i2o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
By means of combining sulphuric acid and solvents, I was 
able to obtain several color reactions that may prove upon 
further investigation of value in identification of the different 
vegetable waxes. With Japanese wax, the only specimen of 
vegetable wax I could obtain, the color reactions differed in 
each test from the substance under consideration. The fol¬ 
lowing color reactions were obtained with the petroleum spirit 
residue. When small fragments were stirred on a watch crystal 
with two or three drops of concentrated sulphuric acid of 1.84 
sp. gr., the substance at once changed color to a clear garnet 
red and was slowly dissolved by the acid, the liquid remain¬ 
ing colored; with different portions of the red acid liquid 
stirred on a watch crystal with various solvents used in ex¬ 
cess, it was noted as follows: with absolute alcohol the color 
was instantly dissipated, leaving a white precipitate; petro¬ 
leum spirit discolored the acid solution, leaving no precipi¬ 
tate; ether discolored it with gray precipitate; chloroform 
changed the red acid liquid to yellow, no precipitate; with 
benzole the red color was changed to snuff-brown, gradu¬ 
ally passing to red-brown; amyl alcohol gave a rose-pink, 
slowly passing through varying tints to a fine purple. So-called 
pure amyl alcohol was used, and when tested did not give a 
color reaction alone with sulphuric acid. The petroleum spirit 
residue on boiling with absolute alcohol and, when warm, 
thrown into several times its volume of cold water, separated 
out as a white cloud. 
Under a method by which melissyl alcohol has been ob¬ 
tained from carnaiiba wax, 1 the petroleum spirit residue was 
submitted to a like treatment. It was boiled with alcoholic 
potash and saponified, the alcohol distilled off and lead acetate 
added; a heavy light yellow-colored precipitate formed, and 
on boiling, yellow masses separated out. They were washed, 
dried, and boiled with absolute ether. The filtered liquid 
on cooling deposited a yellow crystalline substance, which, 
on heating on platinum foil, turned black and disappeared. 
Beyond ascertaining the fusing-point, solubilities, and color 
reactions, the substance was not further examined. It was 
1 Liebig, Annalen , 183, p. 344, teste Watts’s Diet. Chem. 
