On the Action of Aniline on Green Leaves 
and other Parts of Plants. 
BY 
EDWARD SCHUNCK, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
AND 
GEORGE BREBNER. 
With Plate IX. 
I N a paper entitled c The Chemistry of Chlorophyll ’ pub- 
lished in these Annals 1 it was shown by one of us that on 
exposure to the action of aniline many green leaves undergo 
in a very short time a remarkable change, manifested by the 
disappearance of the usual green and the development of an 
intense brown colour, the latter being due to the formation of 
a peculiar, well-defined crystallisable substance, to which the 
name ‘ anilophyll ’ was given. The object of the present com- 
munication is to give the results of the further study of this 
reaction, and the conclusions to which we have thereby been 
led. The general result at which we have arrived is this : — 
that the reaction referred to is not so intimately connected 
with the presence of chlorophyll — if by chlorophyll we mean 
as stated in the paper just named ‘ the substance to which the 
pure green colour of ordinary healthy leaves and other vege- 
table organs is due ’ — as was at first supposed ; that it is due 
in fact to a process of oxidation which the aniline employed 
1 Vol. III. pp. 65-120. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. VI. No. XXII. July 1892.] 
