OBSERVATIONS ON SASSY BARK. 
311 
vescence, and then evaporated to dryness. The dry mass was 
treated with boiling distilled water thrown on a filter, the green- 
ish grey residue washed with distilled water, and the washings 
added to the first liquid, which was perfectly colorless. This 
was divided into two parts and one set aside. 
This solution when much diluted, was not precipitated by caustic 
ammonia or potassa, but when not diluted, these reagents and 
their carbonates produced abundant white precipitates. Phos- 
phate of soda caused a bulky white precipitate, soluble in mu- 
riatic acid. Oxalic acid and oxalate of ammonia each produced 
white granular precipitates soluble in nitric acid. Sulphuric acid 
caused no precipitate in the dilute solution, but an abundant 
crystalline one when stronger. All the tests indicated lime in 
abundance. 
When the lime was separated by muriate and carbonate of 
ammonia, the filtered solution yielded no precipitate with 
phosphate of soda and ammonia. Chloride of barium caused 
no change. Hydrosulphuret of ammonia produced a slight 
black precipitate and ferrocyanuret of potassium, after stand- 
ing a while, caused a slight white deposit, but no evidence 
of iron. 
The reserved half of the solution obtained from the ashes, 
was then treated with an excess of solution of oxalic acid, and 
after the deposition of oxalate of lime ceased, it was collected, 
washed, dried, and ignited at a dull red heat, and the resulting 
carbonate of lime was found to weigh twenty-one grains, equal 
to forty-two grains from the whole of the bark treated, or about 
two per cent. It is probable that the greater part of the lime 
exists in the bark in combination with a vegetable acid as the 
ashes, which were obtained by gradual incineration, at a com- 
paratively low temperature, contained the lime as carbonate. A 
portion of the lime probably exists as phosphate. 
The portion of the ashes left on the filter after treatment with 
diluted muriatic acid and distilled water, was heated in strong 
muriatic acid, which dissolved all but a little silica and grit, and 
acquired a greenish yellow color. This solution when diluted, 
gave evidence of iron by ferrocyanuret of potassium. It was 
then boiled with acetate of soda and acetic acid, and the gelati- 
nous precipitate of the phosphate of iron dissolved in muriatic 
