86 
ON ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. 
half a dram of yeast added to the mixture; the whole was 
then placed in a small flask, and connected, by means of a 
tube, with an inverted jar over mercury. After the fer- 
mentation had ceased, a quantity of gas was found in the 
jar over the mercury, which was rapidly and entirely ab- 
sorbed, when a piece of moist caustic potassa was introduced 
into it. 
The residue, after fermentation, was distilled until one- 
sixth of its bulk had passed over into the receiver. This 
had an alcoholic odor, and on agitating it with carbonate of 
potassa to separate the water, the remaining fluid burned, 
on the application of a lighted taper, with a blue flame, and 
possessed other characteristics of alcohol. The capacity of 
the extract to yield alcohol and carbonic acid, by fermen- 
tation, is sufficient evidence of the existence of sugar. 
One thousand grains of the dried root yielded, by incine- 
ration, a residue weighing forty-five grains, of which fifteen 
were soluble in boiling water. The solution thus obtained, 
effervesced with acids, possessed a strong alkaline reaction, 
and formed salts with nitric acid and bichloride of platinum, 
having the characters of nitrate of potassa and platino- 
bichloride of potassium. The residue left after treating the 
ashes with boiling water, was digested in nitric acid, diluted 
and filtered. Tested with oxalate of ammonia and ferro- 
cyanuret of potassium, it gave evidence of the existence of 
oxide of iron and lime? 
Seeds* — The fruit of the Arum tripkyllum present several 
features of interest. The exterior or pericarp, when in a 
green state, possesses the acrimony of the plant in a con- 
centrated degree, but as the season advances it becomes 
scarlet and pulpy, entirely loses its acrimony, and in this 
state affords a well relished food for many of the feathered 
tribe. 
Within this pericarp areseveral hard seeds, consisting se- 
verally of a tough envelope enclosing a white amylaceous in- 
terior substance. This envelope of the seeds possesses the 
