2o8 The Museum Gazette 



that is difficult of comprehension, and much that is very 

 doubtful as to narration. There seems, however, no reason 

 to doubt that globes of what looks like fire, and which move 

 slowly sometimes and sometimes rapidly, and are prone to 

 explode with force, are occasionally produced in connection 

 with storms or electric disturbance. 



A STUDY OF PEA-PODS. 



The pea-pod has a stalk. At the top of the stalk is a 

 rounded enlargement, and above this are five oval leaves, 

 each with a point. A quite definite line marks where these 

 calyx leaves join the rounded enlargement, and the latter is 

 of a deeper green in colour than are the sepals of the calyx. 

 The sepals of the calyx cannot be pulled off separately, for 

 they are united at the sides (coherent) just where they be- 

 come attached. We will tear them all away. We now observe 

 around the base of the pod springing from the rounded knob 

 'some very delicate threads, which are the persisting filaments 

 of the stamens. We note that a number of them are webbed 

 together in a half transparent, satiny membrane, in which 

 their lines may still be traced. They have lost their anthers 

 long ago, and are themselves in process of withering. We 

 may now give a name to the rounded knob upon which we 

 have found mounted the sepals and the remains of the 

 stamens, as well as the pod itself, and as it has received 

 all these we may call it the Receptacle. 



Turning attention now to the pod itself, we see that it is 

 keel-shaped, or like the blade of a straight-backed knife, and 

 that its straight back is more directly continuous with the 

 receptacle, and also thicker and stronger than its convex 

 edge. Where the two meet at a point there projects an erect 

 flagstaff, a quarter of an inch high. This is the withered 



