358 ANNUAL RECOED OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



plied to glass or clean metallic surfaces becoming dry in a 

 very few hours. An attempt will probably be made to ac- 

 climatize the plant in Algeria, with a view toward rendering 

 it useful in the arts and introducing it into commerce. One 

 of the most remarkable facts connected with the oil is its 

 power of solidifying under the action of light and out of con- 

 tact with the air. Heated in the air it also becomes solid, 

 this change being, how^ever, a chemical one due to oxidation. 

 6 B^ September 13, 1875. 



THE HEATH IN AMEEICA. 



It has been a generally received impression that North 

 America, in distinction from Europe, is without any species 

 of heath or heather, a few specimens of the Calluna vulgaris 

 detected in Newfoundland having been considered as intro- 

 duced rather than as indigenous. Great, therefore, was the 

 gratification of sentimentalists at the discovery of this plant 

 in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Afterward the same plant 

 was discovered in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, and subse- 

 quently on Cape Elizabeth, near Portland. Dr. Gray now 

 announces in the A7nerican JVatiiralist the discovery of a sec- 

 ond station in Massachusetts, to the ^vest of Andover, about 

 five miles north of the Tewksburv station. A siojnal feature 

 in this connection is the vicinity of a glacial moraine which 

 traverses the district. 5 Z>, August, 1876, 490. 



EFFECT OF SOLUTIONS ON A GROWING VINE. 



Baudrimont has been continuing his experiments upon the 

 influence upon the branches of a growing vine of immersion 

 in ^vater containing various substances in solution, and has 

 obtained some rather remarkable results by various poison- 

 ous agencies, some appearing actually to increase the vigor 

 of growth of the vine and prolong its existence, as in the case 

 of chloride of potassium ; while others cause the plant to 

 wither, as in creosote and carbolic acid. Bromide and iodide 

 of potassium seem to act in the same manner as chloride of 

 potassium. Chloral hydrate exercises a very poisonous in- 

 fluence, destroying the branch vine in three days, the eff*ect 

 difi*ering from that of carbolic acid. One of the most curious 

 phenomena is that which is exhibited in the fall of the leaves. 

 In some instances the petiole becomes detached at the point 



