SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS 281 
pounds in various plants. Our eventual results will form the 
substance of a future communication.” 
The results of the investigations referred to in the above pre¬ 
liminary announcement appear in the following paper, entitled 
“On the Occurrence of Solid Hydrocarbons in Plants,” by 
Helen C. De S. Abbott and Henry Trimble.] 
WHEN many plants of the higher botanical orders are ex¬ 
hausted with petroleum-ether, crystalline compounds may be 
separated from the extracts which have not been noticed previ¬ 
ously to these investigations. These compounds are also obtained 
when alcohol or ether is used as a solvent; but it is preferable, 
on account of the greater number of constituents extracted by 
these menstrua, to employ petroleum-ether, and thus avoid 
certain difficulties of separation. Among the plants in which 
up to this time these compounds have been discovered may 
be mentioned Cascara amarga, Phlox Carolina , and the Phlox 
species, Anthemis nobilis, and in different species of the follow¬ 
ing natural orders: Rubiaceae, Rhodoraceae, Eupatoriaceae, and 
others among the Composite. 
The crystals from these petroleum-ether extracts first at¬ 
tracted attention in the winter of 1884. Samples of “ chichi- 
pate” bark which yielded, on powdering, about two hundred 
grams, were then obtained and submitted to chemical ex¬ 
amination. This bark was subsequently, from chemical analy¬ 
sis, identified as Cascara amarga . 1 
Other investigations prevented the announcement of this 
work until some time later, under the title of “Preliminary 
Analysis of a Honduras Plant named ‘ Chichipate.’ ” 2 In this 
paper a new crystalline compound was described and identified 
by its physical and chemical properties as a “ camphor-like 
body.” Its analysis gave the following results: — 
I. 
C. 80.84 
H. 10.13 
1 Journal Franklin Institute, vol. cxxiv, p. i, Abbott. 
2 By Helen C. De S. Abbott. Amer. Assoc. Adv. of Science, Buffalo, Aug., 
1886. 
II. 
80.90 
IO.II 
