192 NOTES. 



from the local action of water upon unoxidised metals or other 

 materials in the interior of the earth, is a question which may be 

 of some interest to the geologist. If the former hypothesis were 

 adopted, it would perhaps be difficult to explain the absence of 

 helium from the gas included in the rock ; and, on the whole, the 

 latter view appears to afford the more probable explanation. 



Experiments show that hydrogen is present in even larger pro- 

 portion in the granite from the neighbourhood of Dublin, and it is 

 proposed to examine some other examples of the ancient crystal- 

 line rocks in order to determine the nature of the gases enclosed 

 in them. ^ * ^ 



The Wild Nettle is known to contain a remarkable number 

 of useful qualities. The leaf is an edible, and the liquid to be 

 obtained from the stalk makes an excellent beverage. The fibre 

 of the stalk may, under treatment, produce an excellent silk. For 

 ages the plant has been used for this purpose in China, where it 

 grows to a height of seven or eight feet. Only recently, however, 

 has the machinery necessary to make the manufacture of this silk 

 a profitable industry been produced. A machine called the 

 decorticator has been invented, by means of which the fibre is 

 stripped off in enormous quantities at a terrific speed. Ramie is 

 the eastern name of the plant. — The Counsellor. 



* * 

 The Orange Groves of Naples are planted with wild trees, 

 which are grafted in the usual way and grow with bare trunks to 

 four or five feet from the ground. The branches then run out and 

 form the fruit-bearing portion of the tree. An ingenious and 

 beautiful innovation has been introduced in one grove, and is 

 described by Consul Neville-Rolfe in his latest report. Lemons 

 are grafted upon the bare and non-productive stems of the orange, 

 about two feet from the ground, and trained in garlands from tree 

 to tree, thus not only increasing the productiveness of the grove 

 very materially, but adding greatly to the picturesqueness of its 

 appearance. Orange trees being usually planted in rows at a 

 measured distance apart, a grove has usually a geometrical appear- 

 ance, which is unsatisfactory, but this appearance is very much 

 modified by the lemons, which break the lines in all directions. 

 There is a legend, which most people firmly believe, that the 



