Schunck . — The Chemistry of Chlorophyll . 107 
only is the colour of the leaves entirely changed, they also 
yield on treatment mere traces of chlorophyll or of ordinary 
decomposition products of chlorophyll, these having been 
almost entirely replaced by other products. Moreover, varie- 
gated leaves, for instance those of the white-leaved ivy, are 
only slightly tinged by aniline, and yield no trace of the 
crystalline product which green leaves afford. Some healthy 
green leaves from the Spanish chesnut, the tulip tree, and 
the common bindweed, treated together with aniline, became 
dark brown and yielded 0-044 grm. of the crystalline product, 
whereas the same quantity of leaves from the same plants, 
that had become yellow and fallen to the ground, turned light 
brown on treatment with aniline and yielded only 0-023 g rm - 
of the same product; in the latter case it was evidently 
the residual chlorophyll of the faded leaves which reacted 
with the aniline. By immersion for some time in boiling water 
green leaves do not lose their property of becoming brown on 
being treated with aniline, but the colour is not so dark as in 
the case of leaves that have not been exposed to heat, and the 
crystalline product which they yield is somewhat diminished 
in quantity. With a knowledge of these facts one would hardly 
be prepared to find that chlorophyll after removal from the 
organs in which it was contained ceases entirely, or almost 
entirely, to react with aniline. A freshly prepared alcoholic 
extract of green leaves on the addition of aniline and evapora- 
tion at a gentle heat leaves a green syrup containing ap- 
parently unchanged chlorophyll, and after removal of the 
aniline by hydrochloric acid and water, the residue remaining 
undissolved, contains the ordinary decomposition products of 
chlorophyll with acids, generally without a trace of the peculiar 
product due to aniline. In one case — using an alcoholic ex- 
tract of grass — I did obtain a small quantity of the product after 
addition of aniline and evaporation, but after being kept for 
some time in a stoppered bottle, the extract — a part of which 
only had been used-lost the property of reacting with aniline 
without being at all changed in other respects. It appears 
therefore that the aniline-reaction manifests itself strongly and 
