VARIETIES. 
177 
infusing  a  very  small  fragment  of  it  in  water,  this  fluid  soon  ac- 
quired a  deep  blue  color  with  a  greenish  tinge.  On  gradually 
bringing  the  liquid  to  boil,  and  immersing  in  it  a  piece  of  calico 
on  which  mordants  of  iron  and  alumina  had  been  printed,  a  genuine 
dyeing  took  place,  the  portions  of  the  stuff  which  were  coated  with 
alumina  acquiring  a  sea-green  color  of  greater  or  less  intensity 
according  to  the  strength  of  the  mordant,  those  which  were  coated 
with  alumina  and  oxide  of  iron  becoming  deep  sea-green  with  an 
olive  tinge,  and  those  charged  with  pure  oxide  of  iron  dark  olive. 
The  portions  of  the  calico  not  coated  with  mordant  remained  white. 
The  colors  thus  obtained  were  exposed  to  all  the  agents  to  which 
the  Chinese  green  had  previously  been  submitted,  and  behaved  in 
the  same  manner.    From  these  experiments  we  may  conclude — 
1.  That  the  Chinese  possess  a  coloring  matter,  having  the  ap- 
pearance of  indigo,  which  communicates  a  green  color  to  mordants 
of  alumina  and  iron. 
2.  That  this  coloring  matter  neither  contains  indigo  nor  any 
derivative  of  this  dyeing  principle. — Chemical  Gazette,  from 
Comptes  Rendus,  Oct.  1852. 
to  a  tie  ties. 
Meeting  of  German  Naturalists  at  Wiesbaden. — The  following  notice  is 
from  the  London  Athenaeum,  1852,  No.  1301,  through  Silliman's  Journal 
for  January,  1853.  This  Society,  the  prototype  of  the  British  Association, 
has  just  held  its  twenty-ninth  Annual  Meeting  in  the  flourishing  little  town 
of  Nassau  ;  which  was  well  calculated,  as  well  from  the  extent  of  its  public 
buildings,  and  their  adaptation  to  scientific  reunions  and  social  purposes,  as 
also  from  the  geological  interest  and  natural  beauties  of  the  surrounding 
country,  for  the  accommodation  and  entertainment  of  so  numerous  a  body 
of  scientific  strangers.  A  correspondent,  who  was  present,  furnished  a 
summary  to  the  "  Athenceum,"  from  which  the  following  is  extracted. 
On  the  17th  of  September  the  members  began  to  pour  into  the  town  from 
all  quarters  of  Germany  ;  each  railway  train  bringing  its  own  quota  of 
these  welcome  visitors,  in  honor  of  whose  approach,  the  hotels  and  many  of 
the  public  buildings  and  private  houses  were  decked  out  with  the  national 
flag,  waving  from  the  doorways  and  roofs. 
To  be  a  privileged  member  of  this  Association,  with  the  right  of  speaking 
and  voting  in  the  meetings,  it  is  necessary  to  have  written  some  work  bear- 
ing on  natural  history,  physics,  or  medicine  ;  but  to  become  a  temporary 
14 
