2 Marshall Ward and Dim lop. 
In 1842 Fleury examined a yellow dye got from the fruits 
of a Rhamnus ; a little later Kane obtained a body which was 
called chrysorhamnm from unripe fruits, and another from 
ripe fruits which he named x author hamnin. Gellatly in 1851 
gave a complex formula (C 48 H 56 0 28 ) to this xanthorhamnin, 
and stated that dilute sulphuric acid causes it to break up 
into a body called rhamnetin and grape-sugar — in other 
words, that xanthorhamnin is a glucoside. This was con- 
firmed subsequently. 
In 1879 Liebermann and Hormann, employing R. infec- 
torius , confirmed the foregoing, and found that no dye (or 
the merest traces) is obtained from the seeds, but that it 
exists in the husks (pericarps). They got the glucoside 
xanthorhamnin, which is soluble in water and alcohol, but 
not in ether, benzole or chloroform, and assigned to it the 
formula C 48 H 66 0 29 . It is soluble in alkalies ; ferric chloride 
turned the solution brown. Sulphuric acid causes it to break 
up into glucose and rhamnetin. 
They also found that the xanthorhamnin breaks up under 
the action of some ferment in the fruit, the products of this 
reaction being a colouring body, rhamnin and glucose. 
This was practically the position of our knowledge, when my 
attention was directed to an experiment performed by Mr. T. 
E. Lightfoot, of Accrington, a gentleman interested in dyeing, 
and who was then investigating the qualities of the different 
yellow dyes obtainable from ‘ Persian Berries.’ Mr. Light- 
foot has informed me by letter that he found that a decoction 
of the uninjured berries yielded a poorer colouring liquor than 
one obtained from the ground or crushed ‘ berries.’ He then 
took some of the fruits, and split them, separating the outer 
shells— the chief part of the pericarp — from the ‘kernels’; 
these ‘ kernels’ are the seeds, and they are covered by a thin 
hard covering which, as will be seen shortly, is the endocarp. 
A weighed quantity of the outer pericarps was then used 
for making a decoction, and a piece of cloth dyed with the 
liquor; in another vessel the same weight of ‘shells’ (peri- 
carp) was used, but a few of the ‘kernels’ (seeds) added. 
