Am  -Tour.  Pharm. ) 
Jan.,  188'-'.  j 
Gl€(imngs  in  Materia  Medim. 
13 
chloric  acid  is  added,  wlien  it  becomes  green,  and  on  heating,  green 
brown". 
Concentrated  potassa  solntion  does  not  saponify  the  oil,  but  in  the 
cold  colors  it  orange-red,  and  on  heating  produces  a  red-purple  viscous, 
mass.  Recently-distilled  oil  is  scarcely  colored  by  potassa  until  it  has 
become  oxidized  by  exposure.  Oil  of  peppermint,  fresh  or  oxidized^ 
does  not  give-this  reaction  ;  in  the  cold  a  white  emulsion  is  obtained^ 
and  on  heating,  a  slightly  yellow  mixture. 
Oil  of  peppermint  must  be  considered  adulterated  if  with  potassa 
solution  it  acquires  an  orange-red  color,  yields  a  turbid  mixture  with 
an  equal  bulk  of  85  per  cent,  alcohol  at  15°C.,  and  if  it  turns  polar- 
ized light  feebly  to  the  left ;  the  rotating  power  of  pure  oil  of  pepper- 
mint Avas  found  to  be  between  — 24*5  and  — 32*3°. — Rep.  de  Phar.y 
1881,  pp.  415-120  and  466-469. 
Bombay  mace,  which  is  occasionally  found  in  the  market,  according 
to  A.  Tschirch,  differs  from  ordinary  mace  in  several  respects,  and  is 
doubtless  obtained  from  a  different  species  of  myristica.  The  lobes  of 
the  arillus  are  longer  and  tliimier  than  those  of  true  mace ;  it  is  of  a 
dark  brown  red  color,  and  on  the  inside  has  adhering  to  it  a  thin 
parchment-like  crumbled  membrane,  which  is  never  found  in  true 
mace.  The  epidermal  cells  are  radially  elongated,  narrow  and  twice 
as  high  (those  cells  of  true  mace  are  tangentially  elongated  and  low) ;, 
their  membranes  shows  the  cellulose  reaction  with  iodine  and  sulphuric 
acid  beautifully,  and  with  zinc  chloride  and  iodine  swell  and  turn 
faintly  blue.  The  oil  cells  are  very  numerous,  located  near  the  epid- 
ermis on  both  sides,  often  close  together  in  groups  of  two  or  three,  oval 
in  shape,  somewhat  radially  elongated,  and  contain  a  dark  yellow,, 
usually  resinified  oil,  frequently  also  brownish  resin. — Phar.  Zeitung^ 
1881,  No.  74. 
Phytolacca  dioica,  Lin.,  s.  Percunia  dioica,  Moquin-Tandon,  is  indi- 
genous to  Brazil  or  Mexico,  and  has  been  naturalized  in  Algeria,  where 
trees  may  be  seen  having  a  height  of  seven  or  eight  meters,  and  trunks 
of  two  to  three  meters  in  circumference,  having  a  spongy  wood.  The 
l)erries  grow  in  racemes,  are  yellowish-green,  weigh  about  one  gram 
and  are  twelve  to  fifteen-celled,  each  cell  containing  a  flattened  seed^ 
enclosing  a  cylindrical  embryo,  curved  around  the  endo-S})erm. 
According  to  Balland,  tin;  berries,  which  are  sweet  and  edible,  yield 
by  expression  seventy-four  per  ceiit.  of  juice,  which,  after  filtration,  is 
