500 Queries and Ansruocrs. 



it? — A. X. Man.'i 3. \b'A2. [Answers, in part, to some of A. N.'s queries, 

 will be foinul at p. i2. oftlie current volume. — Cond.] 



StciUilii of hiibrid Plants . — (.)n the I9tli of May, M. Dutrodiet aii- 

 dresseil a letter to the Academy, in whicii he attributed the sterility of 

 hybrid plants to the imperfection of their sexual organs. In tiie flowers 

 of some hybrid cherry trees (derived from the imion of the Primus 

 CY-rasus and the Primus avium) the stamina have no pollen ; and their 

 anthers form a compact mass, which does not divide into pollenic or fer- 

 tile dust, as is the case with fruitful cherry trees. {Jour. U. In.st., Aug. 1831.) 

 AgcHci/ of Electrwili/ in jiroynotiiig the liootirg of Cuttinfix, and the other 

 Procesxes of Vegetation. — In reply to the (juery of J. R. (Vol. VII. p. 379.), 

 I would remark, that, in ni} opinion, it is undoubted that electricity pro- 

 motes the dcvelopemcnt of plants ; and I consider it certain that, if gar- 

 deners w'ere to electrify their cuttings, they would find them grow much 

 more easily than at present. One of our countrymen (the iiict is regis- 

 tered, I think, in the interesting tracts of the Cavalier Amoretti) sowed 

 turnips in two pots; when just through the ground, he electrified the 

 plants in one pot, but not tho.se in the other ; in the course of fifteen days 

 they were further electrified ; and the effect was, that in three weeks, or 

 thereabouts, the electrified plants were 4 in, higher than the others. Fur- 

 ther, in an orchard were placed electrical conductors of iron among the 

 branches of a I'ruit tree : the tree produced, in proportion, a much larger 

 crop of fruit than the other trees in the neighbourhood. According to the 

 experiments tried by Signor Brunodi Sazzi, a branch of Gleditsch/V/ triacan- 

 thos, 2 ft. long, furnished with a single thorn, attracted as much electricity 

 as a brass point ; from which it may be inferred, that the rapid grow th of 

 this plant is owing, in a great measure, to the electricity which it has the 

 power of absorbing from the atmosphere. It is known that by electricity 

 water is decomposed ; and that its component jiarts, oxygen and hydrogen 

 gas, are both highly nutritive to plants ; also, that electricity increases the 

 action of oxygen, and that it stimulates the irritability of living beings. 

 The experiments of Sir Humphry Uavy, who put grain to germinate in 

 water absolutely charged from a voltaic battery, is well known. It is 

 thus clear that electricity must act on cuttings in a very useful manner. 



A Querij in Electricitt/. — Having thus answered J. U., let some one 

 answer a (|uestion for me. It is known that a mixture of two parts 

 of oxygen gas, and of one of hydrogen, (the initial temperature being 

 comnumicated to it,) will inflame, and develope sufficient caloric to 

 burn the diamond. It is also known, that, by means of a voltaic battery 

 to each pole of which is united a thread of platina, the electric fluid, being 

 forced to enter a glass tube full of water, produces a developement of 

 gas in both the ends of the tu!)e ; that connecteil with the negative pole 

 being hydrogen gas, and double in quantity to that produced by the posi- 

 tive pole, which is oxygen. Now, my (jiiery is, may not an apparatus 

 fiimilar to that of the voltaic pile, or some other mechanism, be fouiul, 

 which, acting on a mass of water, may decompose it ; ami may not the 

 oxygen and hydrogen gas, thus disengaged, be collected in inunense re- 

 ceivers; some (those for the hydrogen gas) double the size of the others 

 (for the oxygen gas) ; thus procuring for any one, economically and at will, 

 in any part of the earth, volumes of combustible materials and (combu- 

 rente) eminently calorific? — Luigi Jlfanetfi. jMonza, I'ch. 'iit. 1832. 



Fountain Wells. — The facility in many, and the certainty in all, cases, 

 with w hich fountain wells may be obtaineil, promises very great advantages. 

 Iksides the water of the clouds, rivers, and lakes, it is had from two 

 other sources ; viz. land springs and main spring. The first are liable to 

 fail w hen most wanted ; the second never. Land springs are often found 

 upon, ami always at no great distance below, the surface of the ground. 

 The\ are collections liom exhalations ever risinu from the interior of the 



