446 



the preservation of wood, luay be avoided by first washing the wood 

 with a hot and saturated solution of three i)arts alum and one part sul- 

 phate of iron, and afterward with a more dilute solution of sulphate of 

 iron, to which a sufiicient quantity of tire-clay has been added to make 

 it as thick as ordinary paint. Another method is as follows : The wood 

 is repeatedly painted over with a hot solution of glue, until a very thin 

 coat of glue remains upon the surface, the wood is then painted over 

 with a thicker solution of glue and a mixture of one part of sulphur, 

 one part of ochre or i)ipe-clay, and sis parts sulphate of iron is applied 

 with a dredger, the ingredients having been first i)ulverized and thor- 

 oughly mixed. 



Sensitive streams. — Professor Edwin J. Houston, while spending a 

 summer's vacation in Pike County, Pennsylvania, had the good fortune 

 to discover the sensitiveness of water to sound waves. Among the 

 many beautiful waterfalls of that section he found one scantily supplied 

 with water which dripped in small streams from the ends of the moss 

 covering the rocks of the j)recipice ; the air being still and the stream 

 free from ventral segments. And it was found that on sounding a shrill 

 falsetto note the streams Avould instantly respond, and change the 

 grouping of the drops and the position of the ventral segments. A 

 heavy rain, however, flooded the stream and prevented further investi- 

 gation. 



Dyeing veneer wood. — 0. Mene recommends that the wood be 

 steeped for twenty-four hours in a solution of caustic soda and boiled 

 with it for one-half hour. After washing to remove all the lye it will 

 be found to have become as soft as leather, and equally as plastic, and 

 to be in an excellent condition to absorb the dye stuffs. The dyes are 

 fast and thoroughly penetrate the wood, which after drying may be 

 sawed and veneered. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



By Geo. Vasey, Botanist. 



Curious phenomenon in vegetable PHYSiOLoaY. — It has long 

 been known to botanists that, occasionally, after the felling of pine and 

 fir trees, their stumps would continue to increase in diameter, i. e., form 

 new woody layers for several years. Dutrochet mentions some cases 

 of extraordinary longevity in the stock o£ pimis picea after the trunk 

 had been felled. He says that in the year 1836 a stock of j;i«MS pioea 

 felled in 1821 was still alive, and had formed fourteen thin new layers 

 of wood, that is one each year ; and another, felled in 1743, was still in 

 full vegetation, having formed ninety-two thin layers of wood, or one 

 each year. This singular i^henomenon was long a puzzle to botanists 

 and vegetable physiologists. Over thirty years ago Goeppert, an ac- 

 complished botanist of Breslau, undertook an investigation of the sub- 

 ject. The result'is published at Jarge in the Annales des Sciences Xatu- 

 relles for 1843. It appears that in all the cases examined by Goeppert 

 there was a union of the roots of the fallen trees with the roots of living 

 trees growing in the immediate vicinity, and his explanation of the phe- 

 nomenon was that the stumps maintained their growth by drawing 

 their supplies of sap from the trees with which they were thus con- 



