Ancient Vegeiaiioti of the Earth. 315 



Its powder is feebly attacked by long digestion in dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid. Heated for half an hour with five times its weight 

 of anhydrous carbonate of soda in a platina crucible, a light 

 brown, cohering, porous mass was obtained, which was treated 

 with dilute hydro-chloric acid and digested for some time ; a 

 bulky, heavy brown precipitate remained undissolved, which 

 grew paler however towards the end of the digestion. The 

 whole was thrown upon a filter : an abundant milky substance 

 continued to pass the paper so long as water was on the filter, 

 and which (considered along with the blowpipe indications) was 

 regarded as titanic acid, A portion of the hydro-chloric acid 

 liquor (obtained clear, by decantation) was treated with a satura- 

 ted solution of sulphate of potassa without obtaining any precipi- 

 tate, even after twenty four hours standing. Another portion was 

 examined for silica, lime, magnesia, and alumina, but without 

 detecting either of them. Iron and manganese appeared to be 

 the only bases present. 



As the result of the foregoing ■examiuation, therefore, I conclude 

 that Warwickite is a fluo-titaniate of iron and manganese ; but I 

 must add that my chemical trial was made upon a sample in a 

 decomposing state, though it was still endued with considerable 

 hardness and a faint lustre. As my cabinet at Charleston em- 

 braces a large and fresh crystal, I purpose on my return to that 

 city to occupy myself still farther with the elucidation of its 

 chemical properties. 



New Haven, May 22d, 1833. 



Art. VI. — Considerations upon the Nature of the Vegetables that 

 have covered the surface of the Earth, at different epochs of its 

 formation ; read before the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on 

 the 1 1th September, 1837, by Mons. Adolphe Brongniart. 



Translated from the French, and communicated for this Journal, by R. W. Has- 

 KiNS," of Buffalo, New York. 



Curiosity is one of the most distinctive faculties of the human 

 mind ; one of those that most clearly mark the distance between 

 man and the brute creation ; and for this reason it may be desig- 



* Mr. Haskins prefers an orthography in some cases peculiar, and retains also 

 certain French idioms. — Eds. 



