152 
_ with the rest of the body stiffened and suspended in mid-air, 
testified to violent and prolonged resistance. Some ants again 
had the body arched up, as if to avoid contact with the stem, 
and the legs only were fatally caught. 
As is well known, the glutinous or sticky tracts lie around the 
stem directly beneath the nodes, and are about half an inch or 
more in depth. These glutinous zones are absent from the 
nodes, which are lower down on the stalk. But a darkening of 
the colour, just similar to what one sees below the sticky nodes, 
suggests the probability of these non-sticky nodes having been 
sticky at some former time. 
I can find no reference in the ordinary books to the fact that 
ants visit, and die upon, this plant. In Smith’s ‘English 
Botany,” 1800, however, occurs the following remarkable 
account of Lychnis viscaria:—‘‘Stem straight, about a foot 
high, simple, angular, leafy, dark brown, and clammy under 
each joint, by which insects are plentifully caught, as in several 
other plants of the pink or campion tribe, for what purpose no 
one has yetascertained ; probably their decaying bodies form an 
air which is salutary to vegetable life.” As I do not quite 
understand the author’s meaning in the latter part of his remarks 
I naturally forbear criticising the statement, and mention it here 
merely to show the opinion of a botanist on the subject eighty- 
one years ago. 
On each flowering stem there are from two to four sticky 
nodes. I found that the majority of the deaths had occurred in 
the first zone of stickiness ; fewer in the second, and still fewer 
at the higher nodes. Those ants therefore which gained the 
summit of their ambition would be pre-eminently strong and 
lusty, for to have arrived at the top of the plant among the 
flowers, they must have waded through morasses, each of which 
was sufficient to cause the death of many of their comrades. I 
found very few ants at the summit of the flowering stalks, and 
those that I did find there alive showed, from their want of 
vigour and restlessness, that they had been severely tried by the 
ordeals through which they had passed. The plant was growing 
in very rocky soil, each specimen quite isolated from any sur- 
_ rounding vegetation ; so that I am satisfied that no ants, on the 
plants I examined, could have gained the summits by adven- 
titious aids. 
Time and the want of proper apparatus prevented my making 
some experiments I wished to have tried, and as Ido not know 
when again I shall be able to pursue this most interesting inves- 
tigation, your kind insertion of this may perhaps induce some of 
your readers to pursue the subject further. These are amongst the 
questions which have occurred to me :—(1) Is there any attrac- 
tion in the glutinous secretion, or does the attraction lie in the 
flowers? I saw no ant-hills or nests anywhere in the neighbour- 
hood of the flowers, and my impression at the time was that the 
ants had come a long distance. I scrutinisingly examined the 
ground, and, to my astonishment, found that almost the only 
ants on the spot were upon the plants. (2) How is it, if these 
sticky zones are simply to prevent ants and other small walking 
animals from getting to the flowers, that they do not occur at 
the lower part of the stem as well as higher up? (3) What 
injury, if any, do ants cause to this plant? (4) Is it likely that 
the plant derives direct benefit from the deaths that take place 
upon it? Is there, in short, any digestive action in the glutinous 
secretion, and any absorptive power in those portions of the 
stem where it is found ? 
I brought home some specimens showing the dead bodies of 
ants stuck to the flower stalks, and these were exhibited at the last 
meeting of the Linnean Society. I shall be happy to show them 
to any who are interested in the subject. J. HARRIS STONE 
11, Sheffield Gardens, Kensington, December 2 
Solar, Gas-Flame, and Electric-Light Spectra 
In answer to Mr. J. Hopkins Walters’ inquiry contained in 
Narurg, vol. xxv. p. 103, the spectroscope declares that all 
these three spectra have for their base a continuous strip or band 
of light ; in the case of gas-flame (the bright part) crossed by 
the sodium lines only; in that of the sun by the well-known 
Frauenhofer dark lines; and of the electric (arc) light by the 
bright liues of carbon, The illuminating power of each of these 
sources of light is thus shown to be due to the incandesceuce of 
their several solid and gaseous constituents, concerning which a 
volume might be written. The relative effect of the sun’s bright 
golden glare, the gas-flame’s duller yellow tint, and the electric- 
lirht’s moon-like whiteness, on the optic nerve; have not, as far 
NATURE 
as Iam aware, been yet made the subject of special research. 
