33 
ON THE VEGETABLE OEIGIN OF DIAMONDS. 
pure white flowers; the other dark purple stems and violet-tinged flowers. These two 
thorn-apples M. Naudin crossed in 1855, and obtained one hundred or more hybrids, 
both Tatula-stramonium and Stramonio-tatula , both just alike, and exactly intermediate 
between the two species in the coloration of the stem and flowers. They had, however, 
the peculiarity of a gigantic size, attaining at least twice the size of their parents, and 
a tendency to sterility, which was manifested in the failure of all the flower-buds which 
were produced at the first forking of the stems. The later flower-buds opened, however, 
and were perfectly fertile, the pods being as large and as full of good seeds as those of 
either parent. In 1861 the seeds of Stramonio-tatula were sown, and produced a second 
generation like the first. Seeds of this crop were sown in 1862, and twenty-two seed¬ 
lings were preserved for experiment. Nine individuals returned as completely to D. Ta- 
tnla and five did to D. Stramonium. Two others seemed to be D. Tatula , and were 
equally reduced in and fertile from the first forks, but they still showed in their paler 
colouring a trace of the other ancestor. The remaining six of the twenty-two showed 
somewhat more of it, both in colour and in the tallness and lateness of fructification. 
“Here, then,” says Naudin, “is a hybrid completely intermediate between the two 
parent species when left to itself, fecundated by its own proper pollen, is spontaneously 
dissevered at the second generation, dividing its offspring between the two species.”— 
Medical Press. 
ON THE VEGETABLE ORIGIN OF DIAMONDS. 
We have already mentioned that Professor Goeppert obtained the prize offered by the 
Dutch Scientific Society for an Essay on the vegetable origin of Diamonds, and we are 
now able to give a short abstract of this highly interesting essay. 
Since Lavoisier showed that diamonds were composed of pure carbon very different 
opinions have been entertained about their origin, some believing them to be produced 
by Plutonic, others by Neptunian agency. Newton inclined towards the latter view, and 
Brewster agrees with him. In 1812 Liebig pronounced the formation of diamonds to 
be the result of an uninterrupted process of chemical decomposition. “Imagine this 
chemical decomposition taking place in a fluid rich in carbon and hydrogen, and you have 
a combination still richer in carbon, out of which will issue as a final result of its che¬ 
mical decomposition, pure carbon, and that in a ciystallized form.” Indeed a high tem¬ 
perature is adverse to the formation of diamonds, as diamonds become black when sub¬ 
jected to a high degree of temperature, and, according to Despretz’s experiments, they 
are even converted into - graphite and coke. The black diamonds, or so-called “carbo"- 
nates of Bahia,” are in part a mixture of uncrystallized carbon and diamonds, as shown 
by the process of combustion, to which at my desire they were submitted by Professor 
Lowig. That diamonds originated under Neptunian agency is further proved by the 
frequent occurrence of crystals in them. I have seen them in hundreds of different speci¬ 
mens, and even small cavities containing them. In my essay I have given ample 
proof that at one time diamonds were soft bodies. Hitherto only one diamond, in the 
possession of the Emperor of the Brazils, has been known, on which the impression of a 
grain of sand was visible. I have before me a rhombic dodecahedron, on the whole sur¬ 
face of which impressions of grains of sand are visible, and a similar crystal of the black 
diamond on which the same impressions exist. In a third there is a*cavity with bent 
and broken crystals of an unknown kind. Two others, an octahedron and a rhombic do¬ 
decahedron, have on their surface deep impressions of crystals which are not those of 
diamonds. The Neptunian origin of diamonds can therefore no longer be doubted. 
G. Bischof also thinks that after the discovery of iron pyrites in the diamond any doubt 
respecting the formation of diamonds in a moist way has been dispelled. In close con¬ 
nection with these observations is the question about the vegetable origin of diamonds, 
which in a measure was answered by Newton, who regarded them on account of their great 
power of reflecting light, long before their true chemical condition was ascertained, to be 
coagulated fatty or oily bodies. Jameson and Wilson endeavoured to prove this theore¬ 
tically, Petzholdt practically, by the vegetable cells found in the ashes of diamonds. The 
vegetable origin of coal and anthracite, and their sedimentary formation, having been 
thoroughly established, I examined, starting from this point, graphite (hitherto regarded 
as being without structure, but doubtless having a Neptunian origin) and the diamond ; 
