540 
Oil  of  Monarda  Fistulosa. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X    October,  1896. 
The  material,  to  which  reference  is  made  in  the  above  paragraph, 
was  collected  weekly,  as  far  as  possible,  and  was  obtained  largely 
from  the  same  field  from  which  the  previous  material  had  been  col- 
lected. There  existed,  however,  a  marked  difference  in  the  plants. 
The  summer  of  1895  having  been  exceedingly  dry,  the  plants  were 
rather  small,  and,  on  the  whole,  did  not  possess  a  healthy  appear- 
ance. A  noticeable  difference  in  the  oils  also  existed.  Whereas,  the 
oil  distilled  in  1894  was  dark  red  in  color,  that  distilled  in  1895 
from  the  same  field  was  on  the  whole  of  a  light  yellowish  color. 
Even,  as  in  some  instances,  when  the  oil  was  slightly  reddish  in 
color  when  freshly  distilled,  this  color  disappeared  upon  standing. 
Further  details,  with  regard  to  conditions  of  the  herb  and  of  the 
peculiarities  of  the  oil  obtained  therefrom,  will  be  given  in  a  subse- 
quent table. 
It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  a  quantity  of  oil  distilled  from  the 
herb  growing  under  more  favorable  conditions  and  collected  at  a 
point  only  five  miles  distant  from  the  former  field,  was  dark  red 
with  a  permanent  dark  red  color. 
It  is  still  too  early  to  state  definitely  from  what  part  of  the  herb 
this  coloring  matter  is  obtained.  It  was  thought,  at  first,  to  reside 
in  the  purplish  stems.  It  was  learned,  however,  that  the  presence 
or  absence  of  those  stems  had  no  effect  on  the  color  of  the  oil.  It 
may  be  worth  mentioning  in  this  connection  that  the  yellowish  oil 
was  obtained  from  plants  devoid  of  flowers,  also  with  such  in  full 
blossom,  but  poorly  developed  seeds.  On  the  other  hand,  dark  red 
oil  was  obtained  from  plants  in  full  blossom,  in  which  the  seed  that 
had  already  formed  seemed  normally  developed.  It  is  too  early, 
however,  to  attribute  the  coloring  to  the  normally  developed  seeds. 
Possibly  there  is  no  relation  between  the  two,  the  poorly  developed 
seeds  and  the  absence  of  volatile  coloring  matter  being  both  due  to 
the  excessive  drought.  This  subject,  like  other  subjects  pertaining 
to  this  oil,  will  be  further  investigated. 
Experimental  Part — Inasmuch  as  the  various  specimens  of  the 
oil  have  been  obtained  at  different  intervals  during  the  summer 
and  early  fall,  it  was  of  considerable  interest  to  ascertain  if  the 
phenol  constituent  of  these  oils  varied  to  any  extent.  Determina- 
tions were  therefore  made  of  each  separate  specimen. 
The  following  table  contains  an  enumeration  of  the  oils  obtained 
from  plants  collected  near  Chandler  Street  at  different  times  during 
