CULTIVATION  AND  PREPARATION  OF  CASTOR  OIL  IN  ITALY.  57 
The  nitrogen  was  estimated  by  Will  and  Varrentrapp's  pro- 
cess. It  was  ascertained  by  a  trial  experiment  that  the  sugar 
and  soda  lime  employed  produced  no  appreciable  quantity  of 
ammonia. 
Is  white  chalk  the  only  form  of  carbonate  of  lime  which  con- 
tains actually  developed  ferments  ?  To  resolve  this  question,  I 
had  recourse  to  M.  Michel,  who  'supplied  me  with  a  block  of 
limestone  of  Pountil.  This  limestone  behaved  in  exactly  the 
same  way  as  white  chalk — in  short,  with  chalk  only  (without  any 
other  albuminoid  matter  than  that  contained  in  the  starch 
granules  and  the  trace  which  may  be  supposed  to  exist  in  cane- 
sugar),  cane-sugar  and  fecula  starch  may  be  fermented,  and 
produce,  besides  alcohol,  the  characteristic  limits  of  lactic  and 
butyric  fermentations. 
The  name  I  propose  for  the  small  chalk  ferments  is  "  Micro- 
zyma  cretae."  I  believe  this  to  be  the  first  example  of  a  class 
of  organisms  which  I  shall  have  the  honor  of  laying  before  the 
Academy.  The  microzyma  are  to  be  found  in  many  directions; 
they  accompany  various  other  ferments  ;  they  exist  in  certain 
mineral  waters,  in  cultivated  earth,  where  they  no  doubt  play  an 
important  part,  and  I  believe  that  a  great  number  of  molecules, 
considered  as  mineral,  and  animated  by  a  Brownian  movement, 
are  no  other  than  microzyma.  Such  are  the  deposits  of  old 
wines,  of  which  I  have  treated  in  a  former  paper,  and  the  de- 
posits already  described  by  Cagniard-Latour,  and  which  he  final- 
ly considered  as  inert  matter. — Chem.  News,  Oct.  19,  1866,  from 
Comptes  Rendus,  lxiii.  451. 
NOTE  ON  THE   CULTIVATION  AND   PREPARATION  OF 
CASTOR  OIL  IN  ITALY. 
By  H.  Groves,  Florence. 
Two  species,  or  more  probably  varieties,  of  Ricinus,  are 
found  growing  spontaneously  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy — R.  com- 
munis and  R.  africanus — the  distinction  being  chiefly  in  the 
stigmata,  of  which  the  former  has  three  deeply-forked,  and  the 
latter  six. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  at  what  epoch  these  plants 
were  introduced,  but  it  would  seem  probable,  from  the  early  use 
