38 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 



















physically balanced, and th that what is called a well-balanced mind is really a'‘prope rly balanced 
brain. yes reading we explain many phenomena of living cae otherwise ea 
Among the reviews, a kindly word of welcome is given the NATU 
ist. —MM. Bert and Blondeau have been experimenting on me conte 
tions of the Sensitive Plant :— 

M. Biond experimented on plants with the induced gal lvanic pitch of a Ruhmko 
coil. He EA three plants to the influence of the electric current. The first was op 
rated on for five minutes; the plant when left to itself seemed prostrated, but after a while ( 
arter ), the leaves opened, to recover i The s 
for ten minutes his specimen was prostrate for an 2 , after which it slo 
recovered, The third specimen wied galvanized for eiA -fiye minutes, but i never recov 
ered, a plant ae by lightn A fou 
nt was et rized, and pos ee the urrent. Strange to say the arth a not ar 
effect, the Ar remained st ht and open; prin proving, de M. Blonde A that the mo 
of contraction of the leaves of kas sensitive plant is in some way allied to e muscular co 
traction of animals, 

NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 

BOTANY. 
MONSTROUS FLOWERS OF HABENARIA FIMBRIATA. — Mr. W. W. Den 
low, of New York, found last summer a spike of this orchid with all tl 
flowers abnormal, spurless, and fringeless. A few of the flowers, exs 
ined by me, exhibit the sarafan peculiarities. Al of them are dimero 
even to the ovary. The most reduced has the perianth simply of 
sepals, anterior and Sn. and the anther and stigma nearly no 
occasionally somewhat petaloid, but oe one or both the cells W 
formed, although more separated on the petaloid connective; the pol 
and the gland nearly normal. In one flower the two opposed anthers 
actly similar, and nearly normal, but with the slender tip of the Cè 
more curved, so that the glands which are contiguous in pairs, are! 
turned. The stigma is central and symmetrical. In more than one flo 
there is an attempt at a second pair of anthers, within and alternate | 
the others; one of these is occasionally well formed, and the other ri 
mentary.—A. Gray. ; 
Fjo 


C. ) AS A NATIVE PLANT.—The respon 
to our inquiry are generally in favor of the lie, en: The most ! 
plicit testimony received, however, is the following, from our exe 
correspondent, Mr. M. S. Bebb. He writes: “I never saw Sam 
Canadensis out of a fence corner; but my father who was born in $ 
ern Ohio in 1802, and who remembers distinctly the first White and F 
~ Clover, Blue Grass, and Black Mustard he ever saw, —he lived in the b 
woods nine miles from any settlement, when Cincinnati and Mé 







