VARIETIES.  561 
SOLUBILITY  OF  IRON  AND  OF  GELATINOUS  PROTOXIDE  OF  IRON 
IN  COD-LIVER  OIL  AND  OTHER  FIXED  OILS. 
By  M.  Vezu. 
1.  Metallic  iron  and  gelatinous  protoxide  of  iron  dissolve  in 
the  cold  in  cod-liver  oil. 
2.  Water  is,  in  most  cases,  required  to  promote  the  solution, 
excepting  with  iron  reduced  bj  hydrogen,  which  dissolves  with- 
out such  aid. 
3.  Oil  of  sweet  almonds  dissolves  iron,  and  acquires  a  mahog- 
any red  color. 
4.  Olive  oil,  castor  oil,  &c,  dissolve  iron  without  becoming 
sensibly  changed  in  color. 
5.  Oxide  of  iron  dissolves  with  more  facility,  in  proportion  as 
it  has  been  more  recently  prepared,  is  humid,  and  has  not  been 
exposed  to  the  air. 
6.  Iron  dissolved  in  oil  is  always  found  in  the  state  of 
protoxide. 
7.  Ether  dissolves  these  oils,  just  as  it  would  the  same  oils  in 
their  natural  state. 
8.  The  other  oxides  of  iron  are  scarcely  at  all  soluble  in  oils, 
either  with  or  without  the  aid  of  heat — London  Pharm.  Journ., 
Sept.  1857,  from  Rep.  de  Pharm. 
On  the  Iron-Wood  of  Borneo. — Hooker's  Journal  of  Botany  contains  a 
letter  from  James  Motley,  Esq.,  from  which  we  make  the  following  extracts., 
Mr.  Motley  writes  from  South  Borneo,  January  10,  1857. 
"With  the  introduction  to  the  "  Flora  Indica  "  I  was  very  much  delighted, 
and  above  all  with  that  most  excellent  chapter  on  variations  of  species. 
I  have  at  this  particular  station  some  beautiful  opportunities  of  studying 
these  variations  from  the  great  varieties  of  soil,  from  salt-marshes,  through 
fresh  water-marshes,  gravel,  coal-rocks,  green-stone,  and  metamorphosed 
coal-rocks,  up  to  the  great  range  of  serpentine  hills  which  bound  our  coal-field,, 
I  have  particularly  observed  the  marked  effect  of  this  last  soil  [serpentine) 
upon  the  color  of  flowers  ;  a  very  great  number  of  plants,  having  red  or 
purple  flowers,  become  pale  or  white  on  the  serpentine. 
I  believe  I  have  hit  at  last  upon  the  right  way  of  drying  succulent  plants, 
and  such  as  are  to  come  to  pieces  ;  and  if  nobody  has  thought  of  it  before 
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