630 Transactions of the American Institute. 



ozone generator. 

 A new generator of ozone, exhibited at a conversazione given 

 by the President of the Eoyal Society in London, consists of a 

 number of flat plates of glass, covered with tin foil, and piled one 

 upon another, leavmg a small space to effectually separate them. 

 Each plate represents a Leyden jar, and, when the whole pile is 

 electrified, a stream of air, forced through from one end of it to 

 the other, becomes so strongly ozonized that breathing is painful 

 and danfferous. The stream of ozonized air can be used for bleach- 

 ing and other purposes. It has been employed on a large scale in 

 refineries for decolorizing sugar. 



SILK PLANT. 



In Peru, a plant is found growing to the height of three or four 

 feet, which bears a great number of pods, inclosing a silk-like fiber, 

 which is declared to be superior in fineness and quality to the pro- 

 duction of the silkworm. It is a wild perennial; the seed is small, 

 and easily separated from the fiber. The stems of the plant also 

 contain a fiber superior in strength and beauty to the finest linen 

 thread. Small quantities of it have been woven in a rude manner 

 by the Indians; the texture of the cloth is said to be of unsurpassed 

 brilliancy. Preparations are now being made to cultivate the plant 

 on an extensive scale. 



ADULTERATION OF SOFT SOAP. 



A fraud is extensively practiced in France, and perhaps other 

 countries, in the manufacturing of soap. M. Rouissin, of Paris, 

 reports, in the Journal de Pharmacie, that of sixteen samples pur- 

 chased indiscriminately, not one was free from adulteration; they 

 contained from ten to twenty -five per cent of starch, which improves 

 the appearance of the soap. The microscope reveals the presence 

 of granules of starch, which are swollen, perhaps by contact with 

 an alkali. The adulterated article can be detected by dissolving a 

 small quantity with alcohol: the starch is rapidly deposited as an 

 insoluble precipitate. 



LYCOPERDON. 



Ernest Baudimont, of France, has made some interesting calcu- 

 lations regarding the growth of the hjcoperdon giganteum, a genus 

 of fungi. Fourteen days elapsed from the time of the first appear- 

 ance of the plant above the ground until it arrived at full maturity. 

 It measured about forty-one inches on its greatest circumference, and 

 weighed 7.7 pounds. It was very nearly of a regular spheroidal form, 



