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72 OPENING OF PALM SPATHES WITH AN AUDIBLE REPORT. 
read my communication relating to the bursting of the Palm spathe 
with great interest, because, during his stay in Ceylon, he had often 
observed this curious phenomenon. I trust that when my friend reads 
this note he will hasten to communicate all he knows on the subject, 
and on what Cingalese Palms he noticed the bursting. With regard 
to the cause of the report, I left it quite an open question, and merely 
threw out a suggestion that it might be owing to heat generated by 
the anthers. Messrs. Sadler and Bell inserted a thermometer by a 
narrow slit into an unburst spathe, and when taken out after a lapse 
of twenty minutes, it was found to be a—half-a degree lower (573°) 
than the surrounding atmosphere. To my mind the observation as 
aaa aE PA it SANAN MR RENE EMT TAE Fd 
given does not prove anything at all. In order to have any value, we É 
ought to know the range of the thermometer in the house during 
at least twelve hours previously, and the time of day when the obser- 
vation was taken. If the atmosphere surrounding the plant had not 
fluctuated during the last twenty-four hours, the observation would | 
tend to prove that there was no heat developed inside the spathe; but 
if the range of the thermometer had been considerably lower a few hours, 
or perhaps even a still shorter time before, it would go some way to 
prove that a certain degree of heat was thrown off by the flowers. We 
have as yet very few exact observations on the development of heat in 
flowers ; Caspary's on Victoria regia* are perhaps the most minute ever 
made known, and that able botanist confirms the fact that, not only is 
the greatest amount of heat generated when the anthers are ready to 
discharge their pollen, but that there is at different times of the day i . 
maximum and a minimum independent of the surrounding temperature.” 
This communication was followed by the two succeeding letters, both 
published in the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle’ (March 1 and 22, 1862) :— 
“Yesterday I received some information likely to throw a new light 
upon the probable cause of the audible report by which the opening of 
the Palm-spathe at Kew was accompanied, or at least lead our in- 
quiries into a new direction. My friend, Professor Goeppert, of Breslau, 
writes to me* that, wishing to show to his botanical class the internal 
structure of a female cone of Zamia integrifolia, he made a transverse 
section in the presence of his pupils, when, to their mutual surprise, an 
audible detonation was distinctly beard. All present having agreed 
that this report could proceed from no other source than the cone eX- E : 
* ‘ Bonplandia,’ vol. iii. p. 178-199 (1855). t Ib. vol. x. p. 59. 
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