244 ON THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



ARTICLE II. 



ON FACILITATING THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 



BY AMICUS. 



Iodine facilitates the germination of seeds much more than chlo- 

 rine, if they be watered with a solution of it : even those which 

 have apparently lost all vital power, may be frequently made to 

 germinate by Iodine. — Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the 

 World, Vol. l.p. 106, (might not this be useful with foreign seeds ? 

 Any chemist coidd give information as to the proper solution of 

 Iodine for the purpose.) 



The same work Vol. I. p. 108-9, mentions the following pro- 

 ducts, of foreign countries. Could any of them be naturalized 

 in Great Britain? or if not there, in any of her colonies, so as to 

 form articles of profitable commerce ? 



The Myiica Pcnsylvanica yields an annual supply of vegetable 

 wax. M. Serret mentions it as a small arbuste, which may be 

 easily cultivated in poor soils. From a surface of three hundred 

 and fifty square feet he obtained every year from a pound and an 

 half to two pounds of wax. Bull. Univ. 1829, p. 172. Humboldt 

 also mentions a palm, the trunk of which was covered with a vege- 

 table wax, which the natives employed for their tapers. 



The Talc de Vaca in South America (gives a copious emission of 

 actual milk. Humboldt found this tree in Venezuela. Lockhart 

 met with many in Carraccas. One was an hundred feet high and 

 seven in diameter. The milk was agreeable, and used by the in- 

 habitants. Smith saw it on the river Demerary. It was there 

 called Ilya Hi/a. The milk was drinkable and rich; thicker than 

 that of cows. It was not bitter, but a little viscuous , and mixed 

 with coffee, it could not be distinguished with animal milk. Bull. 

 Univ. 1830, p. 125,295. Humboldt describes it as a handsome 

 tree, resembling the broad leaved star-apple. Upon making in- 

 cisions in the trunk, a glutinous milk issues abundantly of a 

 pleasing and balmy smell, and it flows most copiously at sun-rise. 

 It seemed peculiar to the Cordilleras of the coast. 



Another tree in Guayaquil produces a fine wool. Ceibo wool is 

 the product of a very high and tufted tree. The wool is contained 

 in a pod near two inches long and an inch thick. It is a tuft like 

 cotton, softer to the touch and of a reddish cast. Its filaments 



