22S Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



•o 



Transactions ; together with a comparative statement of the differ- 

 ences existing between Bonplandia trifoliata (Willd.), vel Cusparia 

 Jebrifiiga (Humb. and DeC), vel Galipea Cusparia (DeC), and the 

 real Angostura-bark tree ; the most striking of which is, that instead 

 of being a large and majestic forest tree, as described in The Plantcz 

 JEquinoctiales Orbis Novi, the authors of which, no doubt, thought 

 the tree found by them in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe de Cu- 

 mana and Nueva Barcelona, was the same as that of which they ob- 

 tained leaves in Angostura ; — it is a tree, or almost shrub, of not 

 more than from twelve to fifteen, and at the most twenty feet, in 

 height, and four or five inches in diameter. The Doctor concludes 

 by proposing that the plant described by him should be named 

 Galipea officinalis. 



The paper was accompanied by fine native specimens of the bark, 

 leaves, flowers, capsules, and seeds of the plant. The thanks of 

 the Meeting were ordered to Dr. Hancock for this very interesting 

 communication. 



XLI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING. 



SOME very long tubes, supposed to be formed by the action 

 of lightning, having lately been presented to the Academy 

 of Sciences by Dr. Fiedler ; MM. Hachette, Savart and Beudant, 

 attempted to form similar tubes by the action of the electrical ma- 

 chine. The battery was discharged through powdered glass placed 

 in a hole made in a brick: tubes were obtained perfectly similar to 

 those which occur in nature, and which are attributed to lightning, 

 except that they are of dimensions proportional to the means em- 

 ployed in forming them. 



In one experiment made upon powdered glass, a tube of about 

 twenty-five millim. in length was obtained ; its external diameter, 

 which decreased irregularly from one extremity to the other, is from 

 three millim. to one millim. and a half, and the interior diameter 

 half a millim. 



In another experiment, powdered glass was mixed with common 

 salt, and a tube of thirty millim. in length was formed, equally regu- 

 lar both within and without. The mean external diameter is four 

 millim. and a half, and the internal diameter two millim. Two other 

 experiments yielded smaller and less perfect tubes. Experiments 

 made with powdered felspar and quartz did not succeed. It is re- 

 marked that the artificial as well as the natural tubes have a brown- 

 ish layer on the interior ; a circumstance which the authors of the 

 experiments find it difficult to explain, unless it depends upon the 

 oxidation of a small quantity of iron. — Ann. de Chim. March 1828. 



ARTIFICIAL ULTRAMARINE. 



M. Guimet, of Toulouse, has succeeded in forming this fine 

 colour: it appears that M, Gmelin ha3 also discovered a pro- 

 cess 



