142 



Electric Phenomena in Plants. — Some interesting results have been 

 obtained by A. J. Kunkel {fide Jour. Micr. Soc), concerning the 

 various electric phenomena observed in plants. He finds that the 

 leaf-veins are generally positive toward the rest of the leaf, but the 

 direction of the current is reversed if the spot on the leaf where the 

 electrode is placed is wetted before the other electrode is placed on 

 the vein. A spot long moistened is positive toward one freshly 

 wetted. When a plant is bent or wounded the electrode near the 

 bend or wound is negative to the other. Dr. J. Burdon Sanderson 

 has noticed somewhat similar phenomena in the leaf of the Venus's 

 fly-trap {Dionaea muscipula), the under surface of the sensitive lobe 

 of the leaf being electro-negative to the upper at the moment that 

 the leaf is irritated; after about half a second the upper surface be- 

 comes electro-negative and remains so for some time. 



Mummy Garlands. — While Egyptologists of every nationality are 

 congratulating themselves and each other upon the safely of the 

 Boolak Museum, it will not be amiss to note that a priceless addition 

 had been made to the treasures of that famous collection shortly be- 

 fore the breaking out of the late rebellion. Several of the royal 

 mummies discovered last year at Dayr-el-Baharee were, it will be 

 remembered, found garlanded with flowers, these flowers being for 

 the most part in as perfect preservation as the specimen plants in a 

 "Hortus Siccus." M. Arthur Rhone, in a recent letter to Le Temps, 

 has described the extremely curious way in which these garlands are 

 woven. They consist of the petals and sepals of various flowers, 

 detached from their stems, and enclosed each in a folded leaf of 

 either the Egyptian willow {Salix Safsaf), or Mimusops Ktimmel, 

 Bruce. The floral ornaments thus devised were then arranged in 

 rows (the points being all set one way) and connected by means of a 

 thread of date-leaf fibre woven in a kind of chain stitch. The 

 whole resembles a coarse "edging" of vegetable lace-work. Among 



N. 



Delphinium orientalis, Nymph 



employed as a dye by the ancient inhabitants of the Nile valley. 

 The dried fruit, as well as the dried yellow b.lossom of the Acacia 

 Nilotica IS likewise present; and mention is also made of the blos- 

 som of a species of watermelon now extinct. The foregoing are all 

 interwoven in the garlands in which the mummy of Amen-hotep I. 

 was elaborately swathed. With others of the royal mummies were 

 found fine detached specimens of both kinds of lotus, the blue and 

 the white, with stems, blossoms, and seed-pods complete. Still more 

 interesting is it to learn that upon the mummy of the priest Nebsooni, 

 maternal grandfather of King Pinotem II. (XXIst Dynasty), there 

 was found a specimen of the lichen known to botanists as Par- 

 meha frirfuracea. This plant is indigenous to the islands of the 

 Greek Archipelago, whence it must have been brought to Egypt at, 



dru^Lt.^n r' • ' t'l^-"" f"^^ ^^ ^^^^^'" it is sold by the native 

 ishef sn in. h^''\''' '^'' day. These frail relics of many a van- 



aursLTkiMfhvIw''"-^™^'^ ^°^'^" ^""^^^ Museum with ex- 

 quisite skill by that erament traveller and botanist Dr. Schweinfurth. 



