of ether, and the whole is shaken. The stratum of ether decanted off is
mixed in a test-tube with a drop of acetic acid. A red color appears if
the slightest trace of magenta is present. The shaking must not be too
violent, lest an emulsion should be formed. If the wine is colored with
archil, on prolonged heating, after the addition of ammonia, it is
decolorized. If it is then let cool and shaken a little, the red color
returns. If the wool is taken out of the hot liquid after the red color
has disappeared, and exposed to the air, it takes a red color. But if
it is quickly taken out of the liquid and at once washed, there remains
merely a trace of color in the wool. If these precautions are observed,
magenta can be distinguished from archil with certainty according to
Koenig's method. As the coloring-matter of archil is not precipitated
by baryta and magnesia, but changed to a purple, the baryta method,
recommended by Pasteur, Balard, and Wurtz, and the magnesia test, are
useless. Magenta may in course of time be removed by the precipitates
formed in the wine. It is therefore necessary to test not merely the
clear liquid, but the sediment, if any.--_Dr. B. Haas, in Budermann's
Centralblatt.--Analyst_.

* * * * *




PANAX VICTORIAE.


Panax Victoriae is a compact and charming plant, which sends up numbers
of stems from the bottom in place of continually growing upward and thus
becoming ungainly; it bears a profusion of elegantly curled, tasseled,