i6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the traveller, Dr. Thompson, has written as follows : 

 *' When ripe and dry in autumn, the branches become 

 rigid and light as a feather, the parent stem breaks 

 •off at the ground, and the wind carries these vege- 

 table globes whithersoever it pleaseth. At the 

 proper season thousands of them come scudding 

 ■over the plain, rolling, leaping, and bounding, to the 

 dismay both of the horse and his rider. Once in the 

 plain north of Hamath my horse became quite 

 unmanageable among them." 



Nearly forty years ago an individual whose scientific 

 knowledge was extremely limited, caused consider- 

 able amusement by writing a pamphlet containing 

 a most extraordinary and absurd account of this 

 plant. He became, it appears, possessed of a dried 

 specimen to which innumerable imaginary and miracu- 

 lous qualities were assigned, and it was stated to 

 have been exhibited before the chief botanists of 

 the day, all of whom declared it to be a veritable 

 vegetable monstrosity that was quite new to them. 

 The absurdity of these statements was most amusingly 

 •exposed by one of the horticultural papers, doubt- 

 lessly much to the astonishment of the author, 

 who found that his wonderful plant had been known 

 for hundreds of years. Dry specimens are now 

 frequently sold in London as curiosities, and I 

 recently saw numbers of them on some stalls in 

 the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, where they are 

 described by the vendors (who appear to emulate 

 the writer already mentioned) as possessing several 

 purely imaginary qualities, one being that they 

 produce enormous brilliantly-coloured flowers after 

 being immersed in water for twenty-four hours. I 

 have examined many of these with the object of 

 obtaining some seeds, but they must be very old, for 

 the little capsules are entirely empty. A few months 

 ago, however, I was ^fortunate enough to procure 

 some seeds from which living plants were raised that, 

 as far as I have been able to ascertain, are the only 

 ones in the country. A friend returning from India, 

 ■vid Suez, purchased several specimens at the latter 

 place, and after his arrival in England presented them 

 to me. These botanical treasures were at once 

 placed in water, and great was my pleasure to ob- 

 serve the tiny siliculre open and reveal the yellowish 

 minute seeds. After being in water a few days the 

 seeds commenced to germinate, and the branches 

 were soon covered with small bright green coty- 

 ledons. The diminutive plants were carefully 

 separated from the parent stem and placed in pans 

 of sandy soil in a glass-house where a temperature 

 of 6o° Fahrenheit was maintained. Here they grew 

 rapidly and to afford them mere space for develop- 

 ment were ultimately placed singly in small pots. 

 In June, the small white flowers were produced and a 

 succession of flowers has continued until the present 

 time (October), but although apparently vigorous and 

 healthy, I fear they will not mature any seeds. 



Lewis Castle. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Live-Box and Compressorium. — I have made 

 an apparatus for use with the microscope — a kind of 

 live-box and compressorium combined — which I 

 find to answer its purpose extremely well, and as 

 it is very simple and can be easily made, perhaps it 

 might be useful to some of your readers. I enclose a 

 plan and sectional elevation of the same drawn to two- 

 thirds scale, and the following is a general description : 



Fig. 14.— Plan and section elevations of combined Iis-e-box 

 and compressorium. 



A is a piece of brass plate 3x1 with a hole in 

 the centre to receive the piece b, which revolves in 

 it and is kept in its place by a thin nut and washer, 

 as shown, b is of one piece, and carries on the top 

 a circle of glass, around which a groove is turned to 

 receive the superfluous water, and in its base are 

 screwed three pieces of steel wire, c carries another 

 circle of glass ; it has three holes drilled to fit the 

 pieces of wire, sliding freely upon them, and pre- 

 venting it from turning. The glass surfaces are kept 

 asunder by three coil springs placed on the wires 

 underneath the piece c, and are brought into con- 

 tact with each other by screwing the piece d into 

 b, which is screwed with a fine thread to fit it. By 

 this means, the liveliest object can be compressed 

 without damage by holding the milled edge of b, 

 while d is gently screwed down till the object is 

 secured between the two glass circles. The whole 

 can then be revolved during examination. The 

 drawings are two-thirds full size. — Thos. Richardson. 



Microscopical Society of Liverpool. — The 

 ninth ordinary meeting of the eleventh session of this 

 society was held at the Royal Institution, on Friday 

 evening the 5th ult. ; Rev. W. H. Dallinger, President, 

 in the chair. The paper of the evening was read 

 by Frank T. Paul, Esq. F.R.C.S., entitled " The 



