414 
Reviews. 
<  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t      August,  1398. 
Gray;16  P.  Baldwinii,  Nutt;17  P.  variabilis,  H.  B.  K.  albi  flora,  D.  C.  ;18  P. 
oleifera,  Heckel;18  P.  javana,  D.  C;1SP.  serpillacea,  Weihe  (syn.  P.  depressa, 
Warden;  probably  P.  depressa,  Wenderoth,  of  Bourquelot19) ;  P.  calcarea,  F. 
Schulz;19  P.  vulgaris,  L.  Under  the  genera  Gaultheria  is  mentioned,  besides 
G.  procumbens,  G.  fragrantissima,  Wall,  (syn.  G.  punctata,  Blume,  and  G. 
Leschenaultii,  D.  C,  the  supposition  is  advanced  that  A.  Leschenaultii  of 
Broughton  20  is  identical  with  G.  fragrantissima),  G.  punctata,21  and  G.  leuco- 
carpa,  Blume.22 
According  to  a  still  more  recent  investigator, 2  3  methyl  salicylate  is  found  in 
still  other  plants.  Mention  is  made  of  this  ester  as  occurring  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  plants  of  the  following  natural  orders,  Iveguminoseae,  Sapindacese, 
Euphorbiaceae,  Aurantiacese,  Bixineae,  Oleaceae,  Rubiacese  and  Polygalaceae, 
as  also  proven  to  exist  in  the  Jasmineae,  Cupuliferse,  Myrtacese,  Rosaceae,  Tilia- 
ceae,  Rhamneae,  Erythroxyleae  and  Gramineae.  The  most  methyl  salicylate 
was  found  in  Abrus  precatoria,  which  yielded  28  milligrammes  per  kilo,  and 
the  least  was  found  in  Briedelia  lanceolata  (N.  O.  Euphorbiaceae),  which 
yielded  1-36  per  mille.  Among  the  plants  found  to  contain  methyl  salicylate 
were  Coffea  liberica  and  C.  arabica. 
The  interest  in  these  investigations  is  only  beginning.  The  results  will  be 
of  great  value  and  interest  to  the  botanist  and  chemist,  as  well  as  the  pharma- 
cist. The  literature  must  be  sifted,  the  observations  confirmed  and  the  pecu- 
liar conditions  understood  under  which  the  formation  of  methyl  salicylate  is 
made  possible  before  we  can  do  more  with  the  material  at  command.  It  is 
possible  that  when  these  observations  are  completed  that  they  will  be  found  to 
possess  important  systematic  value,  and  have  also  a  physiological  significance 
in  the  study  of  plants. 
REVIEWvS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
An  Illustrated  Flora  of  the  Northern  United  States,  Canada  and 
the  British  Possessions,  from  Newfoundland  to  the  parallel  of  the  southern 
boundary  of  Virginia,  and.  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  westward  to  the  I02d 
meridian.  By  Nathaniel  Lord  Britton,  Ph.D.,  and  Hon.  Addison  Brown.  Vol. 
III. 
Volumes  I  and  II  have  already  been  reviewed  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy,  November,  1896,  p.  630,  and  August*  1897,  p.  428.  The  concluding 
volume  of  this  important  contribution  to  American  botany  has  just  been  issued. 
It  treats  twenty-eight  families,  from  Apocynaceae  to  Compositae,  in  the  sequence 
of  Engler  and  Prantl.    As  this  includes  the  more  important  and  largely  repre- 
ie  Reuter,  in  Arch,  der  Pharm.,  CCXXVII,  p.  309.    See  also  Lloyd's  paper  in  Pharm.  Rand., 
VII,  p.  86  ;  Karl  Mohr,  ibid,  p.  191,  and  Maisch,  ibid,  p.  236. 
17 H.  C.  C.  Maisch,  in  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,  LXII,  p.  484. 
18Romburgh  in  SchimmeV s  Report,  Oct.,  1895,  p.  50. 
19  Compies  rendus,  CXIX,  p.  S02. 
-°  J.  Broughton,  in  Pharm.  Jour.  Trans.  [3],  XI,  p.  281. 
21  Berichte,  XII,  p.  246. 
22  Koehler,  Comptes  rendus,  CXIX,  p.  802. 
23  Nederl.    Tijdschr.  voor  Pharm.,  p.  i,  through  Pharm.  Zeit.,  1898,  p.  304. 
