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CHAPTER I. 



PHOSPHORESCENCE IN PHANEROGAMIC PLANTS. 



THE phenomenon of phosphorescence has, up to 

 the present time, been very little observed in the 

 vegetable world. 



I have collected, not without much difficulty, 

 all the observations upon this subject which ap- 

 pear to me worthy of confidence. Luminous 

 plants are probably numerous, though few have 

 been observed hitherto, and the observations we 

 possess are somewhat scanty and uncertain. 



The first discovery of a light-emitting vege- 

 table is attributed to the daughter of Linnaeus 

 a young damsel who was fond of setting fire on a 

 dark summer evening, to the inflammable atmo- 

 sphere which envelopes the essential-oil glands of 

 certain Fraxinellte, an experiment with which the 

 learned Francois Arago was quite as delighted as 

 the daughter of Linnaeus. 



A curious fact strikes us here : the first obser- 

 vation of vegetable phosphorescence was made 



