624 HYDROCYANIC ACID IN PLANTS. Partu. Its Occurrence in the Grasses of New South Wales. By James M. Petrie, D.Sc, F.I.C., Linnean Macleay Fellow of the Society in Biochemistry. (From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Sydney.) The systematic examination of Grasses for cyanogen compounds was the direct outcome of tests made to ascertain the cause of the sudden fatalities among stock, which took place in this State about two years ago. The sheep apparently had eaten nothing besides grass, and this-grass when tested was found to contain a cyanogenetic glucoside and the corresponding enzyme. It was conceived, that at least some of the frequent deaths from unknown causes, and which are often attributed to supposed poisonous plants, might possibly be due to such grasses. Reference to the literature on this subject shows that hydro-cyanic acid in grasses, was first discovered by Jorissen, in 1884, in Poa aquatica Linn., and this was followed by its detection in the sorghums, in 1902 (Dunstan and Henry). Up to the present, all the cyanophoric grasses recorded are included in about 14 genera, and are given in Table i. Some of these exotic grasses have been naturalised in this coun-try, and among them Briza minor, Lamarckia aurea, and Poa pra-tensis, are recorded by Couperot, as yielding hydrocyanic acid, when tested by him. ( Journ. Pharm. Chim., 1908, 28, 542) . These three grasses growing in this State, have been examined at various seasons, and have never given positive results, neither did they contain any trace of an enzyme capable of decomposing amygdalin. I
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