PHANEROGAMIC PLANTS. 85 
observation of lwminous flowers that has been 
made, is the following :— 
On the 18th of June, 1857, about ten o’clock 
in the evening, M. Th. Fries, the well-known 
Swedish botanist, whilst walking alone in the 
Botanic garden of Upsal, remarked a group of 
poppies (Papaver orientale), in which three or 
four flowers emitted little flashes of light. Fore- 
warned as he was by a knowledge that such 
things had been observed by others, he could not 
help believing he was suffering from an optical 
illusion. However, the flashes continued showing 
themselves from time to time during three-quar- 
ters of an hour. M. Fries was thus forced to be- 
lieve that what he saw was real. The next day, 
observing the same phenomenon to re-occur at 
about the same hour, he conducted to the place a 
person entirely ignorant that such a manifesta- 
tion of ight had ever been witnessed in the vege- 
table world, and without relating anything con- 
cerning it, he brought his companion before the 
eroup of poppies. The latter observer was 
soon in raptures of astonishment and admiration. 
Many other persons were then led to the same 
spot, some of whom immediately remarked thut 
the flowers were throwing out flames. 
Some days later, on the 23rd of June, the wea- 
ther having become warmer, fourteen persons 
again witnessed the little flashes of ght on the 
