500' Queries and A?isix>ers. 



it? — A. N. March 3. 1832, [Answers, in part, to some of A. N.'s queries, 

 will be found at p. 42. of the current volume. — Cond.] 



Sterility of hybrid Plants. — On the 19th of May, M. Dutroehet ad- 

 dressed a letter to the Academy, in which he attributed the sterility of 

 hybrid plants to the imperfection of their sexual organs. In the flowers 

 of some hybrid cherry trees (derived from the union of the Primus 

 Cerasus and the Primus avium) the stamina have no pollen; and their 

 anthers form a compact mass, which does not divide into pollenic or fer- 

 tile dust, as is the case with fruitful cherry trees. (Jour. R. Inst., Aug. 1831.) 

 Agency of Electricity in promoting the Rooting of Cuttings, and the other 

 Processes of Vegetation. — In reply to the query of J. R. (Vol. VII. p. 379.), 

 I would remark, that, in my opinion, it is undoubted that electricity pro- 

 motes the developement of plants ; and I consider it certain that, if gar- 

 deners were to electrify their cuttings, they would find them grow much 

 more easily than at present. One of our countrymen (the fact is regis- 

 tered, I think, in the interesting tracts of the Cavalier Amoretti) sowed 

 turnips in two pots : when just through the ground, he electrified the 

 plants in one pot, but not those in the other ; in the course of fifteen days 

 they were further electrified; and the effect was, that in three weeks, or 

 thereabouts, the electrified plants were 4 in. higher than the others. Fur- 

 ther, in an orchard were placed electrical conductors of iron among the 

 branches of a fruit tree : the tree produced, in proportion, a much larger 

 crop of fruit than the other trees in the neighbourhood. According to the 

 experiments tried by Signor Brunodi Sazzi, a branch of GleditscluVz triacan- 

 thos, 2 ft. long, furnished with a single thorn, attracted as much electricity 

 as a brass point ; from which it may be inferred, that the rapid growth of 

 this plant is owing, in a great measure, to the electricity which it has the 

 power of absorbing from the atmosphere. It is known that by electricity 

 water is decomposed ; and that its component parts, oxygen and hydrogen 

 gas, are both highly nutritive to plants ; also, that electricity increases the 

 action of oxygen, and that it stimulates the irritability of living beings. 

 The experiments of Sir Humphry Davy, who put grain to germinate in 

 water absolutely charged from a voltaic battery, is well known. It is 

 thus clear that electricity must act on cuttings in a very useful manner. 



A Query in Electricity. — Having thus answered J. R., let some one 

 answer a question for me. It is known that a mixture of two parts 

 of oxygen gas, and of one of hydrogen, (the initial temperature being 

 communicated to it,) will inflame, and develope sufficient caloric to 

 burn the diamond. It is also known, that, by means of a voltaic battery 

 to each pole of which is united a thread of platina, the electric fluid, being 

 forced to enter a glass tube full of water, produces a developement of 

 gas in both the ends of the tube ; that connected with the negative pole 

 being hydrogen gas, and double in quantity to that produced by the posi- 

 tive pole, which is oxygen. Now, my query is, may not an apparatus 

 similar to that of the voltaic pile, or some other mechanism, be found, 

 which, acting on a mass of water, may decompose it ; and may not the 

 oxygen and hydrogen gas, thus disengaged, be collected in immense re- 

 ceivers ; some (those for the hydrogen gas) double the size of the others 

 (for the oxygen gas) ; thus procuring for any one, economically and at will, 

 in any part of the earth, volumes of combustible materials and (combu- 

 rente) eminently calorific? — Luigi Manetti. Monza, Feb. 26. 1832. s 



Fountain Wells. — The facility in man}', and the certainty in all, cases, 

 with which fountain wells may be obtained, promises very great advantages. 

 Besides the water of the clouds, rivers, and lakes, it is had from two 

 other sources ; viz. land springs and main spring. The first are liable to 

 fail when most wanted ; the second never. Land springs are often found 

 upon, and always at no great distance below, the surface of the ground. 

 They are collections from exhalations ever rising from the interior of tfne 



