Xylem of Woody Stems . 13 1 
boiled sections of this wood. In fact, the process of sterilization by steam- 
ing delignifies the xylem and produces appearances exactly similar to those 
described after the action of Fungi. 
As a confirmation of these results with Aesculus it seemed worth while 
to try other woods, and pieces of Elm, Ash, Oak, and Scotch Pine were 
tested. From each of these, after removal of the bark, sawdust was 
obtained and placed in small flasks containing water. These were then 
steamed on three days for two hours, the decoctions filtered, extracted 
with ether and the ether evaporated. In all these cases a brown deposit 
was left after the evaporation of the ether which at once gave the character- 
istic red colour with phloroglucin. 
The above experiments having so clearly shown the effect of boiling 
water in extracting from xylem a substance which reacts to phloroglucin 
and thallin sulphate, it seemed probable that cold water would have the 
same power if allowed to act for a longer period. From the stem of the 
forty years’ Oak already mentioned small chips of alburnum and duramen 
were carefully made and five gram, of each placed in flasks containing 
150 c.c. of distilled water and 5 c.c. of chloroform. The flasks so 
prepared will be referred to as the ‘ extract ’ of alburnum and duramen 
respectively. In all eight of these flasks were prepared, four containing 
alburnum and four duramen, which were then placed in an incubator 
at 28° C. After three days one flask of alburnum-extract was taken, 
the water filtered and extracted with ether, and the ether then 
divided into three portions in three porcelain crucibles ; it was then 
evaporated at 6o° C. A thin brown layer was deposited inside these 
crucibles which reacted at once, in one case to phloroglucin and in another 
to thallin sulphate (both of these being tests for vanilin), while the third 
gave no result with phenol, the test for coniferin. A flask of duramen- 
extract was similarly treated and gave precisely the same reactions. 0 
These results show that a substance answering to the vanilin tests 
is dissolved out in cold water. Thus cold water has also an extractive 
power, and by continued soaking in water the xylem undergoes a partial 
delignification. 
The effects of boiling and immersion in water here described were 
under the exaggerated conditions produced by the use of thin sections and 
fragments of wood, yet it must be allowed that some delignifying action 
would take place upon even small blocks of wood subjected to steaming in 
water for the purpose of sterilization and remaining under damp conditions 
for many months during cultural experiment. 
It will be noted that the coniferin, or rather a substance answering to 
the test for coniferin, was apparently not extracted from the xylem. This 
result appears curious and somewhat at variance with the fact that the 
steamed sections, when treated with phenol -H Cl, always gave an un- 