Popular opinion assigns injurious results to the whiter light. 
Mr. Walters will find in ‘‘ Photographed Spectra,” on Pl. xy., 
Fig. 4, and the extra plate, the solar spectrum, and on PL. v., 
Figs. 3 and 4, the spectrum of the electric arc between carbon 
points specially prepared to insure purity, In Dr. 
Watt’s ‘‘ Index of Spectra” the spectrum of the blue base of 
candle-flame is represented by the graphical diagram and de- 
scription, Carbon I. The illuminating portion of a gas-flame 
presents in the spectroscope the appearance of a dull sun 
without the dark lines. J. RAND CAPRON 
Guildown, December 3 
Tele-dynamics and the Accumulation of Energy—their 
Application to the Channel Tunnel 
A REMARKABLE opportunity is now presented to electrical and 
mechanical engineers of applying to eminent practical service 
the recent discoveries and advances made in relation to the 
accumulation and transmission of energy in the form of elec- 
tricity. I allude to the construction and working of the Channel 
Tunnel Railway. Of course the direct application of steam- 
power to the work of boring is out of the question. The power 
employed in boring Mont Cenis and St. Gothard was trans- 
mitted by compressed air through metal tubes, but this is a very 
costly, wasteful, and in some respects inconvenient process ; and 
this cost and waste increases in a very high ratio to the distance 
of transmission, Since those works were executed an immense 
advance has been made in the practice of transmitting energy by 
electric current, and particularly in storing that energy; and [ ~ 
predict that if the tunnel is ever completed (which Ido not 
doubt) it will be by means of electrical agency, An eminent 
civil engineer, who had invented a boring-machine which 
he considered of great promise for that work, told me 
more than a year ago that Dr. Siemens assured him that he 
would undertake to transmit 50 per cent. of the initial power by 
electric current half way through the tunnel; and by this time 
he would most probably give a much larger percentage. An 
eminent French authority promises from sixteen to twenty 
horse-power by a single current over a distance of from ten to 
fifty kilometres. If these statements are founded on fact your 
readers will at once realise the applicability and potency of the 
agent. Then there must of necessity be an immense quantity of 
material to be carried to and fro. The electrical railways of 
Berlin, Brussels, and Paris have left no question open as to the 
easiest and most economical means of propelling the trollies; 
and by using several conductors as many trolly trains in succes- 
sion could be run as there would be conductors. It would be 
premature to discuss now the subject of working this railway, 
but it is certain that electricity will be the agent, and there is 
very little doubt that the twenty miles of level tunnel way will 
be worked by energy generated and stored by the train itself in. 
its descent from the land level to the tunnel level. An exami- 
nation of this question in detail would be incompatible with 
your space and purpose. I will simply say that a train of 
Too tons descending a gradient of 1 in 100 for five miles 
would start with a potential force of nearly 60,000,000 foot 
pounds, a very small portion of which would be expended in 
useful work. Let the surplus of this be applied not to destroy- 
ing the rails by brakes and conversion into useless heat, but by 
revolving generators and storing the product to be used in again 
turning the generators (now motors) for propelling the train. I 
do not say that the train could be lifted up the five miles at the 
other end by this stored energy: the engineers may be intrusted 
with that duty. E. WALKER 
Tottenham 
Jounston Lavis.—Your paper wants beginning and title. 
Please send. 
DANTE AND THE SOUTHERN CRoss.—A correspondent 
inquires where Dante could have learned about the Southern ~ 
Cross, to which there is evident allusion in the first canto of the 
‘* Purgatorio.” 
yAMAICA 
F all the West Indian Colonies appertaining to the 
British Crown, that of the Island of Jamaica can 
claim to be the largest in area, the most numerous in 
population, and the wealthiest in revenue. Within half a 
