is excellent tim'Der and is used in flooring. 
It is so obnoxious to insects that it is sometimes used for furniture, 
e.g., "bedsteads, and clothespresses. 
CHEVALIER, A., andHJSSELL, W. (32) 
SUR IBT QUASSIA AFRICAIN uTILIS^ PAR LES HOIRS COI^^ffi PLAMTE 
idDlCIlTALE. Rev. Bot . Appl. et Agr. Trop. 16: 364-367. 1936. 
The authors have recently received "branches and racemes 
of Q^j-assia africana Baillon. This shru"b, known as Simigala 
in the Eshira idiom and Isindu igala in Punu, is employed 
medicinally by the natives, an extract of the root in cold 
water being administered for ailments of the stomach. 
The structure of the loaves and stem is described. 
Quassi a amara differs considerably from Q,. africana morpho- 
logically, but anatomically the chief differences are in the 
epidermis of the leaves and in the palisade tissue. 
CHRJSTENSSiJ, A. (33) 
UE3ER QPASSIIN. Arch. Pliarm. [3] 220: 481-^92. 1882. [Abstract 
in Jour. Chem. Soc. [London] 42: 1302. ISBSj 
The author exhausted quassia with water and precipitated 
the quassiin by tannin, after neutralization with sodium 
carbonate. The tannate was mixed with lead carbonate (or 
calcium hydroxide) , dried, and the quassiin was extracted by 
alcohol. The author fouad the amount of quassiin in the 
quassia to vary largely, some specimens yielding scarcely 
any. Pure quassiin, purified by recrystallization from hot 
alcohol, crystallizes in very thin rectangular plates, 
which are biaxial and doubly refracting. It is bitter, 
odorless, permanent in the air and its solutions are 
neutral. It melts at 205^', swelling up slightly to a 
resinous mass of unchanged quassiin. It is readily soluble 
in alkalies and is reprecipitatod by acids. It is soluble 
in boiling alcohol, less so in cold. Et"ner and light petro- 
leum dissolve it with difficulty, chloroform very easily. 
It is dextrorotatory, its specific rotatory power for 
[<<]d being 37.8. Its formula is '^3iH4209. It is precipi- 
tated by tannin. It in not a giucoside, but by the prolonged 
action in the water-bath of 3 percent sulphuric acid, a body, 
C31H3BO9 , is formed, which dissolves sparingly in water, 
giving no precipitate with tannin. Unlike quassiin, its 
aqueous or alcoholic solution r educes silver nitrate. A 
resin is simultaneously formed Ity the action of the dilute 
acid. A bromo-derivative of quassiin (m. p. 75°) was formed 
by the action of bromine in chloroform solution. Contrary 
to the statements of Bennerschoidt , the author found free 
fatty acids in quassia wood, but no essential oil. 
