156 BRITISH PLANTS. 
electricians of the day, and earnestly recommend our enquiring readers — friends to 
truthful science and improvement — to recur to experiment, and never to abandon 
research. 
Of one point they may rest assured ; if electricity can in dry weather be made to 
operate upon the watery portions of the soil, it will decompose the manure or vege- 
table organic matter therein contained ; and if so, will as certainly add luxuriance 
and richness of tint to the verdure of all plants : what effects it may produce upon 
the tintings of flowers we cannot conjecture, as authorities are absent; but so far 
from economising manures, it will be found that by hastening their decomposition 
electricity will require a more speedy supply to be given. 
As the subject assumes importance, in both farm and garden, it will be interesting 
to consult the opinions of so judicious an observer of phenomena as Mr. Stephens, 
author of "The Book of the Farm." Writing upon weather and meteorology, he 
observes that the electrometer is an instrument of much greater utility than some of 
the instruments usually employed, " because it indicates with a greater degree of 
delicacy the existence of free electricity in the air ; and as electricity cannot exist in 
that state without producing some sort of action, it is satisfactory to have notice of its 
freedom." The best instrument is the condensing electroscope, or that usually 
called the gold-leaf electrometer ; its construction is easily ascertained by consulting 
any accredited book on the science, or by inspection at the makers of philosophical 
apparatus. The indication by the strips of leaf-gold is unerring, and affords another 
evidence of the truth of our theory ; for if these strips diverge, merely by virtue of 
the electricity which is conveyed from the air by a pointed wire, that same power 
may be attracted by another arrangement of wires. The great point being proved, 
minutiae will form no serious difficulty. 
BRITISH PLANTS. 
There is, perhaps, no recreation more within the enjoyment of the multitude, 
more replete with real and lasting pleasures, than the study of the wild flowers of 
our hedges. There is such a never-failing fund of variety, and so many remarkable 
and interesting features and peculiarities to occupy attention, that those who once 
fairly embark in the work, are seldom at a loss for amusement — neither is it a 
frivolous trifling of time, but an amusement teeming with instruction and refined 
pleasure. To young gardeners, and amateur cultivators especially, it is a fund from 
which a vast store of hints and ideas may be derived, that will prove of no little 
importance to the successful direction of their operations. 
Highly, however, as we estimate the laudable desire to push enquiries into, and 
form a close intimacy with, the indigenous floral productions of our country, we have, 
at present, a further object in view than the mere recommendation to encourage a 
