[ «5 3 ; 
duce a fimilar appearance; accordingly Idifcharged 
the battery through a branch of the privet tree, 
without the lead apparent injury to the branch, at 
that time; but after three weeks, or thereabouts, 
the leaves of that branch, as far as the electrical fire 
had palled, began to wither and drop off, fo that, 
about a month after it was ftruck, it had juft 
the appearance of the branches of the trees before- 
mentioned ; and the reft of the tree was in a 
flourilhing ftate, and did not appear to be the leaft 
hurt. The index of the electrometer, in all the 
beforementioned experiments, was railed to 6o°. 
September 14, 1773, the following experiments 
were made, in the prefence of Mr. banks, and fe- 
veral other members of the royal society, upon 
the undermentioned plants, which Mr. banks 
procured to be brought in pots, in a healthy, and 
moft of them in a flowering ftate ; thefe were 
a female balfam, a marvel of Peru, a cardinal 
flower, an African geranium, a laurel, and a myrtle. 
Thefe plants were fo difpofed, that a part only, 
of each, lay within the eleCtric circuit ; which 
part was carefully diftinguifhed, by a piece of 
thread tied juft beiow it. The electrometer being 
railed to 6o°, the battery was difcharged, and 
the effeCt was, that, in proportion as thefe 
vegetables were herbaceous and fucculent, the 
fooner the parts of them, through which the 
fhock palled, were obferved to decay. Thus the 
main Item of the balfam, though, before the 
ftroke, perfectly ereCt, drooped in a few minutes, 
and was quite dead the next morning; notwith- 
ftanding that the other Items of the fame plant, 
which were not within the circuit, continued in 
flower 
