358 THE FLORIST AND 



round the decaying stems of vegetables ; and more recently Dana and Le 

 Conte have described a remarkable exudation of ice from the stems of vege- 

 tables, which the latter has illustrated by the occasional protrusion of icy 

 columns from certain kinds of earth during frost. Dr. Caspary had an 

 opportunity of studying a similar phenomenon in the botanic garden at 

 Schoneberg, in the course of last November ; and, after a careful study of 

 all the attendant circumstances, he has lately given the result of his obser- 

 vations at considerable length in the "Botanische Zeitung," September 22, 

 1854. Notwithstanding some little discrepancies, there is no doubt that 

 the several cases are substantially the same, though modified by particular 

 circumstances. The matter is so interesting that a brief notice cannot fail 

 to be acceptable to many of our readers ; first of the phenomenon itself, 

 and then of the causes from which it seems to be derived. 



On the morning of the 14th of November, several plants,* both annual 

 and perennial, all of them cultivated in the open ground, and in full health 

 and vigor the previous day, presented a very extraordinary appearance. 

 The bark was variously split and separated from the wood, from which two 

 kinds of icy formations of considerable size projected, the one consisting of 

 fibrous strata, the other of thin vertical sheets. These were not confined to 

 the base of the stems, but extended even to the highest and thinnest 

 branches, some of which were three feet or more above the surface of the 

 soil. The first species consists of small thin horizontal threads, perpen- 

 dicular to the stem, closely pressed to each other, but not separable, so as 

 to form a continuous layer 1J — 4 m m. (,059-, 157 inch) thick, and from 

 30-90 m m. (1,18 — 3,54 inch) long, occupying from J to § of the whole 

 woody cylinder. The second, which was extremely beautiful, and far more 

 common, exhibited vertical sheets from 10 — 160 m m. (,39 — 6,29 inch) 

 long by 10—30 (,39—1,18 inch) broad, and as thick as strong paper, 

 springing in a radiating direction from the whole or part of the stem, some- 

 times to the number of 30, more or less, irregularly curled and undulated, 

 with the margin entire or minutely crenate, of a pure snow-white, or clear 

 as crystal, and resembling some richly lamellated coral. 



The plates themselves were marked with horizontal lines, as though the 

 whole were formed of laterally confluent fibres, which sometimes projected, 

 especially in the smaller upper twigs, in the form of a beautiful fringe. 

 The wood itself was often split, but the plates never projected from the fis- 

 sures, but originated on the exposed surface of the wood itself. The *phe- 



* Perilla arguta, Benili. ; Tagetes bonariensis, P. ; Alonsoa incisifolia, R. and P. ; Cuphea 

 pubiflora, Bevth. ; cordata, R and P. ; platycentra, Benth. ; Heliotropium peruvianum, L. ; 

 Manulea oppotitifolia, Vent. ; Lantana abyssinica, Otto and Diet. ; aculeata, L. ; Calceolaria 

 perfoliate, L. 



