OT ANY 



CHLOROPHYLL, 



CHLOROPHYLL, the green coloring matter in plants has been closely 

 examined by Prof. Stokes, See. II. S. by the spectroscope, and in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society he records that he finds the chloro- 

 phyll of land plants to be a mixture of four substances, two green 

 and two yellow, all possessing highly distinctive optical properties. 

 The green substances yield solutions exhibiting a strong red fluores- 

 cence ; the yellow substances do not. The four substances are soluble 

 in the same solvents, and three of them are extremely easily decom- 

 posed by acids or even acid salts, such as binoxalate of potash ; but, 

 by proper treatment each may be obtained in a state of very approx- 

 imate isolation, so far, at least, as colored substances are concerned. 

 Prof. Stokes also examined a specimen, prepared by Prof. Harley, of 

 viliverdia, the green substance contained in bile, supposed by Ber- 

 zelius to be identical with chlorophyll, and was thereby enabled to 

 prove that the two substances are quite distinct. 



CURIOUS CONDITIONS OF VEGETATION. 



In a recent communication to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 

 Mr. James Robertson gave a sketch of the botanical features of the 

 Kilkee sea-dills. This part of the Irish coast-line is exposed to the 

 full violence of the Atlantic winds and waves, and thus a rock 200 feet 

 above high water is so copiously supplied with saline spray as to 

 afford sustenance to a colony of periwinkles which fringe its summit. 

 Notwithstanding this, the marine plants which are found at heights 

 varying from 150 to 400 feet, and which grow in a very stunted man- 

 ner, illustrate in a striking way the physiological law that if plants can 

 do nothing else, they must produce their flowers and fruit. The flora 

 approaches the alpine type in character, doubtless because of the pe- 

 culiar external conditions. 



MANNA IN THE DESERT. 



Sir Roderick Murchison announces a fall of manna in Asia Minor. 

 His informant, M. Haidinger, states that he has received a portion of 

 this manna, which fell with a gust of rain at Charput. It is a lichen 

 which is formed in the steppes of the Kurghis, and is often carried in 

 these falls far to the west, across the Caspian. The grains, which arc 

 always perfectly detached, have much of the form of a raspberry or 

 mulberry, and are found frequently to be attached, to a stony sup- 

 port of granite, sandstone, and lime. This manna is ground into 



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