AmMa?y'if8^!xm'}  Constituents  of  some  American  Plants.  229 
lute  hydrochloric  acid  took  up  4*418  organic  and  2*820  inorganic  mat- 
ter, total  7*238.  Treatment  with  chlorine  occasioned  a  loss  of  11*784 
per  cent.  ;  the  residue  now  weighed  33*460,  and  after  deducting 
11*240  for  moisture  in  the  drug,  the  loss  not  accounted  for  by  the  an- 
alysis, amounts  to  4*879  per  cent.  The  ash  of  the  air  dry  plant 
weighed  5*440  per  cent.,  only  *360  of  which  was  soluble  in  water  ;  the 
ash  consisted  of  carbonates,  chlorides,  sulphates  and  phosphates  of 
sodium,  potassium,  calcium,  magnesium  and  iron. 
Eupatorium perfoliatum,  Lin. — The  percentages  of  extract  obtained 
from  this  plant  by  the  successive  treatment  with  different  solvents, 
has  been  ascertained  by  Oscar  F.  Dana,  Jr.,  Ph.  G.  The  results  are 
as  follows  :  moisture  10*50,  extract  by  petroleum  benzin  3*80,  by 
ether  4'60,  by  alcohol  33*80,  by  water  24*80,  by  alkali  5*80,  cellulin 
11*70  ;  loss  by  treatment  with  chlorine,  &c.  5*00.  The  ash 
amounted  to  8' 3  per  cent.  Crystals  were  observed  in  the  benzin  ex- 
tract, and  were  prepared  in  larger  quantity,  by  exhausting  the  plant 
with  alcohol,  treating  this  extract  with  ether  and  the  ethereal  extract 
with  benzin.  Thus  obtained  the  crystals  were  still  impure  and  were 
not  further  examined. 
By  the  same  process  these  crystals  were  obtained  by  G.  Latin,  (Am. 
Jour.  Phar.  1880,  p.  392,)  who  succeeded  in  obtaining  them  white 
and  showed  them  to  be  wax  or  possibly  resin.  The  bitter  principle 
has  been  obtained  by  Latin  in  a  pure  or  nearly  pure  condition  and 
found  to  be  a  glucoside  ;  he  states  it  to  be  soluble  in  ether,  while  ac- 
cording to  M.  Parsons  (Am.  J.  Ph.,  1879,  p.  342,)  it  is  insoluble  in  the 
menstruum  named. 
Leptandra  virginiea,  Nutall. — To  obtain  the  bitter  principle,  Gust. 
Steinmann,  Ph.  G.,  poured  the  concentrated  tincture  into  water,  and 
agitated  the  acidulated  aqueous  solution  with  petroleum  benzin,  benzol 
and  chloroform ;  o  ily  the  benzol  liquid  yielded  a  residue  which  was 
crystalline.  500  gm.  of  the  drug  yielded  only  0.5  gm.  of  the  crystals, 
which  after  reerystallizing  from  ether,  were  of  a  pale  lemon-yellow 
color,  of  a  peculiar  agreeable-o  lor,  and  of  a  very  bitter  taste.  They 
were  found  to  be  insoluble  in  petroleum  benzin,  soluble  in  alcohol, 
ether  and  benzol,  less  freely  soluble  in  cold  water,  not  precipitated  by 
Mayer's  solution  or  by  tannin,  and  not  yielding  glucose  on  being 
boilei  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid.  The  resinous  matter  precipitated 
by  water  from  the  alcoholic  extract,  loses  the  bitter  taste  almost  com- 
pletely by  repeated  solution  and  precipitation. 
