237 
of Chlorophyll. 
pseudo-crystalline needles, much curved and twisted, which 
are brown by transmitted light. Chlorophyllan, according to 
Hoppe-Seyler, shows the same behaviour under the micro- 
scope. Towards solvents phylloxanthin behaves like phyl- 
locyanin. The solutions are fluorescent and when dilute 
exhibit a marked reddish tinge, of which nothing is seen in 
the case of phyllocyanin. 
The ethereal solution shows five bands closely resembling 
those of phyllocyanin, as regards both position and relative in- 
tensity, with this difference, however, that the first and second 
bands lie further away from the red end than those of phyl- 
locyanin, while the space between the fourth and fifth bands 
is so much darkened that when the solution is concentrated 
the two bands appear as one. Phylloxanthin remains un- 
changed when heated to 130°, but at 160° decomposition 
commences, and at 180 0 it is completely decomposed. 
When phylloxanthin is burned it always leaves some ferric 
oxide behind, a fact which might seem to favour the notion 
that iron is a constituent in some form or other of chlorophyll, 
and that on decomposition of the latter with acid the iron 
passes into the phylloxanthin, forming a compound from which 
it cannot be separated by ordinary treatment. A chloro- 
formic solution of phylloxanthin when exposed to sunlight 
in a loosely stoppered bottle is slowly bleached. When 
treated with concentrated hydrochloric acid, phylloxanthin 
is gradually dissolved, yielding a dark greenish-blue solution ; 
the substance undergoes a change by the action of the acid, 
but is not thereby converted into phyllocyanin. Phylloxan- 
thin yields a green compound when cupric acetate is added 
to its solution in glacial acetic acid, but no similar compound 
is formed when zinc acetate is employed. In this respect 
phyllocyanin behaves quite differently, yielding green or 
bluish-green compounds with zinc as well as with copper in 
the presence of acetic acid and other organic acids. Phyl- 
loxanthin dissolves easily in alcoholic potash or soda, yielding 
red solutions which on boiling turn green. The substance 
undergoes a change by the action of the alkali, but the 
