10 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 



Air Vessels of Plants. — M. dc Mirbel, in an interesting paper, laid before the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, divided the vessels which deposit the bark of plants into 

 two sorts; the one which forms cortical layers, and the other a cortical net-work. 

 The former of these are renewed annually, while the net-work is only to be met with 

 in the young branches, or stems. 



ZosTEHA. — M. M. Pasteur d'EstreiUis and Adolphe Dommieu transmitted to the 

 French Academy of Science a memoir on the plant called Zostera. This plant grows 

 abundantly on the southern coast of France, and on the south of the Baltic, where it 

 assists in binding the sands of these shores together, and has long been known as an 

 excellent manure. Its leaves have commonly been employed in packing fragile ob- 

 jects, and it has more recently been ascertained that they make a most excellent ma- 

 terial for stuffing beds. 



CoWDiE Tree. — The British government having satisfactory information of the 

 fitness of the timber of the Covvdie tree of New Zealand for spars for the navy, sent 

 the Buffalo ship to that country for specimens. That vessel returned in the end of 

 April 1835, and brought a cargo far exceeding all expectations. Before the return of 

 the Buffalo, an enterprising and experienced naval officer, who had formed an esta- 

 blishment of his own in Now Zealand, had offered, and, we believe, contracted with 

 the government, to furnish spars of this kind from that island, at a lower price and of 

 better quality than those from the Baltic — a circumstance which, in the not impossible 

 contingency of a war with Russia, may be of essential importance to this country. 



New Species of Wheat. — It is said that a new species of wheat, which growa 

 and ripens in seventy dayi, has been introdurod into the department Du Nord. 



Forest Trees. — North America has 140 species of forest trees, which reach 30 

 feet in height; but France has only 30 of this magnitude. 



Management of Fruit Trees. — A valuable discovery in the management of 

 fruit trees (it has been applied to thorn hedges before) has been made by BI, Crozier, 

 nurseryman, late of Alnwick, and now of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The object is to 

 obtain new wood where it may be wanted, and for this purpose he makes a nick above 

 the eye where it is wished to produce new shoots ; and after many trials, M. Cro- 

 zier has found the experiment completely successful. In the garden of Mr Carr, at 

 the Barras Bridge, near Newcastle, there is a pear tree which has sixteen shoots pro- 

 duced by the above means this season. It has been applied with equal success to ap- 

 ple, pear, and plum trees, and to the cherry to a certain extent. 



MINERALOGY. 



Discovery of Coal in Greece.. — A Saxon engineer has just discovered m tne 

 isle of Negropont a very rich mine of excellent coal, a discovery which is of great 

 importance at a moment when it is in contemplation to establish steam communica- 

 tion throughout the Levant. The British government have given orders for the im- 

 mediate construction of six fine steam- vessels, which are to be built on an entirely new 

 principle. It is intended with these to open a direct communication between Great Bri- 

 tain and her Indian possessions, by way of the Mediterranean, the Isthmus of Suez 

 and the Red Sea, through Alexandria in Egypt, by which means the voyage to India 

 will not occupy more than eight or ten weeks, avoiding thereby the tedious route of 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and the contrary winds which are so prevalent in the Indian 

 sea. This grand project was one of the great ideas of the emperor Napoleon, who 

 intended to have had a navigable canal cut from one port to the other, and thus faci- 

 litate his design of seizing our IntUan possessions. 



GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Metalliferous Veins. — A new geological work has just appeared, entitled 

 Etudes sur les depots MetaUlfereSt by M. Fournet. This author conceives veins to 

 have been produced generally by more or less violent local dislocations, by first form- 

 ing fissures, which have beeil afterwards filled with metallic, or other matter, either 

 by means of sublimation or dissolution. He particularly refers to the successive mo- 

 difications effected on mineral substances in veins, which have transformed the primi- 

 tive matter even into a different species. M. Fournet demonstrates, in a clear man- 

 ner, the importance of these decompositions, and the great influence possessed by them 

 by their constant action and reaction, and their infinite division into veins, rocks, and 

 strata; and thus throws considerable light on the more obscure parts of geolonfy. 



