Am.  Jour.  Pharra.  \ 
August,  1894.  J 
Contributions  to  Pharmacy. 
407 
in  the  development  of  some  plants  of  the  common  Bloodroot 
{Sanguinaria  Canadensis),  which  have  become  established  in  my 
yard.  Early  spring  was  unusually  capricious,  so  that  these  plants 
by  turns  developed  rapidly  and  shivered  in  the  wind,  or  were  buried 
in  full  bloom  under  the  snow. 
"  The  single,  broad  and  deeply-lobed  Bloodroot  leaf,  up  to  the 
time  of  flowering,  is  folded  tightly  around  the  flower  stalk,  and 
refuses  to  release  it  when  the  solitary  white  flower  is  ready  to  open, 
so  that  the  prisoner  has  to  force  itself  out. 
"As  the  petals  expand  and  the  summit  rises  above  the  leaf-fold, 
they  are  obliged  to  beat  the  leaf  down  to  make  room  for  them- 
selves, which  they  do  in  the  course  of  an  hour  or  so.  It  is  soon 
found  that  an  elongation  of  the  flower-stem  is  also  taking  place, 
and  the  flower  is  soon  carried  entirely  above  the  leaf,  the  stem 
making  a  growth  of  nearly  two  inches  in  the  two  hours  that  attend 
the  opening  of  the  flower.  On  the  second  day  the  leaf  relaxes  and 
expands,  soon  to  be  followed  by  other  leaves  from  the  root.  If 
there  is  lacking  any  evidence  of  design  in  plant-growth,  the  mode 
of  flowering  of  the  Bloodroot  ought  to  furnish  it. 
"  There  is  another  Bloodroot  from  North  Carolina,  in  occasional 
cultivation  here  [Buffalo,  New  York],  which  differs  considerably 
from  our  own,  though  scarcely  distinguished  from  it  by  botanists. 
It  has  a  leaf  of  similar  shape,  but  of  a  steel-gray  color  when  young  ; 
it  flowers  later  and  has  a  shorter  flower  stem,  which  does  not 
appear  to  possess  this  power  of  elongation  on  the  day  of  flowering. 
Bloodroot  with  pink  flowers  is  occasionally  found  in  this  vicinity." 
ESTIMATION  AND  SEPARATION  OF  THE  CACAO  ALKALOIDS. 
This  is  effected  according  to  Kunze  by  the  following  method  : 
10  gm.  cacao  are  boiled  for  twenty  minutes  with  1 50  cc.  of  5  per  cent, 
dilute  sulphuric  acid,  the  mixture  filtered,  the  residue  washed,  the 
alkaloids  precipitated  from  the  filtrate  and  washings  by  the  addition 
of  phospho-molybdic  acid,  allowed  to  stand  for  twenty-four  hours, 
the  precipitate  collected,  washed  with  800-IOOO  cc.  of  dilute  sul- 
phuric acid,  the  filter  with  precipitate  is  placed  in  a  beaker,  covered 
with  baryta  water,  carbon  dioxide  passed  in  to  thoroughly  precipi- 
tate the  baryta^the  mixture  evaporated  to  dryness  in  a  water-bath, 
the  residue  extracted  with  boiling  chloroform  and  the  solution 
evaporated,  dried  and  weighed. 
