378 Botany. 



In the neighbourhood of this place is a domestic duck, which flies with the 

 same power and at the same height as a crow ; or rather, I should say, in 

 the same way as if it was wild. I saw him crossing the road yesterday, and 

 for some time was lost in wonder at what strange bird it could be. The 

 people of the village, however, soon answered my enquiry, and^assured me 

 this duck would often make the circuit of a mile. The weakness of flight 

 in domesticated birds is, no doubt, occasioned by the little or no use that 

 is made of their wings. It would be curious to ascertain what first taught 

 this duck to know that he could fly whenever he chose. On visiting my friend 

 Mr. S. at Tittenhanger Green, ' the other day, I was again surprised at 

 seeing a flock of fifteen or twenty geese get up and fly tolerably well for 

 near four hundred yards, pass a hedge, and alight on the borders of a pond. 

 Your obedient servant, — H. S. NorthaWi Herts, April 4. 1828. 



Art. III. Botany. 



Experiments on Vegetation. — The celebrated chemist. Professor Dobe- 

 reiner of Jena, has made the following experiments on the vegetation of 

 seeds. Two glass vessels were procured, each of the capacity of 320 cubic 

 inches, and two portions of barley were sown in parts of the same earth, and 

 moistened in the same degree ; they were placed one in each vessel. The 

 air was now exhausted in one, till reduced to the pressure of 14 in. of mer- 

 cury ; and condensed in the other, till the pressure equalled 56 in. Germi- 

 nation took place in both nearly at the same time, and the leafits appeared 

 of the same green tint; but, at the end of 15 days, the following differ- 

 ences existed: — The shoots in the rarefied air were 6 in. in length, and 

 from 9 in. to 10 in. in the condensed air. The former were expanded, and 

 soft ; the latter rolled round the stem, and solid. The former were wet on 

 their surface, and especially towards the extremities; the latter were nearly 

 dry. " I am disposed," says M. Dobereiner, " to believe that the diminution 

 in the size of plants, as they rise into higher regions on mountains, depends 

 more on the diminution of pressure than of heat. The phenomena of drops 

 of water on the leaves, in the rarefied air, calls to my mind the relation of a 

 young Englishman, who, whilst passing through Spanish America as a pri- 

 soner, remarked that, on the highest mountains of the country, the trees 

 continually transpired a quantity of water, even in the driest weather, the 

 water falling sometimes like rain." {Bibliotheque Universelle.) 



0'7'chis pyramidalis. — On Sunday, the 29th of June, 1828, was brought 

 to me a specimen of the O'rchis pyramidalis, in which the flowers were des- 

 titute of spur and lip. Each flower consisted of a calyx of three-coloured 

 leaves, and a corolla of three petals, all quite uniform, and the organs of 

 fructification (which were of the form proper to the genus) were placed in 

 the centre — D. Stock. Bungay, July 28. 



\- The Ivy-leaved Snapdragon, or ToacJ/^aj:' (Antirrhinum cyrabalaria), is sup- 

 posed by botanists not to be a native of this island. I found a considerable 

 patch of it, in the end of May, on the lower part of a rock near Barmouth, 

 North Wales. It was some distance from any house, and in a situation 

 where it was not likely to have escaped from a garden. — T. F. June 23. 



Erbdium cicuthrium var. 3. is, I believe, the only English Erodium with 

 any sort of figure on the petals. This has two, or more commonly three, 

 of the petals stamped near the base with a spot of green, which is a consi- 

 derable addition to its beauty. This summer I found an Erodium with these 

 spotted petals, and answering to the characters of this species in every 

 respect but the simple stamens. The filaments had a tooth near the base, 

 on each side ; in that respect, and in the pale colour of the leaves, it corre- 



