Botany .-^Coating Copper with Platma. 885 



end of ihc last conlury some tombs of white marble were 

 duo: up, .ind one of them is still employed as the basoa to 

 a toiuuain,. 'i'he researches already made have left unco- 

 vcrfd, at the depth of two feet below the surface, on the 

 cdoo of the spot on which the city seems to have been 

 placed, two parallel walls of mason-work at the distance 

 of five or six feet from each other. At the depth ot five 

 feet there w?s found a cellar filled with a number of urns of 

 earthen ware, placed close to each other, some of which 

 wvre broken by the workmen. There were found also 

 bronze nicdals, and silver of the lower empire, having on 

 them the impression of Philip. Besides several beautiful 

 medals of Auirustus, Domitian, Trajan, Adrian, Antoni- 

 nus Pius, Marcus Aurelius Faustina, Septimus Severus, 

 Constautius, Chlorus, and Valentinian, there were found 

 a steel stvius, a metal mirror, and some vessels of black 

 and red earth covered with figures in bas-relief j the torso 

 of a woman, the small statue of a horse, and an inscription 

 iu which has been dccyphercd the name of Julius Caesar; 

 a beautiful silver medal with two heads, representing on 

 one side the emperor Claudius, and on the reverse that of 

 the young Caesar, Nero, &c. 



It has hitherto been supposed that the plant called by 

 Linnaeus the Lichen islandlciis does not grow any where 

 but in the regions of the north. Don Mariana Lagaa, how- 

 ever, who belongs to the royal botanical garden at Madrid. 

 in a tour through Spain to complete the Flora Hispanka, 

 discovered it in the park of i'ajares, in Asturia, and in 

 many other places, where it grows in great abundance. This 

 plant is employed by the physicians as a remedy for the 

 phthisis. 



COATING COPPER WITH PI.ATINA. 



M. Strauss announce^ in Gehlen's journal, that a solu- 

 tion of platiua precipitated bv ammonia, washed, dried, 

 and exposed to a red heat for half an hour in a covered cru- 

 cible, may be anialdamated with from five to seven parts 

 of mercury by trituration in a warm mortar. This amalgam 

 may be laid over copper, and the mercury be driven olf by 

 heat : a second coatmg is applied mixed with chalk and 

 sprinkled with water, and the plate is again ignited. The 

 plate is afterwards burnished. By this application copper 

 vessels may be defended from the action of acids. 



TANNING. 



