82 
Analysis  of  Fouquieria  Splendens. 
A.m  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1885. 
stations  and  upon  the  ranches  adjoining  the  desert/^  The  author  states : 
^'  Give  a  skillful  Mexican  ocotilla  poles  and  plenty  of  raw  hide  thongs 
and  he  requires  neither  nail  nor  hammer  to  construct  a  line  of  fence, 
which  for  combined  strength,  neatness  and  durability  fairly  rivals  the 
best  work  of  that  kind  done  in  our  land  of  saw-mills  and  nail  factories/' 
The  plant  is  botanically  described  under  the  order  Ihmariscineoe,  tribe 
III,  Fouquierece,  new  genus  and  species.^  For  other  sources  of  in- 
formation see  ^'  A  Tour  in  New  Mexico  f^^  and  in  "  Plantse  Wright- 
ianse  Texano-Mexicause.'^^  The  writer  has  not  been  able  to  find  any 
notice  of  chemical  studies  made  upon  it. 
The  specimens  of  ocotilla,  at  the  writer's  request,  were  collected  and 
transmitted  from  Lake  valley,  Southwest  New  Mexico,  through  the 
kindness  of  Professor  E.  D.  Cope.  The  portions  of  the  stem,  similar 
to  those  used  in  the  analysis,  vary  in  diameter  from  an  inch  to  an  inch 
and  a  half.  The  bark  shows  a  thickness  of  over  an  eighth  of  an  inch, 
and  is  of  a  sage  color  generally.  The  exterior  surface  is  made  rough 
by  an  interlacement  of  hard  projecting  material ;  some  of  the  smaller 
stems  are  encircled  with  the  gray  thorns  described,  arising  in  regular 
series  from  the  projecting  portions  of  the  bark.  Between  the  inter- 
lacements are  oblong  and  diamond-shaped  intervals,  which  are  filled 
with  superimposed  layers  of  a  yellowish  color  and  looking  as  if  coated 
with  a  wax.  They  appear  to  be  cemented  together  by  a  glistening 
substance  which  on  warming  the  bark  exudes  and  possesses  a  resinous 
or  gum-like  consistency. 
In  the  present  investigation,  the  scheme  proposed  by  DragendorflP^ 
has  been  followed  out,  with  the  exception  of  the  maceration  at  the 
ordinary  temperature ;  an  apparatus  similar  to  the  one  devised  by 
ToUens^  has  been  used  for  the  extractions.  The  air  dried  material  re- 
duced to  a  very  fine  powder  was  again  dried  at  100°  C.  giving  9*4  per 
cent,  moisture.  The  great  importance  of  powdering  the  material  for 
the  various  estimations  as  insisted  upon  by  DragendorflP^  was  fully  con- 
firmed in  these  examinations.     Quantitative   determinations  with 
1  Bentham  and  Hooker.    Genera  Plantarum. 
2  By  Dr.  N.  Wislizenus. 
3  Gray,  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge.  Vol.  iii,  Part  i,  p.  85 
and  Ft.  ii,  p.  63. 
*  Plant  Analysis,  Qualitative  and  Quantitative.  G.  Drageudorff,  Ph.D. 
Translated  from  the  German  by  H.  G.  Greenish.    London,  1884. 
5  '*  Zeitschrift  f.  anal.  Chemie,"  xiv,  82,  1875,  and  xvii,  320,  1878. 
*  Loc  cit. 
