ON VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. 
333 
distilled fluid, after saturation with carbonate of potass, fur- 
nished a liquid which dissolved camphor, burnt with a blue 
flame, and exhibited all the characteristics of alcohol. 
These experiments I have many times repeated, and with 
similar results. I also examined some specimens of goose- 
berries at this age, to discover their proportion of sugar, and 
invariably found it very sensibly less than that contained in 
them a fortnight before. Malic acid was also present, but it 
was small in quantity. 
Experiment 4. — Some gooseberries that had passed the 
period of maturity were submitted to very careful analysis; 
neither sugar nor alcohol was discovered, acetic acid and mu- 
cilage being the predominants. 
These experiments appear to justify the following in- 
ferences: — 1st. In the unripe state, gooseberries consist chief- 
ly of mucilage, lignin, malic acid, and bitartrate of potash. 
2d. When nearly arrived at maturity, they contain an abun- 
dance of sugar, its presence being attended with a dimi- 
nution in the quantity of gum, part of this substance having 
been converted into sugar. 3d. When they are completely 
ripe, their components are more numerous than at any other 
time; sugar and alcohol being additional to the constituents of 
the unripe berries. 4th. After the period of maturity is past, 
their composition again becomes simple, the only appreciable 
matters being lignin, mucilage, and acetic acid. 
Now it will be obvious that some of these constituents are 
formed by vital, and some by chemical processes. When a 
gooseberry is first formed, it is by the exudation of a little 
mucilaginous fluid at the extremity of the stalk, that afterwards 
attaches it to the tree. Through this fluid, inspissated by 
warmth and air, delicate fibres ramify in all directions, pro- 
ceeding from the stalk, their origin, and terminating at the 
opposite extremity. These fibres interlace, and supported by 
the mucilage, which serves at once for their matrix and sus- 
tenance, at last form a perfect boundary, by which a defence 
is provided, and from which a considerable secretion is ob- 
tained. These fibres are lignin, the bed through which they 
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