418 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTIONs 
fessor Stone that corn cobs contain much xylan and that an abun- 
dance of xylose can readily be obtained from this source in a 
condition of exceptional purity. 
In casting about for other instances, analogous to that of the 
corn cob, it was suggested to me that it might perhaps be worth 
the while to test the strawberry. On proceeding to do so, the 
following results were obtained. The dry matter in a sample of 
sound, southern strawberries purchased in Boston early in May 
yielded : — 
Woodtgnm . 15. ii. het Pa ie ee) ee 0.38 
TO Lie cases ie Goan we Gb obo 
Pentosans calculated erie the Peal Ace see Re te 6.48 
‘¢ Sugar,” stated as dextrose, consisting of a sarees of levu- 
lose and dextrose obtained by leaching the fruit with boiling 
water and heating the filtrate with HCl... .. ‘ . 22.96 
The residue insoluble in boiling water was hideoeee with 
HeS Os of 23%; it yielded ‘‘sugar” enough to amount to 
3.27% of xylose in the dry fruit, or in terms of xylan... 2.88 
By treatment with HN Os of 1.15 sp. gr. and weighing the 
mucic acid formed there was found of galactan. . ... .. 1.74 
Though familiar with Professor Stone’s analyses of many kinds 
of strawberries, as published in volume 8, page 257 of ** Agricul- 
tural Science,” I had forgotten that he had also tested the straw- 
berry for pentosans* and had obtained from the pulp of the fruit 
1.95% of furfuramid which as he shows would be equal to rather 
more than 3.29% of pentosans. In corn cobs, on the contrary, 
he found 8.16% of furfuramid or 13.77% of pentosans. 
That the sugar in the strawberries which is set down in the table 
as if it were all dextrose was really a mixture of levulose and 
dextrose was shown by the fact that its specific rotation at 20° C. 
was found to be [a],— 42.68. 
It is noticeable also that much more sugar has been found both 
by Stone and by European obsérvers in the fully ripened fruit 
examined by them than was obtained from my sample which had 
been brought — probably some hundreds of miles — from the 
South. In 20 different varieties of strawberries examined by 
Stone the lowest percentage of sugar (stated as dextrose) in the 
dry fruit was 52.45, the highest was 69.31 and the mean was 
57.60. The average of 33 European analyses shows 50.89% of 
* American Chemical Journal. 1891, 13. 77. 
