370 



NA TURE 



[Mar. 12, 1874 



to a peaty marsh, though the waters appear not to be 

 affected by the peat but are said to be salt at certain 

 periods, occur abundance of confervse and minute algae, 

 as well as a species of Ruppia. In the shady damp 

 hollows, at the entrances of the caves, is usually seen a 

 rich growth of ferns, jessamine, and coffee trees of good size. 



The general features of the indigenous vegetation of 

 the islands are the Junipers, Lantana camara L., a 

 verbenaceous shrub which grows in dense masses, and 

 the Oleander, which also grows in abundance and is used 

 for hedges. A few trees of the Date and Cocoa-nut 

 palms may occasionally be seen, but their fruit produce 

 is not sufficiently abundant to be of any importance. One 

 of the greatest pests in the island in the form of a weed is 

 LeuccBiia glaiica Bth., which sends down its tap roots to 

 a great depth, and is difficult to eradicate. It is a legu- 

 minous plant, and in its native state forms an orna- 

 mental tree. 



The least cultivated part of the island is at Paynter's 

 Vale, where orange and lemon-trees luxuriate in their 

 wild state. From the prevailing dampness of the atmo- 

 sphere all over the island, a species of Nostoc abounds 

 not only in the caves and on the rocks near the sea- 

 shore, but also amongst the roots of grass on lawns. Out 

 of about 160 flowering plants collected in Bermuda 

 Morus rubra, Hibiscus arborea, and Chrysophytlum cainito 

 are the only three that do not occur in an absolutely wild 

 state. Perhaps not more than ico are true Bermuda 

 plants. Many of the plants of the island were no doubt 

 originally brought from the West Indies by the Gulf 

 Stream, or the cyclones. The presence of American 

 plants is perhaps to be traced more to the migrations of 

 Ijirds, which come in large numbers, more especially the 

 American Golden Plover. Then, again, to account for the 

 presence of other plants, there is the fact of the annual 

 importation of large quantities of hay, and also of seeds, 

 such as onion seed from Madeira and potato seed from 

 America, with which other seeds are, no doubt, constantly 

 introduced. Shipwrecks, also, which occur on the coast, 

 are probably fruitful sources from whence new plants 

 arise ; as a proof of this, it is stated that a vessel with a 

 cat go of grapes was recently wrecked and the boxes of 

 grapes washed ashore, the seeds of which, being saved, 

 were sown, and produced an abundance of young plants. 



INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY 



THE Society of Arts seems to be increasing its effi- 

 ciency every year, " lengthening her cords and 

 strengthening her stakes ; " quite recently a Chemical 

 Section has been added, which we believe will be pro- 

 ductive of much practical benefit. At the opening of this 

 Section on the 6th inst., the chairman. Dr. Odling, gave a 

 valuable and interesting address, which, by the courtesy 

 of the secretary of the Society, we are able to present to 

 our readers : — 



I have been desired by the Council to say a few words 

 at this introductory meeting on the importance of In- 

 dustrial Chemistry, but really to do so is to urge upon you 

 a theme which requires no advocacy, I should think, on 

 the part of anyone, and I am afraid it would be as tedious 

 as thrice-told tales. If we look at the objects with which 

 we are surrounded and consider how very few of them 

 are in a state m which they are presented to us by nature, 

 we shall find that the metamorphoses to which they have 

 been subjected are essentially chemical ones ; that is to 

 say, wherever we find one kind of matter in nature, and 

 somehow or other the matter is turned into another 

 kind of matter, we submit it to a chemical chanj^e ; and 

 how very lew indeed of the different kinds of matter with 

 which we are surrounded are really in their primitive 

 forms. When we have mentioned wood and stone, I 

 mean building stone, we have mentioned almost all. 



When we consider the gas which, though now gas, was a 

 short time ago in the form of coal, or the glass of our 

 windows which a short time back was in the form of sand, 

 soda, and limestone, or if wc look at the plaster of our 

 rooms, which was originally limestone, which has under- 

 gone varied metamorphoses, and more particularly I 

 might direct your attention to the metallurgical industries, 

 especially iron, which was a short time before in the 

 ironstone^all these are instances of the chemical meta- 

 morphosis to which we subject the different natural 

 objects, and so change one kind of matter into another. 



Among all these metamorphoses which are of achemical 

 nature there are some to which we more particularly 

 apply the name of chemical manufactures. In reality, a 

 brick is as much a product of chemical change; it was 

 not originally the same matter it now is, but was pro- 

 duced Ijy a change of chemical composition of its 

 elements. But among these more particularly called 

 chemical manufactures, the production of which is con- 

 ducted in works which are called chemical works, are 

 those performed in so-called alkali works ; and I think I 

 need have no hesitation in saying that these works 

 have proceeded to a far greater development in this 

 country than in any other, notwithstanding the fact that 

 among the constituents received and metamorphosed by 

 these works are many which are of foreign extraction, 

 more particularly the pyrites, or other sources of sulphur, 

 and the manganese or other sources indirectly of the 

 chlorine manufactured at these works. And we see, that 

 in the course of lectures w-hich has been provided for 

 us, three have reference especially to these manufactures, 

 which are conducted exclusively at works which are 

 denominated chemical works. We have a process for the 

 manufacture of soda by Mr. Vincent ; another on pyrites, 

 as a source of sulphur, copper, and iron, by Dr. Wright ; 

 and another on the manufacture of chlorine, by Mr. 

 Weldon. 



Starting from the crude substances, coal and lime- 

 stone, and pyrites and common salt, we have a produc- 

 tion of soda which will be treated of more particularly in 

 Mr. Vincent's address. Then we have the furthpr manu- 

 facture of copper, sulphur, iron, and chlorine, which are 

 the necessary economical concomitants. It is indeed 

 remarkable, at the present day, how much the production 

 of chemical manufactures takes in the working up of what 

 were formerly waste products. Perhaps we cculd not 

 have a more singular instance of this than in the utilisa- 

 tion to which that class of refuse, which was formerly 

 known as burnt pyrites, is now put. Not only do we ob- 

 tain from the original pyrites sulphur in a form which was 

 formerly thrown away on a very large scale, but, more- 

 over, copper and iron, which were also formerly thrown 

 away in the burnt pyrites. And we have also one very 

 remarkable product now obtained from pyrites on a com- 

 paratively large scale, and I may say, with regard to the 

 manufacture of copper from pyrites, that the amount now 

 produced — as Mr. Wright will tell you — from a material 

 which was formerly thrown away, constitutes a very large 

 proportion of the entire quantity now manufactured in the 

 United Kingdom. 



But in addition to that there is a very considerable 

 manufacture of silver now going on also extracted from 

 these waste pyrites. This extraction of silver from these 

 pyrites, in which it occurs in an exceedingly minute 

 proportion, has an essential interest for chemists in this 

 point of view, that the processes which are adopted for its 

 extraction really resemble most closely the processes 

 which purely scientific chemists adopt in the laboratory. 

 The pyrites are first of all heatid with common salt, 

 whereby the copper is converted into chloride of copper 

 soluble in water, and the siKer into the state of chloride 

 of silver, which i-. soluble in the common salt solution ; 

 and not only so, but in this process of removing the 

 soluble copper and the soluble silver from these pyrites. 



