110 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
substitute. The cotton-world is on the tip-toe of expectation from the 
report that a substitute for cotton has been discovered, which lias been 
submitted to the examination of experienced hands, and pronounced, for 
colour, length, and fineness, all that can be desired. At present, the 
material which is thus characterized is not divulged, but the inventor or 
discoverer asserts that it is capable of being produced in any quantity, 
and at small expense ; that is, as low, or lower, than the average price of 
American cotton. 
Lathy r us Tuber osus . — This vetch, common in France, where it is called the 
Lorraine truffle , and which might easily be cultivated in England, is stated, 
in the “ Phytologist,” to possess a tuber with a milky saccharine taste, 
and a whitish fecula, more palatable than the potato, and infinitely more 
valuable than the batatas, or sweet potato. The flower is handsome, 
large, red, and pea-shaped ; and it is recommended as worthy of acclima- 
tization in this country. 
Botanical Expedition to British Columbia . — The committee of the Oregon 
Botanical Expedition have resolved to send Mr. Robert Brown to Van- 
couver's Island, on a scientific mission, with directions to explore British 
Columbia, and the countries adjacent to the Rocky Mountains, and to 
transmit seeds and roots of plants to the Oregon Association in London . 
CHEMISTRY. 
IT^URE CHEMISTRY. — That chemical “ will-o’-th’-wisp,” or. one, has 
1 been further investigated by the indefatigable experimenter, 
Sehonbein. He prepares ozone by dissolving pure manganate of potash 
in oil of vitriol, and introducing into the green solution pure peroxide 
of barium, when ozone, mixed with common oxygen, makes its ap- 
pearance, and may be easily detected by the smell and other tests. 
Amongst other curious and important facts which the Professor has 
discovered in these researches is one connected with the generation of 
nitrite of ammonia. This salt, he finds, is always produced when 
water evaporates in contact with the atmosphere : the mere passage 
of the water from the liquid to the gaseous state ozonizing some of the 
atmospheric oxygen, which in its turn converts some of the nitrogen and 
aqueous vapour into nitrite of ammonia. This may be shown in a variety 
of ways : for instance, when a piece of clean linen is moistened with 
distilled water and allowed to dry in the open air, it will be found to 
contain nitrite of ammonia. This fact is of great interest in connection 
with the chemistry of vegetation. It has long been debated where and 
how plants obtain their nitrogen — whether from the soil or from the 
atmosphere. Sehonbein shows that every pore over the whole surface of 
a plant, by continually evaporating water into the atmosphere, becomes a 
generator of nitrite of ammonia — preparing part, if not all, of its nitro- 
genous food ; the same thing likewise happening in the ground on which 
it stands. Sehonbein, therefore, inclines to Liebig’s opinion — that no 
plant wants any artificial supply of ammonia, there being enough offered 
by natural means. 
