Dr.Buist on the Repulsion of Water from the Leaves of Plants. 149 



of small tanks or ponds abounding with the Lotus or sacred bean 

 of India, and with four different varieties of Water Lily, I was 

 struck with the different appearances presented by these when im- 

 mersed in water, or when water was sprinkled on them. The leaves 

 of the lily, like those of the Lotus, floated with considerable buoy- 

 ancy on the surface, but never, like the Lotus, rose above it, on a tall 

 independent stem. The lily leaf is full of holes about the size of a 

 pin's head, and serrated at the edges. Through these, when the 

 leaf is pressed down, the water perforates freely. The upper surface 

 of the leaf is smooth and shining, and water runs off it without wet- 

 ting it, as it does off a piece of glass or greased surface. When 

 placed under the water at an angle of about 45°, the leaf of the 

 lily seems to change colour ; the dark purple leaf of the red lily 

 appears of a bright rich pink, the dark green or bluish-green of the 

 white, pink, and blue lilies seem to become of a bright emerald- 

 green ; the intensity of these hues varying with the angle at which 

 the immersed leaf is seen. 



When the Lotus leaf is placed under water it reflects light like a 

 mirror, so that the image of any object, if presented to it at a proper 

 angle, is seen by the spectator as distinctly as if the surface were one 

 of polished metal. When water is thrown on the surface of a float- 

 ing leaf, it flows off like a pool of quicksilver, reflecting light from 

 the whole of its lower surface ; and this holds good on all occasions. 

 The repellent property of the leaf is on the upper side only, for the 

 lower side is always wet, being only destroyed by severe rubbing. 

 These peculiarities seem long to have been familiar to the natives, 

 and have given rise to the Mahratta lines in reference to the virtuous 

 man, which may be thus translated : — 



" He is not enslaved by any lust whatever ; 

 By the stain of passion he is not soiled, — 

 As in the water, yet unwet by the water, 

 Is the Lotus leaf." 



On examining carefully into the cause of this, 1 found the Lotus 

 leaf covered with short microscopic papillae, which entangle the air 

 and establish an air-plate over the whole surface, with which in 

 reality the water never comes in contact at all. Another pecu- 

 liarity connected, but not necessarily so, so far as I could discover, 

 with this, was the singular respiratory pores of the Lotus. The 

 leaves of the Lotus, when full-sized, are from a foot to 16 inches 

 in diameter ; on cutting off a leaf 6 inches broad, the stalk of which 

 was less than the third of an inch in diameter, I was able to collect 

 33 cubic inches of air in an hour, when the vital energies of the 

 plant must have been injured by its mutilation ; at this rate a tank 

 covered with Lotus leaves would produce daily an atmosphere 4 feet 

 in depth throughout its whole surface. When the leaf is pushed 

 slightly under water, a constant succession of air-bubbles seem to 

 arise from it, at the rate of two or three a minute at each spiracle. 

 The air-bubble diffuses itself as it is extricated, presenting a very 

 broad base to the leaf and blunt low-crowned apex, and seems de- 



