on Green Leaves ■ and other Parts of Plants . 171 
and which according to them is identical with the products 
previously described by Zincke and Hagen and by Kohler. We 
have prepared some of the product according to the process 
of Zincke and Hagen, and found its properties to coincide in 
every respect with those of anilophyll. Taking this fact into 
consideration it might perhaps have been thought proper for 
us to have adopted one or another of the names given by the 
chemists referred to. We prefer, however, to retain the trivial 
name anilophyll bestowed on it in the first instance, so as to 
avoid confusion for the readers of this journal and give them 
an easily pronounceable word instead of one of the unwieldy 
terms to which its place in the system would entitle it. 
Considering what has been stated by us regarding the origin 
and chemical properties of anilophyll it may be concluded that 
the formation of the substance, when green leaves are subjected 
to the action of aniline, must be due to the simultaneous 
presence of some form of active oxygen and some acid. The 
experiments we are about to describe leave it uncertain what 
particular form of active oxygen it is that produces the re- 
action, and whether the passive oxygen present may not pos- 
sibly have become ‘ activated ’ 1 before the reaction takes place. 
With regard to the reaction with aniline, green leaves may 
be divided into three classes. The first class comprises such 
as turn brown rapidly, i. e. in a few seconds, or at the longest 
a few minutes ; to this class belong the leaves of the common 
ash, beech, holly, thorn, dandelion, mint, and many other 
plants. In the second class are found such leaves as act with 
fair rapidity, the leaves of Tradescantia, and of many other 
monocotyledons, affording examples. The third class com- 
prises such leaves as are discoloured slowly or not at all ; such are 
the leaves of the lower and some of the higher monocotyledons, 
as well as of certain genera of dicotyledons, such as Ribes , 
RumeX) and others, and even of some individual species. Leaves 
1 We employ the words ‘ activate ’ and ‘ activation ’ as equivalents of the 
German terms ‘ aktiviren ’ and ‘ Aktivirung.’ Bacon uses the term ‘ activate ’ in the 
sense of heightening the effect of any physical agent, as e. g. the cold of snow or 
ice is activated by nitre or salt. 
N 
