'Natural History, 469 



" M. Christian Smith, who has since perished so unfor- 

 tunately in the Congo expedition, gave me, in February, 



1816, a great number of plants, dried by him at TenerifFe in 

 July, 1815. Among these was a semper-vivum, which I pre- 

 served for eleven months in my herbal ; but having, in January, 



1817, perceived in it a small white point, which it had pushed 

 out, I withdrew the plant, and placed it in the earth. It grew 

 and expanded, and I thus obtained a new species of semper- 

 vivunif since made known by Sims under the name of semper- 

 vivum ciliatum, it having previously passed eighteen months 

 as a dried plant, in the herbals of myself and Mr. Smith. It 

 afterwards flowered several times, and produced many young 

 plants. The length of time during which the semper-vivum 

 ciliatum preserved vitality without nourishment, is rendered 

 more remarkable, from the circumstance that the part of the 

 stem preserved with it was very small, and could not lose matter 

 nearly in the proportion of the strong spreading branches of 

 other plants. — Annates de Chimie, xv. p. 82. 



4. Luminous Phcsnomena produced by a Flower. — Mr. Johnson 

 had, last July, a fine plant, the Polyanthus Tuberosa, about five 

 feet in height, in blossom in a room, which, he observed, emitted 

 its effluvium most strongly after sunset. One sultry evening 

 after thunder (it is believed the 16th July, on which day the 

 thermometer stood at 81° in the shade,) when the atmo- 

 sphere was evidently highly charged with the electric ^id, Mr. 

 Johnston was surprised at seeing small sparks, or scintillations, 

 of a lurid flame-colour, darted, with apparently excessive rapi- 

 dity and momentum from two or three of the expanded flowers, 

 which were beginning to fade, and at the same time the odour 

 was so powerful as to be palling and unpleasant. He could 

 not perceive any difference in the strength of the odour at dif- 

 ferent intervals, but during the whole evening its intensity 

 seemed to be equable. He has subsequently noticed that the 

 smell from the flower is most diffused in the light, but he has 

 not again observed the singular electric phsenomenon, though he 

 has nightly and attentively looked for it. During the time of 

 the appearance of the flashes, or sparks, he was anxious to 



