EECEEATIVE SCIEJSTCE. 



Allusion has been made to the imitations 

 of various natural odours produced in the 

 laboratory of the modern chemist. These, 

 differing entirely from the mixtures just men- 

 tioned, may rank among the most remarkable 

 results of the progress of organic chemistry, 

 which, as it advances, may not improbably 

 succeed in producing still nearer approxima- 

 tions to the products of vegetation. Already 

 we have a so-called essence of pine-apple, 

 prepared from a mixture of sugar, sour milk, 

 and putrid cheese, with some other mate- 

 rials, and an» artificial essence of quince, 

 made by treating the oil of rue with nitric 

 acid. 



There is also an artificial odour of pears, 

 procured from the foetid oil produced in the 

 distillation of brandy from potatoes. All 

 these, which, it will be remarked, are rather 

 the flavours of fruits than the odours of 

 flowers, are sometimes used as flavouring 

 materials in confectionary. Hitherto no 

 artificial preparations have been discovered 

 that resemble in fragrance the odours of the 

 finer and more delicate flowers, as the rose, 

 violet, mignonette, and others ; nor even in 

 the cases mentioned is the artificial product 

 an exact resemblance of the natural, though 

 very nearly approaching it. 



Benjamin Abbott. 



COAL AND CONIFEEOUS WOOD UNDEE THE MICEOSCOPE. 



The microscope has not only enabled us to 

 observe the functions and structures of 

 objects now or recently living, but it also 

 brings under our view the structures of 

 objects living long ages ago, and from which 

 all life has departed. By its aid we can 

 compare the most modern things with the 

 most ancient, and can sometimes discover 

 the counterpart of the life of to-day, in 

 minute configurations of the dead, dull 

 matter which had similar life tens of thou- 

 sands of years since in the remote centuries — 

 centuries which seem to pass back beyond 

 all our powers of calculation, and to fade 

 away into the confusion of primeval ages, 

 undistinguishable save by the keen eye of 

 the geologist. 



This may be exemplified in two substances 

 which appear as unlike in their exteriors as 

 any two substances can appear, viz., a piece 

 of recent coniferous wood and a lump of 

 lignite, or brown or other coal. Let us 

 first notice these substances separately, and 

 then observe their resemblance, and glance 

 at the interesting points of inquiry arising 

 out of this resemblance, as elucidating the 



formation of coal. The term coniferce is given 

 to trees bearing cones containing the seeds, 

 as the fir and pine — an order of plants of 

 which we have some specimens growing in 

 our own country, as the Scotch fir, spruce, 

 larch, etc., but which is far more largely de- 

 veloped in other and warmer climates. The 

 cone is a mysterious symbol in the sculptured 

 slabs from Nineveh, now in the British 

 Museum ; and, in one sense, that strange 

 figure which stretches forth the cone in its 

 hand in so many of these sculptures might 

 be called the coniferous Assyrian. In one in- 

 stance, a four-winged divinity is represented 

 as presenting the pine-cone to those who 

 cross the threshold of the chamber near 

 which it stands. 



If we take up a piece of coniferous wood, 

 and regard it merely as an opaque, massive 

 object, we shall gain but little knowledge of 

 its minute structure, whether it be fossil or 

 recent. But if we can reduce it into ex- 

 tremely thin slices, and mount one of these 

 as an object for the microscope, we shall 

 discern more than we could have expected. 

 A Scotch lapidary, Mr. Sanderson, seems to 



