85^ 



EECBEATIYE SCIENCE. 



which may be obtained, is surprising. I have 

 made scores of comparisons between the time 

 so obtained, and that obtained by the transit- 

 instrument, and the agreement between the 



two results is far nearer than would be ex- 

 pected from apparently so rude a method. 

 William C. Bxjedee. 

 Observatory, South Farade, Clifton, Bristol. 



THE VEGETATION OE A DECAYED NUT. 



A FEW days since, being employed in the 

 agreeable occupation of eating brazil-nuts, I 

 found one which, though it afforded no 

 pabulum for the material appetite, at least 

 furnished food for the mind. It was a 

 decked nut, the whole of the kernel being 



completely decomposed, and in the place of the 

 solid, white, oily kernel, proper to the interior 

 of the shell, a few particles of oily, sugary 

 matter was found. This led me into a train 

 of reflection, and the determination succeeded 

 to submit it to the test of that wonder reveal- 

 ing instrument, the microscope. 



Thinking that it would be necessary to 

 know the component parts of a healthy nut, 

 I first procured a portion of the brown scaly 

 covering with which the nut is invested. 

 This was, as I expected, an epidermis of 



simple membrane, covering the albuminous 

 matter composing the kernel. When placed 

 in a drop of water, and viewed with a power 

 of 500 diameters, it.was seen to be distinctly 

 cellular in appearance, the cell markings 

 closely assimilating to those of the flattened 



3 



scales of the human skin. Hence I concluded 

 it was made up of flattened cells. Viewed with 

 oblique light, its markings were distinctly 

 seen. Fig. 1 gives a good idea of them. I 

 next made a very thin section of the kernel, 

 and found it to be cellular in structure, exhi- 

 biting well defined cell-walls, composed of a 

 tough, rather , opaque membrane, in shape 

 somewhat oval (Fig. 2). Here and there were 

 seen in the field of view globules of oil, with 

 their well-defined rings (Fig. 2, b), produced 

 by the unequal refraction of the light. 



