318 NATURAL ILISTORY MISCELLANY. 
ermost on the stage of the microscope, so as to throw the strong re- 
flected sunlight upon it from the mirror below, that; 
First, there is occasionally either a nearly total want of motion or only 
the particles to be seen, running from right to left, if the vessel happens 
to run horizontally on the stage, or n me if the vessel runs from the 
outer to the inner border of the stage 
Secondly, that while watching the eieolndon as seen through the lenses 
in the reflected sunlight, if I move the diaphragm from left to right, so as 
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The actual direction in the plant is from the apex of the leaf in sunlight 
body properly placed will quicken the circulation, as will cold retard it. 
If I mistake not we have here a fine demonstration of the conversion of 
light into heat by its passage through the vegetable tissues, and of heat 
into motion by its action upon the laticiferous vessels. 
Prof. Balfour in the Article Botany, ** Ency. Brit.,” says that in plants 
with milky and colored juices evident movements have been viii 
and mentions the calyx leaves of Chelidonium majus, as also the Ind 
rubber plant, the gutta-percha tree, the dandelion, and the Pagi pant 
and through your journal, should you think this article worth insertion, 
. by 
mixinga little of the colored juice with alcohol, and adding a little water, 
it will be seen that the motion of the liquids in the vessels cannot be the 
result of evaporation. And that it is not an ocular illusion may be argued 
from the fact that three independent vie witnessed the changes of 
motion as above described. — H. C. Perkins, M. D., Newburyport. 
Note, May 12. I have just examined the circulation of the latex in the 
laticiferous vessels of Leontodon taraxacum under the same circumstances 
as that of Chelidonium and am pleased to find precisely the same results. 
ES BOILING DESTROY GERMS?— This question cropped up in the 
course of the Pasteur and Pouchet controversy on Heterógeny, and it a 
boiling. This is another simple problem for microscopists. — 
Microscopical Journal. 
