490 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1/20. 



the year very well. I gathered the last about 8 days since, (Oct. 23,) and the 

 leaves die white this year also, being the second year of bearing. 



In April J 692, having a small plant of the common white jessamine, which 

 stood in the ground, and was no thicker than a tobacco-pipe, I cut it oft' at two 

 joints above the ground, and grafted it with a cutting of the yellow- striped. It 

 took, and shot a small weak shoot ; but in a month or 5 weeks after, it was 

 blighted, and I perceived it had killed the graft, and some part of the stock 

 below, so I took my knife and cut it to the quick, which was near the next knot 

 or joint to the ground, and let it stand, thinking to graft it again at spring, as be- 

 fore, but forgot it till the season was passed. At length I saw it had broke out 

 at the next joint with several shoots of the yellow and green striped ; also a 

 strong shoot from the root, of yellow and green striped. After a while I took 

 it up with mold to the root, and put it in a pot, and it flourished all the sum- 

 mer, and for 2 or 3 years after ; when for want of shifting the pot in time, it 

 was matted so to the bottom and sides of the pot, that it died. 



jin Account of some new Electrical Experiments. By Mr. Stephen Gray, 



N° 366, p. 104. 



Having often observed in the electrical experiments made with a glass tube, 

 and a down feather tied to the end of a small stick, that after its fibres had been 

 drawn towards the tube, when that has been withdrawn, most of them would 

 be drawn to the stick, as if it had been an electric body, or as if there had been 

 some electricity communicated to the stick or feather; this put me upon think- 

 ing, whether if a feather were drawn through my fingers, it might not produce 

 the same effect, by acquiring some degree of electricity. This succeeded ac- 

 cordingly on my first trial, the small downy fibres of the feather next the quill 

 being drawn by my finger when held near it : and sometimes the upper part of 

 the feather, with its stem, would be attracted also ; but not always with the 

 same success. I then tried whether hair might not have the same property, by 

 taking one from my wig, and drawing it 3 or 4 times between my thumb and 

 fore-finger, and soon found it would come to my finger at the distance of half 

 an inch ; and soon after I found that the fine hair of a dog's ear was strongly 

 electrical ; for on taking the ear and drawing it through my fingers, great num> 

 bers of them would be attracted to my fingers at once. I next tried threads of 

 silk, of several colours and finenesses, which I found to be all electrical. 



Having succeeded so well in these, I proceeded to larger quantities of the 

 same materials, as pieces of ribband, both of coarse and fine silk, of several 

 colours ; and found that by taking a piece of either of these, of about half a 



