86 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
It is probable that a considerable amount of evidence relating to the 
matter now in hand might be accumulated by studying the records of 
some of the earlier analyses of hay and other kinds of herbs and fod- 
ders, since the thorough lixiviation of the dried plants with water was 
an essential feature of several of the older methods of analysis, and it 
must have happefed that the composition of a very considerable num- 
ber of leached plants was thus determined incidentally. But the task 
would hardly repay the trouble of it, and it will be better, on many 
accounts, to refer instead to another set of results, bearing directly 
upon the present inquiry, that have been obtained by the chemists who 
have studied the action of water upon tea-leaves and the coffee-berry. 
It appears from a multitude of experiments that the ashes of tea, 
taken in its ordinary air-dried commercial state, amount, on the average, 
to about 5.75% ; * or to nearly 6% of the absolutely dry tea. From 53 
* According to the recent averages of Wanklyn and of Allen. That the ash 
of tea leaves is a remarkably constant quantity will appear from the following 
table, in which the names of observers and some other items relating to the text 
have been incorporated. 
Proportion of 
capita Ash in air-dried tea. the ash solu- Hixtrach, dissolrad by Bootie 
1 36-41% (green). 56-57%. 
; 35% (black). 65%. 
(Mean of i 50.81 (green, 2 exps.) 
2 5.23 4 samples). 44.4 (black, 2 exps.) 
43.4 (green, 10 exps.) 
8 5.56 (4 5, ) ; 88.4 (black, 18 exps.) 
4, 5.48 (5 oe 
5. 5.60 (5 5) 
6 5.63 (1 ytd) 3 86.26 tT 58.83 T 
86.25 (green, 3 exps. 
7 DOO aD e )) 62.82 i 31.92 (black, 15 exps.) 
8 DONO ny ice) 59.97 
9. B00. 9.0 aay, at) 53.00 
50 green. 
10. 5.75(10 ,, ) 68.09 180 eet 
11. 4.98 (3 ie) 424 
1. Brande, “‘ Quarterly Journal of Science,” 1822, 12. 201. 
2. Mulder, ‘‘ Poggendorft’s Annalen,” 1838, 43. pp. 169, 648. 
8. Peligot, ‘‘ Annales de Chimie et de Physique,” 1844, 11, 145. 
4. Horsford’s pupils, ‘‘ American Journal of Science,” 1851, 11. 249. 
6. Warrington, “ Edinburgh New. Phil. Journal,” 1851, 51, 249. 
6. Zeller, “‘ Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie,” 1871, 158, 180. 
7. Wigner, “‘ Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions,” 1878-74, 4, pp. 909, 
2 
8 
9 
. Wanklyn, “Chemical News,” 1873, 28. 187. 
. A. 8. Wilson, “ Chemical News,” 1873, 28. 307. 
10. A. H. Allen, “ Chemical News,” 1874, 29. 189. 
11. Hodges, “Chemical News,” 1874, 30. 115. 
+ ‘Not completely extracted.” 
