AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



123 



The result of M- Cuvier's observations as to the relations of the Gerbilli to the other 

 GHres is, that these animals have no connection with the Jerboas, but are intimately 

 allied to the Rats and Mice. The memoir is accompanied with numerous figures which 

 represent Burton's Gerbillus, and the heads and teeth of eight of the nine species, which 

 are ascertained to belong to the genus. — Annahs des Sciences Naiurelles. 



BOTANY. 



THE OLIVE TREE. OLEA EUROP^A. 



This celebrated plant belongs to Diandria Monogijnia of the Linnaean system, and 

 to the natural order of Oldnem. It usually attains a height of about twenty feet, and 

 fiends off numerous long branches, with opposite, lanceolate, narrow, entire bright- 

 green leaves, of which the lower surface is whitish. The flowers are numerous, small, 

 white, and disposed in clusters in the axils of the leaves. The calyx is] tubular, with 

 four small, erect, deciduous segments ; the corolla funnel-shaped, having a short tube, 

 and form semiovate segments. The filaments are tapering, and crowned with erect 

 anthers, the gerraen round, the style short, the stigma cleft. The fruit is an ellip- 

 tical drupa, containing a nut of the same form. 



.^ 



The Olive tree is a native of the south of Europe, and flowers in Julv and August. 

 Its varieties are numerous, and distinguished by the form of the leaves, and the shape, 

 size, and colour of the fruit. ** It has been celebrated from the earliest ages, and is 

 the second tree, w:th which we are acquainted, which is mentioned in the sacred writ- 

 ings. It must have been known before the Flood, as the Dove returned to Noah in 

 the Ark with a leaf of it in her mouth. There can be little doubt of this incident 

 having been the origin of the olive's being considered the emblem of peace. This 

 tree must have been very extensively cultivated in Judea, to have furnished the vast 

 quantities of oil which were used in the sacrifices and service of the temple ; besides 

 its general consumption as an article of food. 



*' Olive trees sometimes attain a great age. There is an Olive tree in the environs 

 of Villa Franca, near Nice, the lowest extremity of the trunk of which, next the sur- 

 face, measures about thirty-eight feel, and three feet and a half above the surface, 

 nineteen feet above the circumference. One of its main branches is six feet and a 

 half in circumference, and the trunk itself eight feet and a half in height. This is both 

 the oldest and largest ohve tree in that part of the country, and though fast decaying, 

 still retains much of its stately appearance. The celebrated Olive tree of Pescio, which 

 has hitherto been considered the most ancient in Italy, and is stated by Marchej-tini 

 to be seven hundred years old, is much younger than this wonder of Nice. There aie 

 records now extant, which show that as far back as the year 1516 the latter was ac- 

 counted the oldest in those parts. In 1818, it bore upwards of two hundred weight 

 of oil, and in earlier days, in good years, more than three hundred and fifty." 



The Spanish and Provence olives are pickled, and in this state are to many ex- 

 tremely grateful. They are prepared from the green unripe fruit, which is repeat- 

 edly steeped in water, with ihe addition of quicklime or some alka-line salt, whicli 

 quickly extracts their bitterness. They are then washed, and preserved in a pickle of 

 common salt and water, to which an aromatic is sometimes added. 



The principal consumption of Olives is in the preparation of the common sallad oil, or 

 olive oil, which is obtained by grinding and pressing them when thoroughly ripe. 

 The finer oil issues first by gentle pressure, and the inferior kinds are obtained by 

 heating the residuum, and pressing it more strongly. The best olive oil is of a pale 

 clear amber colour, of a mild taste, and without smell. It becomes rancid when long 

 kept, and congeals at SS*^ Fahr. In some shape oil forms a considerable part of our 

 food, and is very nutritious, but, as it does not readily unite with the contents of the 



stomach, it does not agree with some persons, and is often brought up by eructation. 

 As a medicine it is supposed to correct acrimony, and to relax the fibres, or lubricate 

 the parts ; hence it has been recommended in coughs, catarrhs, erosions, nephritic cases, 

 spasms, colics, constipations, and worm cases. Externally it is a useful application 

 to bites and stings of various poisonous animals, burns, tumours, and other atJections. 

 The application of a drop of it to the bite of a bug removes the smarting sensation in 

 less than a mmute. 



M. DUTROCHEt's observations on the SLEEP OF PLANTS. 

 (Continued from Page 100) 

 While reflecting on this sin-ular phenomenon, I was led to think that it is not 

 vrithout reason that Nature has. lavished respiratory organs on the fibrous tissue, 

 which is situated between two layers of hollow organs tilled with air. As it was not 

 by being filled with liquid that the fibrous tissue took its active state of curvation, it 

 might be by impletion with oxygen. If this supposition were correct, the nerve, 

 which, on being placed in aerated water, there assumed, first the outward, and subse- 

 quently the inward curvature, would, on being immersed in unaerated water, unva- 

 ryingly preserve its first outward curvature, or that of sleep, which is due to the en- 

 dosmosis of the cellules of the cellular tissue; it would thus never present the inward 

 curvature, or that of sleep, which I considered to be owing to the oxygenation of the 

 fibrous tissue, 



I ought first to observe, that when any thin part of a vegetable is immersed in un- 

 aerated water, the latter quickly dissolves the air contained in the pneumatic organs 

 of this vegetable part, and takes its place, so that no respiratory oxygen remains in 

 it. My supposition was justified by experiment. A nerve of a flower of Mirabilis, 

 on being immersed in unaerated water, assumed and retained, without change, its 

 inward curvation. An expanded flower which, on bein- entirely immersed in aerated 

 water, there assumes at the end of some hours the state of closing or sleep, does 

 not assume this state in unaerated water, but there unvaryingly retains its expanded 

 state. 



