166 
PROCESS  FOR  LITHIA  FROM  LEPIDOLITE. 
torn,  has  rendered  great  services ;  in  using  an  ordinary  case, 
there  is  great  danger  of  injuring  the  plants  in  removing  them 
from  the  sand. 
The  brilliancy  of  the  plants  is  quite  retained  by  his  process  ; 
white  flowers  even  preserve  their  dead  whiteness  ;  it  might  have 
been  feared  that  it  would  have  been  otherwise,  since  the  white  is 
the  interposition  of  the  air ;  yellow  and  blue  flowers  are  preserved 
very  well ;  but  violet  and  red  colors  turn  slightly  deeper. 
The  dried  plant,  left  in  contact  with  the  air,  resumes  a  little 
moisture  and  withers  ;  to  preserve  it,  it  is  placed  in  bottles,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  is  put  some  quick  lime  enclosed  in  Japan  paper 
and  covered  with  moss ;  the  bottle  is  hermetically  sealed  with  a 
disc  of  glass,  which  is  caused  to  adhere  by  means  of  a  mastic  of 
gum-lac,  or  caoutchouc. 
This  process  of  preserving  plants  may  be  of  service  for  drying 
some  flowers  or  plants  used  in  medicine,  such  as  the  violet,  the 
mallow,  the  stems  of  melissa,  mint,  hemlock,  &c.  The  odor  is 
very  perfectly  preserved  and  often  increased,  but  it  is  especially 
for  the  preservation  of  plants  intended  for  the  Schools  of  Phar- 
macy and  Medicine  and  for  the  Colleges,  that  this  process  may 
be  useful ;  it  will  likewise  render  great  services  to  horticulturists 
who  desire  to  preserve  rare  flowers,  as  well  as  to  travelling 
naturalists,  who  will  thus  be  able  to  bring  home  their  plants  with 
their  natural  appearance,  which  will  render  determinations  more 
easy  London  Chemist,  October,  1856,  from  Journal  de  Phar- 
macie,  August,  1856.  I 
ADVANTAGEOUS  PROCESS  FOR  THE  PREPARATION  OF  LITHIA 
FROM  LEPIDOLITE. 
By  Karl  Von  Hauer. 
Finely  pounded  lepidolite  was  well  mixed  with  about  half  its 
weight  of  sulphate  of  lime,  and  exposed  for  two  hours  in  a  Hes- 
sian crucible  to  a  red  heat.  On  cooling,  the  mass,  which  was 
firmly  caked  together,  but  not  fused,  was  lixiviated  with  hot 
water,  and  the  solution  separated  from  the  insoluble  residue  by 
decantation.  The  solution  contained  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
potash,  lithia  and  manganese  contained  in  the  lepidolite,  converted 
into  sulphates  by  the  sulphate  of  lime.    The  solution  also  con- 
