28- 
the sample with water. The extract of this sample of pea 
vines obtained by first boiling it, after having previously 
freed it from gums and fats, with fifty times its weight of 
water for an hour and a half, subsequently digesting with 
diastase for two hours at 55-60 degrees and inverting with 
10 c. c. of concentrated hydric chlorid at a temperature of 
QO-Q5 degrees, failed to give any more sugar than was 
added with the diastase though tested three times. 
That starch should be found in the other sample is in 
accord with the condition of the plant at the time of cut- 
ting, i. e., in full pod with many ripe pease. The large per- 
centage of lignones in the crude fiber of the hay made 
from the maturer vines may be due to the relatively large 
quantity of pods in the sample and suggests a great differ- 
ence in the quality of the samples. 
The pea-vine hay made from the less mature vines 
resembles the alfalfa samples not only in the amount of 
lignones present in the crude fiber, but also in the amount of 
xylan yielded upon distillation, 1 1.17 per cent. The amount 
of the lignocelluloses present varies with the maturity of 
the plant, especiall}^ those which are not susceptible to 
hydrolysis by dilute acids and alkalies increasing with ma- 
turity, while the cellulose remains nearly constant. 
The furfurol yielding complexes, expressed as xylan, 
are less abundant in the mature plants than in the younger, 
but the difference is probably within the limits of error due 
to the method, and not conclusive as regards their variation 
in the plant. The sample made from plants in full bloom 
yielded 1 1. 1 7 per cent, xylan, and the one cut, when the 
plants were in full pod, gave 10.23 per cent. The range in 
the percentage of xylan found in our alfalfa samples is 
from 8.9 to 14.50 per cent., but fluctuates so irregularly that 
no evident relation can be discovered between the develop- 
ment of the plant and the amount of xylan found and the 
same would probably be the case with the pea-vine hay if 
our series of samples were only slightly extended. It is 
true, too, that our method is not v^ery sharp and small differ- 
ences in percentages have so slight a significance that the 
range of only about six percent, may be taken as establish- 
ing the xylan content of alfalfa and pea-vine ha}'s at about 
ten or twelve per cent, d'he relation of the lignones to the 
xylan found is not made apparent b}^ our results, if any 
exists at all ; the ratios obtained are approximately as fol- 
lows : for clover, 0.30:1 ; for alfalfa, 0.47:1 ; for pea-vine hay, 
cut when the plants were in full bloom. 0.42:1; but for pea- 
vine hay cut when the plants were in seed, the ratio found 
