Am.  Jour.  Pharm. |_  QuiuM.  557 
Dec.  l,  1872. 
(3)  .  By  passing  an  electric  current  through  the  dilute  solution  in 
the  way  usual  in  electrolysis.  This  process  would  be  convenient  and 
economical  where  the  electricity  can  be  obtained  from  electro-mag- 
netic machines  worked  by  water-power. 
(4)  .  In  this  process  the  purified  mother-liquor  is  dried  up  with  ad- 
dition of  an  atom  of  an  alkaline  chlorate  for  each  atom  of  an  iodate 
present.  The  mixture  is  then  cautiously  heated  below  redness  until 
the  iodide  is  converted  into  iodate. 
After  the  iodic  acid  is  separated  from  the  mother-liquors,  the  bro- 
mide remaining  in  solution  may  be  converted  into  bromate  by  either 
the  processes  (1)  or  (4),  and  bromide  of  potassium,  obtained  by  the 
same  methods  as  used  for  obtaining  iodide  of  potassium.  Processes 
(2)  and  (3)  are  not  applicable  to  the  formation  of  bromate. —  Chemical 
News,  Oct.  18,  1872. 
QUINOA. 
(Chenopodrum  Quinoa.) 
By  M.  C.  Cookk,  M.  A. 
It  is  not  long  since  that  the  seeds  of  this  plant  were  procured  from 
Peru,  and  sent  to  India  in  order  to  secure  its  introduction  as  a  food 
plant  into  the  Himalayan  region.  It  is  in  Peru  and  Chili  that  the 
plant  is  chiefly  cultivated,  although  Humboldt  remarks  that  in  Mex- 
ico it  ranks  in  utility  with  the  potato,  maize  and  wheat.  Meyen  says 
that  for  those  countries  in  which  it  is  grown,  it  is,  next  to  the  potato, 
the  best  gift  which  nature  has  bestowed  on  man.  Over  all  the  plateau 
of  Southern  Peru,  above  the  height  at  which  rye  and  barley  still 
ripen,  the  quinoa  is  the  principal  object  of  agriculture,  and  on  the 
plateau  of  Chuguito  are  vast  fields  quite  covered  with  this  plant, 
which,  however,  do  not  give  the  landscape  the  charm  of  our  own 
beautiful  corn-fields.  On  good  soil  this  plant  attains  the  height  of 
three  or  four  feet,  and  bears  an  immense  quantity  of  seeds,  which, 
unfortunately,  for  a  long  time  feed  an  innumerable  flock  of  birds, 
like  sparrows,  for  this  plant  has  the  disadvantage  that  all  its  seeds  do 
not  ripen  at  the  same  time.  The  quinoa  is  still  cultivated  in  South- 
ern  Chili,  but  before  the  introduction  of  cereals  it  was  doubtless 
a  more  general  food.  The  variety  which,  according  to  Molina,  is 
called  Daline  by  the  Indians  of  Chili,  and  which  has  ash-grey  leaves 
