PERSPIRATION OP FRAXINELLA. gjt 



iuflammabk efRuviuin, which explodes when brought into tany emits a« 

 contact with the flume of a candle ; an opinion that is main- l^,^'"™^ * 

 tained in the latest botanical publications 1 have seen. 



When I first became acquainted with the above notion, Experiment 

 my curiosity was excited, and I longed for an opportunity ™adeonit. 

 to miike the experiment, which was not very long denied me. 

 The result of my observations I shall now relate in order, 

 that the subject may be more accurately investigated. 



I need scarcely premise, that the peduncles, the calyx, Glands on it 

 the outside of the corolla, and especially the tops of the fi- containing a 

 laments, and the germen of the dictamnus, are covered with 

 glands of an oblong fortn, many of them supported on little 

 pedicles, all of them of a beautiful red colour, and contain* 

 ing a somewhat viscid fluid. 



On the 10th of July, about ten in the evening, the wea- Exp. 1. 

 ther fine, avid the temperature 66, I commenced my expe- 

 riments on the dictamnus. By holding a lighted candle at 

 the bottom of a raceme of flowers, intonsiderable ejcplosi- 

 ons, or rather a hissing noise was occasioned, accompanied 

 by light-blue coloured flame, which proceeded along the 

 course of the peduncles, &c., and ascended even higher than 

 the top of the stem; a good deal resembling an amusing 

 experiment sometimes practised in the theatre, and often by 

 boys, by means of powdered resin and a burning candle, &c. 

 Immediately after the combustion, the surrounding atmos- 

 phere became tainted with odoriferous effluvia, exactly si- 

 milar to what the healthy flowers, thoush much stronger, 

 emit. July 13, I repeated this experiment, at the same Exp. 2. 

 hour as before* 'I he evening was fine, but the plants were 

 wet with the afternoon's rain. Scarcely any noise was pro* 

 duced ; the experiment not succeeding as before. 



At another time 1 brought home a raceme of flowers. Other exneri- " 

 and after it had stood with its end placed in water for "^®"*5* 

 two hours, I approached a burning candle to it, and little 

 explosions followed. 1 replaced the raceme in the water, 

 and next morning darkened my room, and made the same 

 experiment, but heard no explosions. Since the 13th of 

 July, 1 have frequently repeated the first experiment, but "* 



nev'jr have succeeded nearly so well as at .first; a little hiss- 

 ing noise, attended with a small flame, only occurring now 



F 2 and ' 



