THE MICROSCOPE. 207 
Syringe point inserted. By Friedlander’s method, which is a little 
more complicated than the other, the fluid is absolutely freed from 
septic germs and can be kept indefinitely. Different colored glass 
is used to indicate the nature of the drug enclosed, as red, for mor- 
phine, etc., ete. 
Force or Growine PLAnts.—The force exerted by growing 
plants is very great. Fungi are composed of soft tissues, yet a 
growing mushroom has been known to lift a large paving stone. 
The rootlets of pines and cedars growing on the sides of rocky de- 
clivities penetrate narrow crevices in the rocks, and finally by their 
growth loosen huge masses and send them tumbling down the cliff 
Years ago President Clarke, of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- - 
lege, put a pumpkin into harness and demonstrated that it was 
capable of lifting thousands of pounds. In a cemetery in Hanover 
a seed germinated in a crevice beside a tombstone which contained 
twenty cubic feet. The seedling, now a small tree, has lifted the 
stone over five inches. Not the least wonderful of phenomena of 
this class is the force exerted by the radicle of the germinating 
plant. Darwin has demonstrated that it exerts a force, which in 
proportion to its size, is astonishing This force the plantlet util- 
izes in sending its root into the soil, and the strangest part of the 
strange phenomena is that the little soft radicle is capable of pene- 
trating soil very much harder than itself. 
Ant-PLANTs oF THE INDO-MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO AND NEW 
GuinEA—Dr. O. Beccari gives a summary of what is at present 
known respecting this remarkable group of plants, in which ants 
take up their residence in special chambers in the tissue, and plant 
and animal seem each necessary to the life of the other. A good 
example is furnished by Acacia cornigera, and its connection with a 
particular species of ant, Pseudornyma bicolor, which makes its nest 
in the strong bifurcated spines of the stems and branches, after 
perforating them near their apex. They devour the pulpy interior 
of the spine, and then find nutriment in the saccharine and nu- 
tritive substance in the glandular structures of the young leaves. 
Here they remain always on the alert, forming an army of defence 
against herbivorous animals and other species of ants which would 
destroy the leaves. If cultivated where these friendly ants cannot 
gain access to it, the plant appears to perish. Another exceedingly 