Vesuvius. — A letter from Naples, dated 3d April 1835, says, " Vesuvius, which 

 had for the last fortnight given indications of an approaching eruption, burst forth 

 last evening in all its fury. During the afternoon a storm of hail and rain had de- 

 tained the crowd of visitors at Resina, who would otherwise have been inevitably 

 saciificed, as the very ground around the crater, where hundreds of human beings 

 had been walking only the evening before, was carried up into the air at the first ex- 

 plosion." 



Discovery of Bone Caves in New Holland. — Hitherto no quadrupeds of a 

 life-large size have been found to inhabit New Holland; and yet Colonel Lindsay, of 

 the 39th regiment, mentions the discovery of great quantities of fossil bones of ani- 

 mals, embedded in marie and other substances, in caves in New Holland; some of 

 these, the bones of quadi-upeds, are of lai-ge dimensions, and consequently must have 

 belonged to large animals. 



Tivoli — Near this town there is a celebrated cascade, which has long been the 

 admiration of travellers, who have for past ages flocked from all quarters to gaze on 

 its beauties. This classic ground, together with the Grotto of Neptune, which have 

 given rise to so many poems, and have been the subjects of so many descriptions, both 

 oral and written, will soon disappear. The rock over which the river Arno precipi- 

 tates itself to form this superb cascade, consists of a soft freestone ; and in the lapse of 

 ages, the waters have washed away a great part of the soft rocks, near the Grotto of 

 Neptune, and threatened with destruction a portion of the town, and even the Temple 

 of the Sybil. To prevent the impending danger, the Arno will be led into another 

 chaimel some hundred paces farther up. The rock opposite to Tivoli is broken 



through — a work which will render illustrious the reign of Gregory XVI. The river 

 precipitating itself into the valley, in a north-west direction from the present cascade, 

 will form a new one, equal in elevation and volume to that of Terni. The channel cut 

 in the rock is 400 feet in length, and has been completed for some months ; and the 

 preparations for conducting the river into its new bed will be shortly terminated. 

 Perhaps some little delay may take place, as the Pope intends to be present, and will 

 probably wait for the cool season. 



Falls of Niagara. — A recent letter from New York announces the fall of the 

 Table Rock, at the Falls of the Niagara. This immense mrss of stone was on the 

 Canada side of the river, projecting so as to afford the spectator a front view of the 

 horse -shoe fall. It was considerably undermined, and several fissures on the surface 

 had for some time past indicated the approaching disruption. A large mass was de- 

 tached two or three years back. By the total fall of the Table Rock, the visitor is 

 now deprived of the most favourable position for viewing the magnificent appearance 

 presented by that stupendous fall of waters. 



Earthquake. — Letters from Valparaiso, Chih, to the 1st March 1835, state that a 

 very severe earthquake occurred at Conception on the 20th February, and its effects 

 were felt throughout the whole province. It was unusually terrific; and the damage 

 and loss of property must have been very great, particularly at Conception, from its 

 being situated on a plain between two rivers, which on convulsions of this nature 

 always rise to a considerable height above their banks. The shock was felt at Valpa- 

 raiso for about two minutes. The old town of Conception, situated about nine miles 

 fr6m the present, was totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1751. 



An express was received by the government, mentioning the total destruction, 

 on the 20th February, of the cities of Talca and Carico, with the towns of Conquenes, 

 Lenaies, and Chillaux In Conception, not a house is standing, and all the workmen 

 who were repairing the cathedral of that city were buried in the ruins. 



