154 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



" It- is impossible," continues- M. Donne, " not to remark the 

 striking analogy which these facts establish between the corpuscles 

 ranged in regular and fixed series on the internal sides of all vege- 

 table cells where the double circulation of a fluid has been observed, 

 and the vibratile organs of animals, to which attention has been 

 directed since the work of MM. Purkinje and Valentine : this 

 analogy is the more complete, as the vibratile organs of the mu- 

 cous membranes separate themselves, as I have shown, into parti- 

 cles, when the motion may be observed to continue often for more 

 than twenty-four hours. 



" I examined if there existed vibratory hairs on the surface of 

 the granules endowed with the spontaneous movement which I have 

 just described, but was not able to discover any, although I employed 

 a power of 500 diameters with a good light. I thought I saw a 

 brilliant circle round the granules, but cannot affirm any thing more 

 on this point. 



" I must add that all the agents which stop the circulation of the 

 Chara, also destroy the rotary motion of the granules." — L'lnstitut, 

 April 1838. 



ACTION OF PLANTS ON THE AZOTE OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 



M. Boussingault has entered into an investigation in order to as- 

 certain whether plants absorb the azote of the atmosphere. In 

 these researches he has employed analysis, and compared the com- 

 position of the seeds with the composition of the results of their 

 growth, obtained at the expense only of water and air. Although 

 these experiments were undertaken specially with a view to examine 

 into the question as to azote, they also determine with precision the 

 elements lost or gained by clover seed and wheat, during their ger- 

 mination and vegetation. These plants were vegetated in air con- 

 tinually renewed, and well washed to deprive it of all dust, watered 

 with distilled water, and cultivated in a siliceous sand. The follow- 

 ing are the results of this investigation. 



1 . That clover seed and wheat during germination neither gain 

 nor lose azote. 



'2. That these seeds lose carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and that 

 the quantity of each of these elements varies at different periods of 

 their germination. 



3. That during the culture of clover seed in a soil absolutely free 

 from manure and only under the influence of water and air, this 

 plant talces up carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and an appreciable 

 quantity of azote. 



4. That wheat cultivated under precisely the same circum- 

 stances also takes from the water and the air, hydrogen and oxy- 

 gen ; but after a culture of three months not the slightest gain or 

 loss of azote could be detected by analysis. 



The following is the result of M. Payen's examination on azote 

 contained in plants. 



