382 ^ ■ ^' [AsSEMIJLY 



of garden cress, peas, French beans, lettuce, and migonnette, 

 equal quantities of which were thrown into pure water and oxy- 

 gented muriatic acid at a temperature oJ^SS*^ Fahrenheit. Cress- 

 es exhibited germs in three hours in the oxygented muriatic acid j 

 while none in the water were seen till twenty-six hours. In the 

 jQuriatic, nitric, or sulphuric acid, pure, or mixed with water, 

 there was no germ at all. 



These discoveries may one day be of great benefit in growing 

 plants. Several distinguished philosophers have repeated them. 

 Professor Pohl, of Dresden, caused the seeds of a new kind of 

 Euphorbia, (India rubber is one of them — Meigs,) taken from 

 Bacconi's collection of dried plants, 110 or 120 years old, to ger- 

 minate. Jacquin and Vandett Schott, at Vienna, tried all the old 

 seeds of the botanic garden, twenty or thirty years old, every at- 

 tempt to make them vegetate in the ground having failed, and he 

 made the greater part of them vegetate; even the hardest seeds 

 yielded to this agent. Very valuable plants are now growing in 

 Vienna by this treatment. Humboldt made the seeds of Clusia 

 Jlosea, brought from the Bahamas hy Boose, (and which had re- 

 sisted every effort to make them grow in the ground,) vegetate by 

 a new method of his — that is, by mixing the seeds with a paste 

 made of the black oxyde of manganese, and pouring over it dilu- 

 ted muriatic acid. The vessel in which the mixture is made 

 must be covered, but not tight ; for if so, an explosion will occur. 

 The temperature of the mixture must be about 95° of Fahren- 

 heit. 



Note. — The black oxide of manganese is largely used to obtain 

 oxygen from. — Meigs. 



The best condition of plants for germination has been found to 

 be with a heat over 60° Fahrenheit, and not over 90°. Over lOO'^ 

 the germination is injured. 



Dr. Wellington remarked that this stimulation of growth is 

 probably due to electricity, which is apt to be in connection with 

 the process of composition and decomposition. 