The Gulf Stream, — We copy the following accoimt of the Gulf Stream, 

 from that ably conducted periodical. The United Service Journal^ for June 1835. ■ — 

 *' Thrown overboard from the packet-ship,' South America, in March J 833, in the 

 Gulf Stream, off Cape Cod, in latitude 40° 30', longitude 68- W. Any person find- 

 ing this bottle is earnestly requested to publish the fact in the nearest newspaper, in 

 order to confer a benefit upon science, by determining the currents of the ocean." Of 

 all the experiments upon the currents of the Atlantic, none was ever more important 

 and successful than this. The whole ocean, from America to Europe, a distance of 68 

 degrees of longitude, has been crossed by this bottle. Estimating the time occupied 

 in traversing the Atlantic to be 500 days, and the distance about 3000 miles, it follows 

 that a current, which averages about six miles per day, flows regularly over all the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, from America to Europe. But, according to the best Ameri- 

 can charts, and even the Admiralty charts of this country, no current whatever is 

 laid down as extending to the eastward beyond the 35th degree of west longitude, 

 where the current of the Gulf Stream is supposed to end and to be lost. In conse- 

 quence of this, navigators invariably cease to allow for any influence from currents 

 after passing that longitude, which, from the perseverence of this bottle onwards to 

 the land, is evidently a most serious mistake. For, allowing that a ship bound from 

 the West Indies to Europe should be drifting at the rate of only six miles a day, for 

 a period of twenty days, and this not allowed for in the reckoning, it follows, that the 

 ship in that time would be nearer to the land, by a distance of 120 miles, than would 

 be supposed by the navigator. Thus it is, that so many merchant vessels sail, in the 

 night, dead upon the land upon the western coast of Ireland, because the commanders 

 are wholly unprepared to suppose themselves within several degrees longitude from 

 the shore. But six miles a-day, be it observed, is much too little to allo%v for the 

 drifting of a ship, since a heavy body will float, by reason of its own impetus, very 

 much faster than a light substance similar to a bottle; nor has it indeed been ever 

 sufficiently dwelt upon, that the heavier the cargo, and the deeper in the water, the 

 greater is the influence of the current on the ship. It is therefore probable, that a 

 current of about ten miles per day should in general be allowed for, from the 35th de- 

 gree of west longitude onwards to the European coasts. I have myself twice return- 

 ed from America to England, and upon both occasions with very experienced and 

 careful navigators ; yet the commanders of both these ships were so extensively ahead 

 as to be utterly astounded upon speaking vessels which had just left the land. Ex- 

 perience has now completely disproved the position, that the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream is at an end in the midst of the Atlantic. 



METEOROLOGY. 



On the 13th November 1834, Mr W. H. White of London arose at half-past one 

 in the morning, for the purpose of making meteorological observations, when a pheno- 

 menon presented itself, which, in all probability, was the falling of a meteoric stone. 

 We shall give its description in his own words: — " In a few minutes another meteor, 

 of a paler colour than any I had observed before, glided almost perpendicularly towards 

 the earth ; this was succeeded by another, of a more brilliant appearance, which took 

 a westerly direction. This meteor cast a brilliant blue light, and had a short or truncated 

 train, which was of a paler hght than the meteor itself, and gradually shaded off into 

 a yellowish red; it appeared, in fact, hke a stream of light, which the meteor, in its 

 velocity, left behind. Another remai-kable circumstance attended this meteor, which I 

 have never observed before, and that was, the meteor separating itself from its tram. 

 The latter immediately vanished, while the former continued its downward course with 

 amazing velocity, gradually losing its bright blue light, and increasing in redness as it 

 approached the earth. As this meteor continued its course till surrounding objects 

 hid it from my view, I inferred that it was the falling of a meteoric stone. 



** Had this beautiful meteor taken its course against the wind, which was blowing a 

 strong breeze from the north east, I should have concluded that the train was under 

 atmospheric influence ; but, as its direction was nearly with the wind, the train must 

 either have been outstripped in velocity by the meteor, or it must have been the result 

 of Electricity."* 



• Magazine of Natural History, viii. p. 98. 



