1868. | Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 221 
The Dragon-tree of Teneriffe.—It appears that this celebrated 
botanical curiosity has recently been removed from its time-honoured 
situation ; in fact, has been blown down by a storm. No care 
appears to have been taken by the Spaniards to avoid such a mishap, 
which was, to say the least, not unlikely to happen, when we re- 
member that the tree’s age is by many competent persons estimated 
at more than six thousand years. When Baron Humboldt visited 
the tree in 1799, he calculated its circumference at about forty-five 
feet near the root, whilst M. Fenzi, of Florence, who has been 
there since, gives a circumference of no less than seventy-eight 
English feet. Last year it was in good health and condition, the 
crown covered with innumerable panicles of scarlet fruit, and alto- 
gether as vigorous as ever. The great trunk is hollow, and it is 
maintained by some authorities that the tree as it at present stands, 
or till lately stood, is to be regarded not as a single tree, but as an 
agglomeration of individuals, which have grown up in the humus 
provided by the decay of the old tree. The name of dragon-tree, 
or dragon’s-blood tree, is derived from the resin which exudes from 
the trunk, and is known as dragon’s-blood, though the dragon’s- 
blood of commerce is obtained chiefly from the Calamus Draco, an 
Kast Indian palm. 
France.—Action of the Induction-current upon Plants.— 
M. Blondeau has pursued his investigation of the effect of the 
induction-current upon the vegetable organism (see our last Chro- 
nicle), by examining its action upon fruit and seed. Acting upon 
fruits the current hastens their maturity. Apples, pears, and 
peaches, which had been subjected to the action of the current, 
arrived at complete maturity when the other fruits of the same 
plant, which had not been operated upon, were still far from being 
ripe. The most curious results were obtained by electrifying seeds 
before placing them in the ground; seeds were rendered conductive 
by soaking them for some time in water, and then submitted for a 
few minutes to the action of the current. Peas, French beans, 
and wheat were experimented on. The electrified seeds always 
germinated sooner than those which had not been acted on by the 
current ; the development of the plant was more rapid, and the 
stalks and leaves greener and more vigorous. Some of the electri- 
fied French beans presented a very curious peculiarity ; they germi- 
nated downwards, the gemmule and cotyledons remaining in the 
ground, and the root risimg into the air. The author remarks 
upon this peculiarity, which he compares to the effect of the current 
upon the poles of a magnet, and indicates that the embryo may 
hence be assimilated to a little magnet, having its neutral line and 
its two poles each charged with a peculiar fluid, tending to cause its 
organs to grow towards the centre of the earth or towards the 
sky. (!) 
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