176  Abietene,  a  New  Hydrocarbon.       { km:J™;^™™- 
on  cooling  it  solidified.  This  mass  was  washed  with  water  to  remove 
any  free  nitric  acid  ;  portions  of  it  were  then  dissolved  in  alcohol, 
ether  and  chloroform,  and  on  the  evaporation  of  the  solutions  it  was 
left  as  a  light  yellow  colored  powder. 
The  aqueous  solution  of  the  gum  was  boiled  with  nitric  acid,  evapo- 
rated to  dryness,  redissolved  in  distilled  water  and  concentrated.  On 
standing  for  some  time  small  crystals  were  deposited,  together  with  an 
amorphous  reddish-brown  coloring  matter.  The  mother-liquor  was- 
drained  off  and  the  coloring  matter  dissolved  out  with  alcohol,  leaving 
the  crystals  colorless  and  transparent.  As  the  number  obtained  was 
quite  smail,  no  satisfactory  results  could  be  obtained,  other  than  that 
they  were  very  soluble  in  water,  insoluble  in  alcohol,  were  not  entirely 
volatilized  when  heated  on  platinum  foil,  and  had  an  acid  reaction  to 
test  paper.  The  coloring  matter,  on  the  evaporation  of  the  alcohol, 
was  of  a  drab  color,  quite  bitter,  sparingly  soluble  in  water,  but  quite 
soluble  in  alcohol  and  ether. 
ABIETENE,  A  NEW  HYDROCARBON,  AS  TYPE   OF  A 
NEW  GROUP  OF  TERPENES. 
By  Samuel  P.  Sadtler,  Ph.D. 
In  the  number  of  this  journal  for  March,  1872,  Prof.  William 
Wenzell,  of  the  California  College  of  Pharmacy,  described  a  new 
variety  of  oil  of  turpentine,  under  the  name  of  abietene.  The  material 
which  formed  the  subject  of  his  investigation  was  obtained  from  the 
Pinus  sabiniana,  Dougl.,  a  tree  inhabiting  the  dry  sides  of  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  and  the  Coast  Range,  known 
more  familiarly,  however,  by  the  name  of  the  nut  pine  or  Digger  pine. 
Several  months  ago,  I  was  handed  by  a  friend  a  small  quantity  (less 
than  a  pint)  of  an  oil  of  turpentine  obtained  in  San  Francisco,  and  said 
to  be  derived  from  the  Pinus  ponderosa,  or  heavy  pine.  This  species 
belongs  to  the  class  of  yellow  or  pitch-pines,  in  which  is  found  the 
familiar  Pinus  australis  of  the  Southern  States,  the  source  of  our  com- 
mon English  oil  of  turpentine,  containing  as  its  distinctive  constituent 
the  hydrocarbon  australene. 
A  few  tests  sufficed  to  show,  however,  that  the  oil  I  had  in  hand 
answered  more  nearly  to  the  characters  of  Wenzell's  abietene  than  to 
the  ordinary  oil  of  turpentine,  so  that,  if  really  obtained  from  the 
