524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



many of his brethren owns that " the mysteries of vital chemistry 

 are unknown to man." 



The whitening of the hair wrought by mental disturbance is some- 

 times only of a partial nature. Vexation of spirit gave Henry of Na- 

 varre a party-colored mustache. An old writer tells of an Irish cap- 

 tain going to deliver himself up to Lord Broghill, the commander of 

 the English forces, who, being met on his way by a party of English 

 soldiers, was made prisoner, and was so apprehensive of being put to 

 death before Lord Broghill could interfere in his behalf, that the anx- 

 iety of his mind turned some of his locks quite white, while the others 

 remained of their original reddish hue. Perhaps the curious change 

 was less annoying to its victim than that which befell an American 

 girl, whose first intimation of her lover's falsity was the reading an 

 account of his marriage in a newspaper. After a night's brooding 

 over the traitor's perfidy, her looking-glass showed her that one side 

 of her head was still adorned with tresses of golden brown ; but the 

 other, alas ! was decked with locks more befitting a grandam than a 

 maiden still in her teens ; though even this was not so bad as was the 

 case of a French girl, who, frightened by the floor of her room giving 

 way beneath her, shed her hair so quickly that in three days' time she 

 was to use the expressive comparison of a chronicler of the event 

 "as bald as a bell-handle." Chambers's Journal. 



-+*+- 



HOW PLANTS EESIST DECAY. 



By W. 0. FOCKE. 



THE destruction and decomposition of organic substances, both ani- 

 mal and vegetable, are promoted by the lower fungoids, particu- 

 larly by yeast-plants and molds, which we may for brevity call rots. 

 During life, that is, as long as a lively circulation is kept up, plants 

 are protected against the attack of these ever-present organisms, but 

 during the periods of rest, when the life-activity of the plant is reduced 

 to a minimum, defense by the vegetative process is suspended. The 

 older parts of plants, also, in which the normal circulation has become 

 very limited, are poorly fitted to resist decay. It is, therefore, a ques- 

 tion how it happens that perennial plants are so rarely attacked by the 

 lower fungoids during their periods of rest. 



The best protection is afforded by a firm epidermis, especially if it 

 is fortified against the persistence of moisture upon it by a coating of 

 wax. The importance of epidermal protection is exemplified in the 

 North American opuntias, which bear the Central European winters 

 quite well. If any part of the stalk has suffered an injury which has 



