350 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
were also plunged in water for a few hours, to ensure 
the halls of earth being saturated ; the top mould 
was also removed and replaced with leaf mould. 
During the winter they were kept in a warm green- 
house, in a temperature often down as low as 35°. 
The flower-stems are always cut off as soon as the 
last flowers begin to wither. The pots are then 
placed out of doors, and are allowed to remain as 
late in the autumn as possible. — Jour. Hort. Soc., 
vol. iv., p. 273. 
Rasamala Forest in Java. The beautiful and 
conspicuous Rasamala forest is remarkable in the 
western mountains of Java. It derives its name 
from an indigenous tree, which seems to belong to 
the genus Liquidamber, and furnishes a storax. 
Noronha described it under the name of Altingia 
excelsa. Its beautiful tall, straight, whitish trunk, 
less overgrown than those of the fig-trees, and with 
a more regular head of light-green foliage, marks 
the wooded region which received its character 
from this useful tree. Thick thorny bushes, many 
kinds of Calamus, and a great variety of Chincho- 
naceous plants, remarkable for their peculiar and 
powerful exhalations, which are perceived at a 
distance, form the copse-wood of this aromatic 
forest. — Jour. Hort. Soc., vol. iv., p. 232. 
The Ferula oe the Ancients. M. Yon Heldreich 
has presented for the Museum at the Royal, Gardens 
at Kew, a portion nearly 4 feet long and 3 inches 
in diameter, of a stem of the true Nap0?j£ of Diosco- 
rides (Ferula communis), or the Ferula of the 
ancients, and of which it is remarked by Tourne- 
fort that it preserves its old name among the 
modern Greeks, who call it “ Nartheca .” It bears 
a stalk 5 feet high and 3 inches thick. At every 
10 inches there is a knot, and it is branched at each 
knot. The bark is hard, two lines thick; the 
hollow of the stem is filled with a white medulla, 
which, being well dried, takes fire like a match. 
The fire holds for a long time, slowly consuming 
the pith, without injuring the bark, and the stem 
is therefore much used for carrying fire from place 
to place. This custom is of the highest antiquity, 
and may explain a passage in Hesiod, where, speak- 
ing of the fire that Prometheus stole from Heaven, 
he says that he brought it in a Ferula ; the fact 
being, probably, that Prometheus invented the 
steel that strikes fire from flint, and used the pith 
of the Ferula for a match, teaching men how to 
preserve the fire of these stalks. The stem is 
strong enough to be leaned upon, but too light to 
inflict injury in striking ; and therefore Bacchus, 
one of the greatest legislators of antiquity, com- 
manded that men who drank wine should carry 
staves of this plant, with which they might, during 
intoxication, smite each other, and yet not break 
heads. The priests of this deity supported them- 
selves on sticks of Ferula when walking. The 
plant is now chiefly employed for making low 
stools; but very different were the uses to which 
the ancients applied the Ferula. Pliny and Strabo 
relate, that Alexander kept Homer’s work enclosed 
in a casket of Ferula, because of its lightness. 
The body of the casket being made of this plant, 
was covered with rich stuff or skin, adorned with 
ribs of gold, and studded with pearls and precious 
stones. — Jour. Bot., 349. 
Aquatic Yegeiation. In aquatic vegetation, 
where the leaves float, the air orifices are on the 
upper surface as in the Nymphoea and Nelum- 
bium; but in some plants that inhabit a watery 
medium, there will be found two distinct systems 
of leaves, as in the water Ranunculus (R. aquatilis ) ; 
those that are constantly submerged are finely 
divided, and those that float, or emerge, are more 
entire. In this class of plants there is a singular 
analogy to amphibious animals, or such as have two 
sets of respiratory organs, namely, the pulmonary 
apparatus called lungs, and the other termed 
bronchice, or gills, as in fishes, for leaves are real 
respiratory organs. 
Truly amphibious animals, however, certainly 
compose a limited number, and the Proteus san- 
guineus of the caves of Carniola, with the Siren 
lacertina, and Meopoma gigantea of the New 
World, are remarkable examples. Many plants 
that belong to marine vegetation are affixed to 
rocks, or cemented to the shells of crustaceous 
or testaceous animals, and of course travel with 
them, but a great many seem vagabond, and float 
hither and thither, having “ no abiding-place,” and 
numerous examples have been cited. The Ponte- 
deria crassipes floats in the tanks of India by means 
of bulbs,* that are real buoys. 
The Gonfervce are mostly under water, and have 
narrow or grass-like leaves. The Conferva bullosa 
is rendered buoyant in its foliage by vesicles inflated 
with oxygen elaborated by the sunbeam. 
The Callitriche aquatica, or water star-grass, 
floats until the period of its inflorescence, when its 
cells exchange their aerial contents for water, and 
thus by a change in their specific gravity the plant 
sinks to the bottom and becomes stationary in the 
mud. The curious arrangement by which the 
successively prolonged inflorescence of the water- 
crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) is preserved above 
the surface is sufficiently interesting. 
As soon as the petals drop, the branch is gra- 
dually withdrawn from the surface to mature its 
seeds below ; the exchange of specific gravities to 
suit specific purposes, is not the least singular 
among the phenomena of aquatic vegetation. 
At early dawn the white water-lily, Nymphoea 
alba, raises its head above the surface, expands its 
elegant blossom, and gradually elevates its stem 
some inches from the water ; as the day declines, 
the footstalk contracts, the flower closes, and it 
nestles half-immersed during the night. Thus the 
loss of temperature which the plant would incur 
from radiation, is compensated for by that of a 
medium which remains comparatively uniform. 
This beautiful phenomenon in reference to the 
sacred Lotus of the Ganges, 
“ Flower of the watery plain,” 
and once, though not now an associate of the 
“ Father of rivers,” thence called the Rose of the 
Nile, appears to have been early observed, and is 
recorded by Herodotus. 
Perhaps this circumstance, conjoined with other 
peculiarities, endeared it to aboriginal Egypt, for 
we find that it crowned their columns, was sculp- 
tured in their temples, and associated with their 
* The gaseous matter in the inflated hulh-like stems of 
Pontederia crassipes is said to contain no carbonic acid 
gas, but more oxygen than in atmospheric air. 
