408 
GOSSYPIUM  HERBACEUM. 
5th.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  oil  from  the  seed,  and  to  what 
valuable  use  may  it  be  applied. 
It  has  not  been  my  expectation,  by  any  means,  to  offer  satis- 
factory answers  to  any  of  the  queries  indicated  on  the  present 
occasion.  The  subject  is  one  of  deep  interest  and  one  of  which 
I  desire  to  pursue  in  detail,  this  my  other  engagements  will  not 
permit  at  present^  but  I  have  chosen  to  spend  what  hurried  hours 
I  could  upon  it,  and  offer  it  in  this  crude  state,  with  the  promise 
of  something  more  definite  in  the  future. 
While  absent  on  a  brief  visit  to  my  family  in  the  month  of 
December,  I  procured  some  bark  and  fibres  of  the  cotton  root, 
taken  after  the  lint  had  chiefly  matured.  The  root  had  not 
been  touched  by  frost,  and  was  consequently  in  the  green  state. 
It  was  dried,  ground  to  a  coarse  meal,  macerated  in  diluted  al- 
cohol for  48  hours,  transferred  to  a  percolator  and  exhausted 
with  the  menstruum.  Alcohol  of  90  per  cent,  was  then  added 
until  it  passed  clear.  The  tinctures  thus  procured  were  evapo- 
rated separately  to  the  consistence  of  a  soft  extract,  mixed  to- 
gether and  treated  with  wTater,  left  behind  the  dark  red  substance 
marked  »  A"  in  the  accompanying  samples.  This  was  treated 
with  strong  alcohol,  and  filtered  from  a  dark  red  friable  mass 
marked  "B,"  which  was  almost  entirely  insoluble  in  water,  al- 
cohol, ether  and  chloroform. 
The  alcoholic  solution,  on  standing  exposed,  deposited  gradually 
a  sediment  corresponding,  in  all  respects,  so  far  as  examined,  to 
sample  "  B."  This  solution  was  evaporated  to  dryness  and 
marked  "  C,"  and  was  then  only  partly  soluble  in  alcohol. 
The  aqueous  solution  evaporated  to  dryness  was  found  to  con- 
tain sugar  ;  marked  "  D."  All  these  solutions  had  the  deep  red 
color,  less  marked  however  in  the  aqueous  than  alcoholic.  Both 
nad  a  marked  astringency  to  the  taste,  more  intense  in  the  alco- 
holic.   This  was  tested  as  follows : 
Gelatine  was  precipitated. 
Starch  precip.  light  brown  sol.  remains. 
Albumen  precipitated. 
Hydrochloric  acid  precip.  beautiful  light  cherry. 
Sul.  acid  precip.  bright  cherry  insol.  excess. 
Nitric  acid  dil.  precip.  cherry ;  strong  acid  destroys. 
Phosphoric  acid  precip.  light  reddish  brown. 
