BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 871 
The results of this analysis are remarkably different from those obtained 
by the chemists who have examined ordinary fungi, such as mushrooms 
and toadstools, which show a large proportion of nitrogen and of ash. 
See, for example, the memoir of Schlossberger & Doepping in ‘* Annalen 
der Chemie and Pharmacie,’’ 1844, 52. 106. 
It would appear from the analysis made long ago by Torrey * that the 
tuckahoe consists for the most part of pectose, or a substance of similar 
properties, and that it contains very little, if any, sugar or starch or gluten. 
It seemed to Dr. Torrey ‘‘a very remarkable circumstance that an entire 
vegetable, in a dried state, should consist almost exclusively of one prox- 
imate principle.’’ 
With regard to the composition of the apple, however, it should be 
said that it is not very unlike that of some other fruits. Analyses of 
other kinds of fruits that have been made by Fresenius, in the place 
above cited, go to show that a few of them, such as pears, and some 
kinds of plums, contain no more nitrogen than the apple. 
The analysis of pomace, and the statement of the composition of 
the dry matter, contained in it, indicate some of the reasons why this 
substance has been held in such small estimation hitherto, either as 
fodder or as manure. Thus Marshall f long ago remarked that pomace 
“is considered of little value as manure (but I know not why).” He 
had, of course, no means of ascertaining, what the analysis clearly 
shows, that pomace actually contains only a very small proportion 
of matters that are useful as food for plants. There are, indeed, few 
vegetable substances likely to be used as manure that contain so small 
a proportion of nitrogen and of ashes as pomace. ‘The common opin- 
ion of our farmers that pomace has scarcely any fertilizing power, 
tions of the dilute potash lye, it appeared that scarcely any of it dissolved in that 
liquid. When tested with iodine and sulphuric acid, it did not give any blue 
coloration such as was readily obtained with cellulose that had been prepared 
from apples, potatoes, buttercups, and filter paper. In this connection a remark 
of Schlossberger in his ‘“‘ Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie,” Leipzig, p. 85, 
may be cited: ‘“‘ The membrane of yeast cells and the cell walls of fungi appear 
to be identical with ordinary celluJose, though it has not been observed that they 
give the blue reaction with iodine [after acid].”. Compare the analyses of 
cellulose from fungi, and other sources, in Gmelin’s “* Handbook of Chemistry,” 
15. pp. 129-1383. 
* “Medical Repository,” New York, 1821, 6. 37, and “ New York Medical 
and Physical Journal,” 1827, 6. 484. It is remarkable that this careful research 
of Torrey seems never to have been noticed either by investigators of pectous 
substances, or by the compilers of the chemical cyclopedias now in common use. 
¢ In his ‘“ Rural Economy of Glocestershire,” 1796, 2. 310, 
