- ‘considerable quantities. 
€mits, when rubbed, aepeculiar odour, - 
- administered for ages in the East. 
at Lad 
- 
1811.) —- Electrieal Sparks emitted by Flowers. 
mut, and a great variety of shells. The 
nautili are generally larger than .those 
usually found in the fossil state. Petri. 
fied wood is very abundant, much per- 
forated by the teredo; these perforations 
are lined with calcareous spar. A pe- 
culiar resinous substance, not yet de- 
serihed in any of our works, is duy up in 
This substance 
similar to that of amber, it is slightly 
electric, insoluble in water, soluble in 
alkohol, spirit of turpentine, and ether ; 
nitrous acid, having a similar,eflect upon 
it as on other resins. That found nearest 
the surface is partially decomposed, ex- 
tremely porous and earthy, filled fre- 
quently with pyrites;—that deeper is more 
transparent and emits a stronger odour, 
Highgate. James GILtMan, 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
peas 
OW often has it not been remarked, 
H that there is nothing new under 
the sun; the most brilliant and famed dis- 
coveries having been made long before 
the time of those who reap the glory of 
their invention. 
This remark forcibly struck me in 
stumbling upow a passage the other day 
ip Hasselquist’s Travels in the Levant, 
from which it appears that the remedy, 
lately introduced into the Materia Me- 
dica, with such success for the tapes 
worm, orat least one analazous, has been 
He 
tells us (page 388,) that, at Cairo, petro- 
leum was given as a‘ certain specific 
against this insect, and the aflinity of this 
fo ojl of turpentine I need not point out, 
° 
Peer of the Monthly Magazine. 
Rojo 
-T was remarked by a daughter of Lin. 
neus, that the flowers of the nastur- 
tium (lropaolummujus.) emitted sponta- 
neously sparks like those of electricy, 
_ visible only in the dusk of the evening, T 
do not know whether any ‘one has 
observed that the oriental poppy (pa- 
pover orientale) exhibits the same phe- 
“pomenon in a very remarkable manner, 
Walking in my garden tue other evening 
with a friend, we were both struck with 
this appegrance at the same instant,’ tie 
sparks (or flashes rather) were very bril- 
Aant.and, in quick succession, the petals 
at the same time closing frequently with 
susde jerke, The flashes proceeded eny 
ae 4 
* ’ 
we 
535. 
tirely from the inside-of the fowers, ang. 
wheu they were closed, ceased; the day 
had been very hot and showery, with 
much distant thurder, the sun was juss 
set, the evening calm, and the dew tulle 
ing. IL mention these Circuimmtanges, as. 
I have been frequently. on the watch 
since for the same appearances in a 
different state of the weather, withaug 
success. y 
Tt is observed by Dr, Smith in the 8th 
volume of Sowervy’s English Botany, 
that the scarlet pimpernel Canagal/s 
arvensis) from opening only in fing weas_ 
ther and closing infallibly against Tali}, , 
has been called the poor man’s weather _ 
glass, I wish to bear testimony to the 
extraordinary fidelity ‘of this little mas 
nitor, and strougly to recommend it tg. 
the attention of haymakers and others 
interested, it being a very common weed. 
in all cultivated land, and flowering plene 
tifully aj] summer long, te : 
Oue trifle more, if your room and patie, 
ence will admit, and I have dene. The, 
roots of the ornathogalum umbellatury - 
are said (I think in the same work) to be ; 
good eating when boiled. Query, ag 
what titne of the year?—Certajnly not in’ 
June, é Ab 
Ryton, June 18, 1811, 
a ~ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Mugazing, 
SIR, : : ishathle Oe 
ET the light of reason acquaing. 
your Reverend Correspoydent, 
(page 403,) and his R, R. Bishop, thag. 
Cicero and Cxsar impose no penalties. 
for infidelity, nor is it of any alleged . 
conseguence who wrote their professed, | 
their matchless, works, The arguinent, 
therefore, is worse than childish! | 
They know very well that such testis 
mony as they, affect to call good on this 
subject, would not convict any man of a 
petty larceny, or be received in-deciding - 
on the slightest question in any court of 
law. ALPHA-OMEGA, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, 9 ' 
HE object of your correspondent 
who has proposed a magnetjca} 
query in the last number, is, I CONCEIVE, 
to produce a’ perpetual motion, The 
experiment would nat succeed because 
the descent of the iron pendulum would” 
be as much retarded by the attraction of 
the negrest magnet, as its ascent was 
accelerated by the same force, ‘The two 
magnets would render the gscillations of 
wreater 
