284 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
While the mean percentage obtained from these combustions 
indicated oxidation or the presence of adherent impurities, they 
also pointed strongly to the conclusion that the compound was 
a solid hydrocarbon. 
The announcement of this discovery was reserved until it 
should be confirmed by further study. But a paper describing 
generally the occurrence of crystalline compounds rich in car¬ 
bon was read, by title, last summer before the American Asso¬ 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. 1 This inference has 
been put beyond doubt by the further study of the compound. 
Twenty-five kilos of C as car a amarga were extracted and 
the residue purified by often repeated fractional crystalliza¬ 
tions, from which the following results were obtained: — 
0.1058 grms. gave 0.3413 C 0 2 and 0.1133 H 2 0 . 
0.1113 grms. gave 0.3588 C 0 2 and 0.1193 H z O. 
I. 
11. 
C. 87.97 
87.89 
H. 11.89 
11.90 
99.86 
99-79 
From the plants mentioned at the beginning of this paper 
in which this crystalline principle exists, the Phlox Carolina 
was also selected as the one to confirm still further the pre¬ 
sence and identity of this principle and its chemical compo¬ 
sition. 
Recently about 15 kilos of this drug were exhausted and the 
compound separated and repeatedly purified. Its ultimate 
analyses gave the following: — 
0.1117 grms. gave 0.3600 C 0 2 and 0.1208 H 2 0 . 
0.1314 grms. gave 0.4228 C 0 2 and 0.1421 H 2 0 . 
I. 
II. Theory for 
(ChH 18 ) x 
C. 87.90 
87.76 
88.00 
H. 12.02 
12.02 
12.00 
99.92 
99.78 
100.00 
The above results indicate that this compound is an unsat¬ 
urated hydrocarbon, and we intend to make it the subject of 
1 By Helen C. De S. Abbott, New York, August, 1887. 
