858 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
cotton, and in the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa 2 The Indian 
cotton flowers are used by the natives as a dye stuff. The seeds 
of the plant also contain a somewhat feeble yellow dyestuff, not 
identical with gossypetin, which by the action of acid is con¬ 
verted into the so called cotton seed blue. 3 Moreover, in the 
bark of the stem there exists a dye 4 which somewhat rsembles 
gossypetin. 
Gossypetin crystallizes in glistening yellow needles. Its 
hexacteyl derivative melts at 222°-224°. Treated with sulphuric 
acid in acetic acid solution it forms a gossypetin sulphate con¬ 
sisting of glistening orange-red needles. This compound is de¬ 
composed by water into gossypetin and sulphuric acid. The 
hydrochloride prepared in the same way forms orange crystals 
and is very unstable. The hydriodide which forms orange red 
crystals is more stable. The hydrochloride could not be 
analyzed but the others are evidently formed by addition of one 
molecule of the acid to one of the pigment. This behavior sug¬ 
gests the oxonium formation. 
Gossypetin is very soluble in alcohol and slightly soluble in 
water. It dissolves in alkalies with an orange red color. Fused 
with alkalies it yields phloroglucin and protocatechuic acid. To 
wools mordanted with aluminum it gives a pale orange brown 
color; with tin, an orange red color, with chromium, a dull 
brown and with iron a deep dull olive color. 
The dyeing properties of the flowers of the Indian cotton are 
very distinct from those of gossypetin, due to the fact that they 
contain the glucoside and not the free coloring matter. With 
the ordinary mordants the following shades are obtained: 
Aluminum, dull yellow; tin, orange brown; chromium, dull 
brown-yellow; iron, dull olive. 
[. B. p.) Butein. 
While not a flavone derivative, butein is nevertheless referable 
to the same hydrocarbons as the flavone derivatives, being a 
tetrahydroxy-4, 5, 3', 4'-diphenyl-l-3-propene-l-one-3, or tetrahy 
droxy chalkon. 
3 C. r., 53, p. 444; Anzeiger der Akademie der Weissenschafter iti Krakaw, 
Nov. 1897. 
