328 Observations on a Species of Limosella. 
it must have been the chlorine, or the metal, or both, that were 
decomposed. As chlorine can be freed from much of its aqueous 
vapour by dry muriate of lime, which is not the case with mu- 
riatic acid gas, it offers a much more unexceptionable substance 
for experiments of this kind. I passed 23 cubical inches of 
chlorine slowly through dry muriate of lime into a flint glass tube 
red rot, containing a green glass tube full of iron wire; the chlo- 
rine combined with this iron wire with intense heat; the bright 
sublimate formed was passed through more iron wire heated to 
redness, so as to form a considerable quantity of the first com- 
pound of chlorine with iron, which, when examined, was found 
exactly the same as that produced by the action of muriatie acid 
gas on iron. All the products were heated strongly, and the 
end of the glass tube kept very cool; but not the slightest ap- 
pearance of moisture was perceptible. 
In all these experiments I was assisted by Mr. Faraday of the 
Royal Institution. . 
Muriate of ammonia is not altered by being passed through 
porcelain or glass tubes heated to redness; but if metals be pre- 
sent, it offers similar results to muriatic acid gas. In one expe- 
riment, in which muriate of ammonia recently sublimed was used, 
instead of muriatic acid gas, the appearance of moisture was less 
than in the experiment on muriatic acid gas, which has been just 
detailed, and yet there was a considerable action on the oxide of 
lead in the glass, not only by the muriatic acid, but likewise by 
the free hydrogen of the decomposed ammonia. 
LV. Observations on a Species of Limosella recently discovered in 
the United States, by Dr. E11 lves, Professor of Materia Me- 
dica and Botany in the Medical Institution of Yale College*. 
Tus small plant was observed in flower in July 1816, by Mr. 
Horatio N. Fenn (now of Rochester, state of New-York), in com- 
‘pany with Dr. Leavenworth. The plant and the seeds have been 
preserved by me in a flower-pot from that time to the present. 
The plant was taken a few rods south of Mr. Whitney’s gun- 
manufactory, on the margin of the river, where it was covered by 
every tide. I have since observed the plant in great abundance 
on, the margin of the Honsatonuc in Derby, and in those small 
streams in East Haven, Branford and Guildford,which empty into 
Long Island Sound. 
A specimen of the Limosella (with some specimens of the 
Tillea) was sent to Z. Collins, esq. of Philadelphia, who wrote 
me that Mr. Nuttal had found the same plant a few days previous 
* From the American Journal of Science, No. I. 
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