398 THE UNIVERSE. 



of its magnificent heart-shaped leaves, undulated like the 

 waves of the sea. The ingenious and learned observer of 

 this extraordinary phenomenon noticed that from each of 

 these orifices from ten to a hundred drops of water were 

 thrown every minute the distance of an inch or more. 



But the vegetable marvel in respect to transpiration is 

 the weeping-tree, which was seen some years ago in one of 

 the Canary Islands. The water fell like copious rain from 

 its tufted foliage, a fact which botanists sought to express 

 by calling it Ccesalpinia pluviosa. Collected at the foot of 

 the tree, it formed, it is said, a kind of pond, from which 

 the inhabitants of the vicinity furnished themselves with 

 water. 1 



At first I suspected some exaggeration in the accounts 

 given by travellers as to the transpiration of this extraor- 

 dinary tree ; but after seeing an arborescent Fuchsia in one 

 of the greenhouses of the botanical garden of Rouen rain 

 down so nrnch water upon the plants round about it that it 

 was necessary to remove them, I have believed the state- 

 ments. 



' The insensible transpiration is demonstrated by the most 

 simple experiment. It is only necessary to place a plant 

 under a dry bell-glass, the base of which is plunged in mer- 



1 In the Hlstoria de la Conquista de las Mas Canarias, by Juan de Abreu 

 Galindo, it is stated that there was at Hierro (Ferro) a laurel-tree, which, accord- 

 ing to M. Roulin, was perhaps the Laurus fastens, that furnished the natives of 

 the island with drinking water. This fluid distilled drop by drop from the foliage, 

 and was preserved in cisterns. This marvellous vegetable fountain was, during 

 part of the day, enveloped in a cloud, from the bosom of which it drew its sup- 

 ply of water. But the tradition of the tree quoted by the old historian of the 

 seventeenth century is no longer found among the conquerors of the island. 



