AmSrSS,  iSS™"}      The  Detection  of  Methylated  Ether.  149 
Chinese  population.  Trapa  bispAnosa,  Roxburgh,  indigenous  in  Ben- 
gal and  the  Peninsula,  in  the  Punjaub  as  well  as  in  Cashmere,  yields 
enormous  quantities  of  a  most  valuable  contribution  to  the  provisions 
of  the  people  throughout  India,6  where  the  plant  is  also  largely  cul- 
tivated. 
And  as  to  China  and  Japan,  Trapa  bicornis,  L.  fil.,  is  even  much 
more  important  to  a  very  large  number  of  the  lower  people  than  Tr. 
bispAnosa  is  in  India.  Trapa  bicornis  abounds  in  canals  and  shallow 
lakes,  in  localities  which  are  the  permanent  residence  of,  probably, 
millions  of  Chinese.  An  excellent  figure  of  the  hard  fruit  of  the 
Chinese  species  will  be  found  in  the  '  Science  Papers '  of  my  lamented 
friend,  Daniel  Hanbury,  -p.  241 . 
Xow  I  thought  it  well  worth  investigating  the  presence  or  absence 
of  manganese  in  the  Asiatic  Trapa.  A  few  fruits  of  Trapa  bicornis, 
not  from  China  proper,  but  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Amur,  were 
examined  at  my  request,  in  my  laboratory,  by  Mr.  Lojander.  He 
immediately  succeeded  in  demonstrating  the  presence  of  manganese  in  the 
ash  of  the  fruits  with  which  he  had  been  supplied.  Trapa  natans  and  Tr. 
bicornis  being  thus  proved  to  be  eminently  "  manganophile  "  (or  man- 
ganophage)  species,  there  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  intermediate  Tr. 
bispinosa,  which  I  am  sorry  not  to  have  at  my  command;  it  will 
very  likely  also  be  found  to  yield  manganate  if  it  is  treated  in  the 
same  way  as  pointed  out  in  my  first  paper.7 
Manganese,  it  is  true,  is  very  widely  distributed  throughout  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  yet,  certainly,  by  no  means  uniformly.  The  plants 
alluded  to  in  this  paper  are  prominently  remarkable  for  their  affinity 
to  that  metal. — Pharm.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  January  23d,  1886,  p.  621, 
Strassburg,  Germany. 
THE  DETECTION  OF  METHYLATED  ETHER. 
By  Hexry  TTillia^is  Jones,  F.C.S. 
Ether  prepared  from  methylated  spirit  commences  to  boil  at  a  much 
lower  temperature  than  ether  obtained  from  rectified  spirit;  and  by 
such  difference  the  two  varieties  may  be  discriminated. 
By  fractional  distillation,  the  first  distillate  beino;  several  times 
fractionated,  as  little  as  10  per  cent,  of  methylated  ether  may  be  found 
when  mixed  with  pure  ether. 
6  See  also  Drury,  'Useful  Plants  of  India,'  2nd  edition,  1873,  p.  430. 
7  Pharm.  Jour,  iii  (1872),  208. 
