Wakeman—Pigments of Flowering Plants . 857 
It was later isolated, by Perkin 2 and his associates, from a num¬ 
ber of other dye stuffs and has been found to be a hydroxy 
quercetin. 
Myricetin occurs as the glucoside myricitrin in the bark of 
Myrica nagi 1 and M. gale. 2 In the leaves of Rhus coriaria 2 R. 
cotinus 2 and R. metopium 2 It also occurs in Pistachia lentis- 
cuSy 2 Haematoxylon campechianum 2 and in the leaves of Arcto- 
staphylos uva ursi 2 
Myricetin crystallizes in small clear yellow crystals which melt 
with decomposition above 300°. It dissolves with difficulty in 
boiling water, more easily in alcohol, and almost not at all in 
chloroform and acetic acid. It dissolves in potassium hydrox¬ 
ide solution with a yellow color which changes in the air to 
bluish, and becomes finally dull violet red in color. Concen¬ 
trated alkali solutions give a permanent red color which goes 
through all the above changes upon dilution. Ammonia gives 
a more reddish color, lead acetate, a reddish orange color which 
becomes yellow upon boiling. Myricetin is dissolved with a 
red color in sulphuric acid and is precipitated upon the addi¬ 
tion of water. Ferric chloride gives a black color in alcoholic 
solutions. Fused with alkalies myricetin rapidly becomes 
brown and yields principally gallic acid and phloroglucin. 
Myricetin dyes fabrics mordanted with aluminum a brownish 
orange; with chromium, a red brown; with tin, a deep orange 
red; and with iron, an olive black. 
Gossypetin. 
In 1899 Perkin * 1 isolated from the yellow flowers of the Indian 
Cotton- -Gossypium herbaceum a yellow pigment which he 
called gossypetin. This substance has the molecular composi¬ 
tion C 15 H 10 0 8 . It is isomeric with myricetin with six hydroxy 
groups, two of which are in relatively ortho-position. In its be¬ 
havior it closely resembles the flavone derivatives. It is prob¬ 
ably a member of the flavone group. 
Gossypetin occurs principally in the form of the glucoside 
gossypitrin in the flowers of Gossypium herbaceum, 1 the Indian 
•Czapek, p. 521. 
*Jr. Chem. Soc., 69, p. 1287. 
a Jr. Chem. Soc., 81, p. 203; 77, p. 424, 427. 
1 Jr. Chem. Soc., 75, p. 825. 
* Jr. Chem. Soc., 95, p. 1855. 