It might perhaps be thought, that the air contained in the pneumatic organs of 

 the nerves of the corolla, would act in virtue of its elasticity to produce the incurva- 

 tion of sleep, and not in virtue of the chemical action of the oxygen which it con- 

 tains ; whence it would happen, that the incurvation of sleep would not take place on 

 immersing the corolla in unaerated water, which dissolves the air contained in the 

 pneumatic organs, and lakes its place. But this is not the case, for experiment has 

 proved to me, that the air never returns into the pneumatic org.ins that have been 

 filled with water, in parts of vegetables which continue to remain submersed. Now, 

 this does not prevent a corolla of Mirabihs from assuming the state of sleep after two 

 or three days, when the unaerated water in which it is plunged in an expanded state, 

 15 left to be aerated by contact with the atmospheric air. It is, therefore, without 

 doubt, by the chemical action of the oxygen dissolved in the water, that the fibrous 

 tissue acquires the force of incurvation which produces the state of sleep. Thus, in 

 flowers of the genus Jlirabilis, waking and sleep — in other words, the expansion and 

 closing of the corolla, result from the alternately predominating .action of two organic 

 tissues situated in the nerves of the corolla, and which tend to curve in op]'Osite di- 

 rections, viz. : — 1st, A cellular tissue which tends to curve towards the exterior of 

 the flower, from being filled with hquirt to excess, or by endosmosis ; 2dly, A fibrous 

 tissue, which tends to curve towards the interior of the llower, by oxygenation. 



The i:uriA\3. oi Convolvulus piirpiireiis exhibits precisely the same phenomena in 

 t hat of the difi'erent species of Wirabilis, with reference to the mechanism which 

 cfl'ccts its opening and shu.tmg, the internal structure of its nerves being exactly 

 similar. The flower of .Mirabihs opens in the evening, and closes in the morning ; 

 that of Convolvulus purpureus opens toward midnight, and does not close until the 

 next evening. Thus, these two floweis are equally nocturnal as to the hour of their 

 expansion. If the flower of the Convolvulus remain open during the day, while 

 that of the Mirabilis sliuts in the morning, this depends in a great measure upon the 

 circumstance that the former is much slower than the latter inj oxygenating the 

 fibrus tissue of its nerves under the influence of light and heat. 



The flowers above mentioned have only a single wake and a single sleep, followed 

 by the death of the corolla. I now proceed to examine such as for several days pre- 

 sent an alternation of waking and sleep, and take the Dandelion as an example. The 

 flower of this plant generally lives two days and a half, showing during this time a 

 state of waking in the fore part of the day, and of sleep in the evening. On the third 

 day, the last sleep takes place in the middle of the day, and is followed by the death 

 of the corollas. In the state of waking, the semiflorets of which this flower is com- 

 posed curve outwards, producing its expansion ; in sleep, they curve inwards, effecting 

 its closing. Although these semiflorets are very thin, I have been able with the mi- 

 croscope to observe the internal organization of their nerves, which are very small, 

 and four in number in each semifloret. At the internal or upper surface of each of 

 its nerves, there is a linear cellular tissue, the cellules of which are covered with 

 globules, and which is perfectly similar to what I have observed in the nerves of the 

 corollas of the genus Miruhilis. At the outer or lower surface of the nerves of the 

 semifloret is a very thin layer of fibrous tissue situated between a plate of tracheae and 

 a plate of cellules filled with air and placed superficially. This fibrous tissue, which 

 is perfectly similar to that which exists in the nerves of the cor^oHa of Mtrabilis, is in 

 like manner inclosed between two layers of pneumatic organs, and it thence becomes 

 probable that it is more incurvable by oxygenation, and that the cellular tissue is 

 incurvable by endosmose, as is the case with the nerves of the corolla of Mirabilis. 

 In fact, experiment proves that the incurvation which produces thw state of waking 

 in the semiflorets of the Dandelion is owing to an excessive impletion with Quid, 

 that is, to endosmose, and that the incurvation which produces sleep is owing to 

 oxygenation. The semiflorets of the flower of the Dandelion being gathered early 

 in the morning, when they still retain the incurvation of sleep, and being immersed 

 in aerated water, assume in it the contrary incurvation, which is that of sleep. 

 This takes place in darkness as well as in light. If they are immersed in un- 

 aerated water, they assu.ne an exaggerated curvature of sleep, and unvaryingly re- 



