•'50G (h the Generation of Planta. 
been quite useless to its possessors. In this way also, the Duke of Mont- 
rose is enabled to convert to a profitable use the disbarked poles pro- 
duced on many thousand acres of Oak coppice, which owing to the 
remoteness of the situation from a market, and the difficulty of transport- 
ing them, would have been utterly useless. 
The apparatus for obtaining the acid and charcoal is extremely simple, 
consisting merely of a metal furnace and a few wooden vessels. The 
acid is used in bleaching, and as a mordant or basis for fixing the co- 
lours in caHco printing; when purified by re-distillation, it is a pleasant 
and excellent vinegar, and it has also been found useful for preserving 
flesh meat. Glauber, by whom (in his book "De Distillatione," pub- 
lished 200 years since) directions for obtaining the acid are given, attri- 
butes many other valuable qualities to it, as a medicine; and the charcoal 
produced in this way is superior to any other in the manufacture of gun- 
powder ; or with the economical method of consuming it in use on the 
continent, would be of immense importance in our cottage economy. 
A minute detail of the whole process will be found in Dr. Ure's Diction- 
ary of Chemistry, which (had the foregoing remarks not extended so 
much farther than I anticipated, and than in all likelihood you will be 
disposed to excuse) it was my intention to transcribe ; this, together 
with v^hatever I can glean concerning it, (unless, haply you shall be fa- 
voured with the observations of some person practically acquainted with 
the subject,) I shall, as I consider it a matter of paramount importance 
to the possessors of waste and wooded land, be happy to lay before you 
on a future occasion. 
E. Murphy. 
Dforlh-Frederick-Strtef, Dublin, 
March 1 , 1 832. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
Article XIV. — Eivperimeitts on the Generation of Plants, 
hy M. GiRov DE BvzAREJNGVEs. Communicated by J. 
Kenme, Esq., A.M., A.L.S., Professor of Natural His- 
tory, King's-College, London. 
In order to answer the question, — Whether Hemp not fecundated, would 
produce fertile seeds } M. Girou de Buzareingues undertook similar cu- 
rious experiments to those upon animals, for which he has become so 
celebrated, — by secluding female plants as much as possible from the 
influence of pollen, by weeding out the male plants, or covering up the 
flowers, — the details of which, we cannot spare room to give. The re- 
sults were .• — 
