TREES, CONDUCTORS OF LIGHTNING. 
407 
different family. Thus one bee will be seen collecting from the na¬ 
tural order Cucurbitaceae, whilst a second is rifling that of Rosaceae, 
and others that of Labiatae, &e. and Jussieu himself is not better ac¬ 
quainted with the affinities of plants than are 
“ the honey bees, 
Creatures that by a ruling nature teach the art of order.” 
Antheum, 1833. 
ARTICLE XII. 
TREES, EXCELLENT CONDUCTORS OF LIGHTNING. 
BY PHILALETHES. 
Your correspondent Mr. Jas. Frost, at page 315, Vol. 2, disputes 
the judgment of “Omega,’’ at page 739, Vol. 1, on the conducting- 
properties of the beech tree. 
I am induced to send you the following remarks to correct the er¬ 
roneous statements referred to, and to prevent those who may be as 
unacquainted with the conducting properties of all trees, as the wri¬ 
ters of the two articles, from falling victims to the effects of light¬ 
ning, by sheltering under a beech tree, during a thunder-storm. 
All finely pointed conductors of electricity receive the electric 
fluid, with much greater facility, and at far greater distances than 
those whose projections are obtuse. Hence large trees with their 
numerous pointed leaves, are grand receptacles for the discharge of 
electric clouds; and we frequently hear of the lordly mansion re¬ 
maining uninjured, while the towering poplar and stately pine, which 
raise their pointed tops above the towers and battlements of the ma¬ 
jestic castle, are rent in pieces. The foliage of all trees, has very 
nearly a like conducting property, but the form of the tree is the 
principal cause why one kind is more frequently injured by light¬ 
ning than another. The ash, the oak, the pine, and the poplar are 
lofty, and their branches are more erect than the beech and some 
others, consequently, when they receive an electric charge, if their 
boles or trunks be dry and harsh, (as is generally the case in sum¬ 
mer,) the fluid cannot pass off to the ground, therefore the branches 
will be severed from the trunk with a force proportionate to the ac¬ 
cumulated electricity, and the separated parts will carry off the fluid 
to its common receptacle the earth, from which it originated ; but if 
the graceful beech receive the charge, the fluid darts to the earth, 
