Electrified lily

Electrified lily

392 Plant~ and .Faure Accumulators. [Jour. Frank. Inst., Electrified L i l y . - - D u r i n g a storm at Montmaurin, in the upper Garonne, M. :F. ...

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392

Plant~ and .Faure Accumulators.

[Jour. Frank. Inst.,

Electrified L i l y . - - D u r i n g a storm at Montmaurin, in the upper Garonne, M. :F. Laroque witnessed a curious electric phenomenon. Looking towards a clump of lilies, he saw the highest plunged in a diffused violet light which formed an aureole around the corolla. This light lasted for 8 or 10 seconds. After it had ceased he approached the lily, which he found, to his great surprise, wholly deprived of its pollen, while the neighboringflowers were covered ~vith it.--La Nature. Evaporation in Circular or Elliptic B a s i n s . - - I f a liquid body sends vapor into an unlimited atmosphere there will proceed from each element of its surface, during a unit of time, a quantity of vapor proportional to an electric charge which is present and in equilibrium upon the element. The lines of the vapor currents correspond to the lines of electric force, and the surfaces of equal vapor pressure to the surfaces of equal potential. The electric equilibrium of an infinitely small circular or elliptic plate is the electrostatic analogue of the problem of the evaporation of a liquid contained in a basin of circular or elliptic contour.--Le~ Mondes. C. M u m m i e d P l a n t s . - - D r . Schweinfurth has examined the garlands which covered the breast of the mummy of King Ahmos 1st, which was one of the most important treasures in the great discovery at Deir el Bahari. The garlands are composed of leaves of the Egyptian willow, Sallx safsaf, folded twice and sewed side by side along a date branch, so as to form clasps which enclose isolated flowers of Acacia klotica, Nymphcea arrtdea, Alcea ficifolia, and a delphinium, which he thinks to be Oriental. The garlands of other kings contain flowers of Cavthamus tinctorh~, and the leaves which are woven in clasps are those of the 3limusops kummel. Leaves have also been founfl in the coffin of Neb Sent, a high priest of the twentieth dynasty, of the C~cu.mis citrulhts These leaves and flowers date fi'om some centuries before the epoch of the Trojan war; Dr. Schweinfurth has preserved a great number of them, by moistening them, then putting them in alcohol and afterwards expanding them and drying them, so as to form a small herbarium of plants that are thirty-five centuries old. The color of the chlorophyll is remarkably preserved, being violet in the delphinium and green in the eucumis.--Les Mond~s. C.