Schorger—Chemistry of American Conifers. 733 
tosan and methylpentosan; (8) cellulose; (9) acids formed by 
hydrolysis; (10) methoxy groups; and (11) the ash, pentosan, 
and methylpentosan content of the cellulose. A great amount 
of experimentation was necessary in order to work out methods 
giving accurate results. 
Resume of Results 
The composition of some of the volatile oils is particularly in¬ 
teresting. From the oil of Port Orford cedar wood was obtained 
a very pure d-a-pinene having a higher specific rotation than 
had been previously reported for this terpene. The leaf oil of 
incense cedar contained a new sesquiterpene that was named 
“labocedrene”. Previous to the present work /?-pinene had 
been detected in quantity in only one oil while in 12 of the oils 
from American conifers /?-pinene was found to be the major 
constituent. It was possible to obtain apparently pure fractions 
of /3-pmene from some of the conifers, and the constants for 
the natural terpene were found to be considerably higher than 
those recorded by Wallach for his synthetic ^-pinene. 
Turpentine oils usually consist only of terpenes, a-pinene, 
/8-pinene, and camphene being the usual constituents. Phellan- 
drene had not been previously recorded as occurring in oils of 
this class but it was found that the turpentine oil of P. contorta 
consisted almost entirely of this terpene. The same holds true 
with respect to sesquiterpenes. Cadinene was identified in the 
turpentine oils of P. edulis and P. monophylla, and an uniden¬ 
tified sesquiterpene occurs in P. ponderosa. So far as known 
the only turpentine previously mentioned as containing a ses¬ 
quiterpene is P. longifolia of India. 1 
The composition of the oils has brought out several points of 
phytochemical and botanical interest. The oil obtained from the 
oleoresin of P. sabimana consists almost entirely of n-heptane 
while that from the needles consists of terpenes. The source of 
the small amount of heptane, 3 per cent, present in the needle 
oil may be safely attributed to the small twigs, since they were 
not removed from the needles before distillation. The phyto¬ 
chemical processes occurring in the wood and in the needles are 
accordingly entirely different. 
1 Schimmel and Company. 
