I7& O** THE PERSPIRATION OF PLANT*. 



and it must have been perceptible on the leaves, but this 

 Perspiration was so far from the case, that the scurf before mentioned 

 oot perceptw wag not to bg geen . ^ ha(J certainly all sett \ e ^ jfl ^ ew w ; t hi n 



the circumference of the glass. 



I felt now perfect conviction, though not able to account, 

 for the mistaken opinion that prevailed, till walking one 

 Perspiration of morning with my microscope in my hand, I found a pea 

 t epea. plant covered with bubbles of water, and there had cer- 



tainly been no dew. Here then was perspiration. I directly 

 wiped off the drops, and covering the plant with a glass, 

 treated it in the same manner as I had done the laurel, and 

 many hundred of other plants. In a few hours it was again 

 covered with bubbles of water, and the hygrometer indi- 

 Tried others of eating extreme moisture. I then tried a number of the same 



the genus but g^^ but without effect, no bubbles were to be seen. I 

 without effect. 5 



now concluded, that some vegetables did perspire, but that 



the numbers were few* 



Talking to a friend of the conviction I had gained, he 

 intreated me to repeat a part of the experiments before 

 him ; I consented; and having first prepared the pea, in an 

 hour or two it was covered with bubbles; but my friend not 

 being yet arrived, I cut off the branch, and laid it on the 

 table by me, fearful the bubbles would evaporate in the 

 open air. In an hour I was surprised to see them turn of a 

 The supposed milk white. I then applied to my solar microscope, and 

 le^cT °to Wa " soon found ' that the bubbles I had taken for water were a 

 mian plant. cryptogamian plant, having a regular stalk, which did not 

 however raise it from the leaf, for it was so heavy it ap- 

 peared incapable of rising. It lies like a long bubble, dies 

 in a few hours, and is soon succeeded by a fresh set. 

 This plant de- No person could in its first state take it for any thing but 

 •cubed. water ; indeed so completely did the bubbles resemble wa- 



ter, that the smallest touch broke the film which covered 

 them, and their liquor was expended. Nor would any one 

 believe it was not water, without seeing the stalk on which 

 it grew, or without beholding its change of form. Its last 

 state is an almost hard and long ball, which soon drops off. 

 It is to be seen by a common little microscope; though 

 stronger powers are required to view the whole process, 

 especially the stalks. But so entirely does it cover the leaves, 



th^t 



