310 Miscellaneous. 



This variety is not noticed by Agardh in his ' Synopsis Algarum 

 Scandinavia,' p. 13, where he describes the frond as "e fibris spi- 

 raliter tortis constructse," nor in his 'Species Algarum,' p. 161, nor 

 in any other work I have at hand. 



Swanage, Sept. 1858. 



On the Influence of the Moon's Light upon Plants. 

 By Prof. Zantedeschi. 



The Abbe Tessier having made a great number of experiments 

 upon etiolated plants, which had become white or yellow from being 

 kept in the dark, observed that those exposed to the light of the 

 moon, and kept in the dark during the day, were evidently less 

 yellow or white than those kept in the dark day and night. (Acad, 

 des Sc. de Paris, 1781; Bertholin, 1783; Giuseppe Toaldo, Vin- 

 cento Padova, 1797.) 



The Abbe Antonio-Maria Vassalli, Professor of Physics at Turin, 

 relates that the Sensitive-plant is susceptible of the influence of 

 moonlight. w Having," he says, " procured some sprouted seeds of the 

 Sensitive-plant, twelve days after their germination I transplanted 

 them into earth contained in glass bottles, and into other vessels 

 filled with earth. 



" I observed that their sleep had a regular periodicity. Exposed to 

 the east two hours before sunrise, their leaves, which were perfectly 

 closed at 1 a.m., began to open at dawn, and unfolded completely 

 some little time after sunrise, more or less quickly according to the 

 state of the air. If they are carried during the day into a dark 

 place, or covered with an opake vessel, the leaves close, but not so 

 exactly as during the night. Exposed afresh to the light, they open 

 again slowly. In making these observations I was careful to shake 

 all the pots equally, without covering them, in carrying them, in 

 order that the variations might not be attributed to these shocks. 

 After repeating the various observations, for greater certainty, I 

 exposed the pots to the light of the moon. 



'* I did not remark any variation in the leaves when the exposure, 

 commencing at 1 a.m., had lasted one hour; but after three hours 

 the leaves were less closed, though still not open. 



" Having one evening exposed the pots to the rays of the moon 

 until midnight, when the leaves were not completely closed, I found 

 them very well opened about 1 a.m. 



" I attempted to arrange a lens so that its focus should fall on a 

 closed leaf; but I could not detect any variation in the short space 

 of time during which the light of the moon was condensed." (Opus- 

 coli scelti di Milano, 1794.) 



These observations have been renewed in our own time on vetches, 

 by Prof. G. Giulj : he caused vetches to germinate and spring up in a 

 cellar entirely shut up from the light both of the sun and moon; and 

 the little plants were very white. Some of them were exposed for 

 several nights to the action of the moon's rays, while others, also in 

 full growth, were kept in complete darkness : the former acquired a 



