56 
Leaves  of  Liatris  Odoratissima. 
Am.  Jour.  Pliarru. 
March.  1899. 
tion  alkaline  with  ammonium  hydrate,  or  by  mixing  the  alkaline 
liquid  so  obtained  with  several  volumes  of  alcohol. 
Starch  was  not  found  in  the  material  examined. 
A  portion  of  the  powdered  leaves  lost  6-1  per  cent,  of  its  weight 
upon  complete  drying  at  no°.  This  loss  in  the  presence  of  the 
coumarin  must  be  taken  as  indicating  only  approximately  the  mois- 
ture in  the  air-dried  leaves. 
The  residue  from  drying  left  upon  ignition  875  per  cent,  of  ash. 
About  70  per  cent,  of  this  ash  was  soluble  in  water.  The  water 
solution  had  an  alkaline  reaction,  and  contained  sodium,  potassium, 
sulphur  trioxide  and  chlorine.  The  remainder  of  the  ash,  with 
the  exception  of  a  trace  of  silica,  dissolved  in  hydrochloric  acid  with 
effervescence,  showing  carbonates.  The  hydrochloric  acid  solution 
contained  calcium,  magnesium,  aluminum  and  phosphoric  oxide. 
Coumarin. — As  already  stated,  Professor  Procter  pointed  out  the 
presence  of  coumarin  in  this  plant.  As  he  did  this  from  the  obser- 
vation of  certain  chemical  behaviors  which  he  found  the  substance 
to  possess,  it  was  thought  desirable,  in  this  connection,  to  make  an 
elementary  analysis  of  the  substance  with  the  view  of  adding  to  his 
results.  For  this  purpose  a  quantity  of  the  ground  material  was 
extracted  with  petroleum  ether,  the  solvent  removed  by  evaporation 
at  ordinary  temperature,  and  the  crystalline  matter  of  the  residue 
repeatedly  recrystallized  from  hot  alcohol  until  the  melting-point  of 
the  crystals  was  constant.  The  constant  point  was  found  to  be  be- 
tween 66°  and  670  C.  This  purified  material  was  submitted  to  ele- 
mentary analysis,  with  the  following  result : 
The  accepted  formula  for  vanillin,  to  the  odor  of  which  that  of  the 
plant  is  likened,  indicates  carbon,  63-1  5,  hydrogen,  5-34,  and  oxygen, 
31-5  1  per  cent. 
It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  say  that  the  melting-point  of 
coumarin,  as  given  by  different  authors,  is  the  same,  as  illustrated 
by  the  following  examples,  taken  from  Husemann  and  Hilger's 
"  Pflanzenstoffe  :"  According  to  Zwenger  and  Bodenbender,  it  melts 
at  640  C. ;  according  to  Perkin,  at  670  to  67-5°  C. ;  according  to 
Per  Cent. 
Calculated  for 
Coumarin. 
Carbon  .  . 
Hydrogen 
Oxygen  . 
75-00 
472 
20*28 
73'97. 
4-12 
2I'9I 
