702 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1763. 



the foot stalks of the leaves, which envelope each other in such a manner, that 

 they form a kind of bulbous root. From this bulb proceed two oval-shaped, 

 nervous, smooth leaves, having membraneous convolute petioli or footstalks. 

 These encompass a triquetrous scapus, or a single stalk arising from the centre of 

 this root, which produces many flowers of a singular construction. These flowers 

 are supported by small pedunculi, or flower stalks, of a bloody-red colour, 

 which swell into seed-vessels, having at their base an acute denticle. This very 

 singular plant blowed, for the first time in England, in the year 1758, in the 

 curious exotic garden of Mr. Peter CoUinson ; who received it from Mr. Ber- 

 tram of Philadelphia. 



Mr. Clayton has described a plant, in the Flora Virginica, page 185, under 

 the name of " Bifolium scapo e medio duorum foliorum nudo, aphyllo, ad 

 exortum tenui, paulatim versus apicem accrescente, sex vel septem capsulas 

 sustinente: radice fibrosa carnosa viridi, foliis obvoluta, humi jacente; fibras 

 paucas emittente, cui radix anni superioris contigua et integumentis marcidis 

 evoluta pellucida adhaeret." This description seemingly corresponds with the 

 present plant ; but yet Mr. Clayton's character of the several parts of the flower 

 is very different from those here observed ; and though it may be thought to 

 come near to an epidendrum, yet it is neither an epidendrum nor a bifolium. 

 This plant, however, should be ranged among tlie first order of Linnaeus*s 

 class of gynandria diandria, which consists of several genera. 



XX I L New Experiments in Electricity: In a Letter from Mr. Ebenezer Kin- 



nersley, to B. Franklin, LL.D., F. R. S. Dated Philadelpkia, Mar. 12, 



1761. p. 84. 



Exp. 1. Mr. K. placed himself on an electric stand, and, being well elec- 

 trized, threw his hat to an unelectrized person, at a considerable distance, on 

 another stand ; and found that the hat carried some of the electricity with it ; 

 for, on going immediately to the person who received it, and holding a flaxen 

 thread near him, he was found electrized sufiiciently to attract the thread. 



Exp. 1. He then suspended, by silk, a broad plate of metal, and electrized 

 some boiling water under it, at about 4 feet distance, expecting that the 

 vapour, which ascended plentifully to the plate, would, on the principle of the 

 foregoing experiment, carry up some of the electricity with it ; but was at 

 length fully convinced, by several repeated trials, that it left all its share of it 

 behind. 



Exp. 3. He put boiling water into a coated Florence flask, and found that 

 the heat so enlarged the pores of the glass, that it could not be charged. The 

 electricity passed through as readily, to all appearance, as through metal ; the 

 charge of a three-pint bottle went freely through without injuring the flask in 



