348 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by drift, six, eight, or ten feet deep, in 

 which the plant retains its vitality. The frozen subsoil does not encroach 

 upon this narrow cover of vegetation. I have found in mid winter in this 

 high latitude of 78 50', the surface so nearly rnoist as to be friable to the 

 touch ; and upon the ice floes commencing with a surface temperature of 80, 

 I found at two feet deep a temperature of 8, at four feet -f- 2, and at 8 

 feet -|- 26. My experiments prove that the conducting power of the snow 

 is proportioned to its compression by winds, rains, drifts, and congelation. 

 The early spring and late fall and summer snows are more cellular and less 

 condensed than the nearly impalpable powder of winter. The drifts, there- 

 fore, that accumulate during nine months of the year are dispersed in well 

 defined layers of differing density. "We have first the warm cellular snows 

 of fall, which surround the plant ; next the fine impacted snow dust of win- 

 ter, and above these the later humid deposits of the spring. It is interesting 

 to observe the effects of this disposition of layers upon the safety of the vege- 

 table growths below them. These, at least in the earlier summer, occupy the 

 inclined slopes that face the sun, and the several strata of snow take of 

 course the same inclination. The consequence is, that as the upper snow is 

 dissipated by the early thawing, and sinks upon the more compact layer 

 below, it is to a great extent arrested, and runs off like rain from a slope 

 of clay. The plant reposes thus in its cellular bed from the rush of waters, 

 and protected too from the nightly frosts by the icy roof above it. I>r. Kane. 



THE LATTICE PLANT. 



The new and curious aquatic plant from Madagascar, called the Lattice 

 Plant ( Ouvirandra fenestralis), must be placed among the most remarkable of 

 our recent botanical acquisitions. Its existence had been for some time 

 known to botanists through a few dried leaves sent from Madagascar by a 

 traveller, who was unable to transmit Jiving specimens of the curiosity he had 

 discovered ; and it was not until within the last few months that this desira- 

 ble object could be attained, when several living plants were brought over 

 to England from the above mentioned country, by the Eev. Mr. Ellis, a mis- 

 sionary. The interest of this plant lies in the extraordinary structure of the 

 leaves, which, unlike those of any other known plant, are made up of the 

 ribs and cross veins only ; the interstices, which in other leaves are filled up 

 with cellular tissue, being here left almost entirely open, so as to give the 

 leaf the appearance of a piece of curious net or lattice work, from which is 

 derived its common name the Lattice Plant. 



RUSTIC ORNAMENT FOR A ROOM. 



An ornamental object for a window, or room, may bo made by placing a 

 large pine cone in the mouth of a glass having a small quantity of water at 

 the bottom. The scales of the cone are first slightly opened, and lentil seeds 

 are dropped into the openings. Water is sprinkled over the cone, as may be 

 necessary, say twice a day, and, in a short time, the lentils send up their 

 small green shoots, and cover the cone. The scales are opened by placing 

 them in any moderately warm place for a short time. 



