Am.  Jour.  Pharru.l 
November,  1907.  J 
Poison  Sumac. 
519 
THE  FRUITS  OF  RHUS  VERNIX. 
The  diameters  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  fruits  were  meas- 
ured. The  values  for  the  longer  diameter  lay  between  4-91  mm. 
and  623  mm.;  the  shorter  between  3  55  mm.  and  5-04  mm.  From 
these  figures  it  will  be  seen  that  the  size  of  the  fruit  varies  consider- 
ably. One  hundred  specimens  were  selected  at  random  from  a  large 
number  and  weighed.  The  stones  were  then  removed  and  weighed. 
The  following  results  were  obtained  from  samples  of  100  specimens 
each : 
I.  II.  Mean. 
Fruit  2*4586  2-3836  2.4211 
Stones   1*8596  17967  1*8286 
The  stones  constitute  75  5 27  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the  fruit. 
A  preliminary  experiment  showed  that  the  ripened  fruit  contained 
an  abundance  of  fat.    The  fat-content  was  determined  as  follows  : 
A  quantity  of  the  fruit,  previously  freed  from  stems,  was  ground 
to  a  No.  20  powder.  About  25  grammes  of  the  ground  fruit  were 
accurately  weighed,  placed  in  a  Scheibler  desiccator  over  colorless 
sulphuric  acid,  and  dried  to  constant  weight.  The  dried  residue 
was  then  transferred  to  a  percolator  provided  with  glass  stop-cock 
and  percolated  with  petroleum  benzih  (b.  p.  below  65 °)  until  ex- 
hausted. The  solvent  was  then  evaporated,  the  residue  dried  at  6o° 
and  weighed  as  fat.  Fruit  grown  in  1905,  which  had  been  stored  one 
year,  gave  a  mean  of  4  290  per  cent,  of  moisture  and  21-163  per 
cent,  of  fat,  the  latter  being  calculated  on  the  undried  sample  as  col- 
lected. Fruit  grown  in  1906,  which  had  not  been  stored  for  any 
appreciable  length  of  time,  contained  4  95  I  per  cent,  of  moisture 
and  19  225  per  cent,  of  fat.  No  volatile  oil  was  present  in  the  fruits, 
as  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  desiccating  acid  remained  colorless 
during  the  entire  drying  of  the  ground  fruit.  The  crude  fat  is  a 
hard,  greenish-white  solid,  which  has  a  faint,  peculiar  odor  and  a 
faint,  somewhat  tallow-like,  rather  unpleasant  taste.  Its  specific 
gravity  is,  uncorrected,  0.9749  at  250  C./250  C.  It  melts  at  38°= 
390  C.  It  is  readily  saponifiable,  sap.  No.  236.3,  iodine  No.  13.105. 
The  crude  fat  is  almost  insoluble  in  cold  alcohol;  rather  difficultly 
soluble  in  hot  alcohol,  from  which  a  large  proportion  separates  on 
cooling  in  splendid,  white,  crystalline  flocks.  After  crystallizing 
once  from  benzin  and  twice  from  alcohol,  the  purified  fat  melted  at 
