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top, is suspended in a convenient frame, is about three- fourths 

 filled with a solution of refined sugar in distilled water, receiving 

 occasional supplies, and that the poles of a water-battery of 

 twenty -five pairs terminate within an inch of each other in the 

 solution before mentioned, about an inch also from the bottom of 

 the cylindrical vessel. Through the porous bottom alluded to, the 

 saccharine liquid gradually percolated, during several months — 

 that is, until its minute viaducts became completely obstructed. 

 The solution thus filtered fell into a convenient glazed earthen 

 jar placed under the apparatus, and was occasionally returned to 

 the inside of the glass cylinder. 



About the beginning of September, 1843, a small patch of 

 fungus, of a peculiar character, was observed to have commenced 

 forming on the outside of the glass, near its lower rim, but yet 

 not in contact with the line of junction between the glass and its 

 earthen bottom. At this period the solution had ceased to drop 

 through the earthen diaphragm, and the incipient fungus occu- 

 pied a spot on the outside of the glass directly opposite the negative 

 electrode \f\ihm. This substance having, when first seen, a gelatinous 

 appearanccfof a d;irk -brown colour, by slow degrees extended itself 

 round the lower rim of the glass, forming an irregular band or 

 zone, half an inch in breadth, and throwing out numerous protu- 

 berances as it approached the positive side of the arrangement 

 On the 29th of November, in the same year, the following note 

 relative to this singular production occurs among my memoranda ; 

 and as I cannot otherwise better describe its mature appearance, 

 I shall subjoin the extract: — 



" The substance of this fungus varies in colour from a light 

 chocolate to that of a dark sanguineous red, and though formerly 

 of a soft texture, it now offers considerable resistance. When 

 viewed with an excellent pocket-lens — the only sort of micro- 

 scope that can be brought to bear upon it — a most singularly- 

 beeutiful species of vegetation is seen to occupy its entire surface, 

 presenting vurious shades of crimson, green, olive, and green 

 inclining to yellow. In its general appearance it at once suggests 



