Farmer and Ross3 have reported that when 3-methyl-2-cyclohexene-1-one is treated with ethyl cyanoacetate and ammonia in alcohol, according to the conditions of the Guareschi rea~ tion,~ they obtained, in addition to the expected Guareschi imide (I), an amide to which they assigned the diamide structure (11). Since I1 appeared to be a useful intermediate for the preparation of morphan derivatives the preparation reported by Farmer and Ross was ...