CONTENTS OF THE NOTES.
* * * * *
Seeds of Canna used for prayer-beads
Stems and leaves of Callitriche so matted together, as they float on the water, as to bear a person walking on them
The female in Collinsonia approaches first to one of the males, and then to the other
Females in Nigella and Epilobium bend towards the males for some days, and then leave them
The stigma or head of the female in Spartium (common broom) is produced amongst the higher set of males; but when the keal-leaf opens, the pistil suddenly twists round like a French-horn, and places the stigma amidst the lower set of males
The two lower males in Ballota become mature before the two higher; and, when their dust is shed, turn outwards from the female
The plants of the class Two Powers with naked seeds are all aromatic
Of these Marum and Nepeta are delightful to cats
The filaments in Meadia, Borago, Cyclamen, Solanum, &c. shewn by reasoning to be the most unchangeable parts of those flowers
Rudiments of two hinder wings are seen in the class Diptera, or two-winged insects
Teats of male animals
Filaments without anthers in Curcuma, Linum, &c. and styles without stigmas in many plants, shew the advance of the works of nature towards greater perfection
Double flowers, or vegetable monsters, how produced
The calyx and lower series of petals not changed in double flowers
Dispersion of the dust in nettles and other plants
Cedar and Cypress unperishable
Anthoxanthum gives the fragrant scent to hay
Viviparous plants: the Aphis is viviparous in summer, and oviparous in autumn
Irritability of the stamen of the plants of the class Syngenesia, or
Confederate males
Some of the males in Lychnis, and other flowers arrive sooner at their maturity
Males approach the female in Gloriosa, Fritillaria, and Kalmia
Contrivances to destroy insects in Silene, Dionæa muscipula, Arum muscivorum, Dypsacus, &c.
Some bell-flowers close at night; others hang the mouths downwards; others nod and turn from the wind; stamens bound down to the pistil in Amaryllis formofissima; pistil is crooked in Hemerocallis flava, yellow day-lily Thorns and prickles designed for the defence of the plant; tall Hollies have no prickles above the reach of cattle
Bird-lime from the bark of Hollies like elastic gum
Adansonia the largest tree known, its dimensions
Bulbous roots contain the embryon flower, seen by dissecting a tulip-root
Flowers of Colchicum and Hamamelis appear in autumn, and ripen their seed in the spring following
Sunflower turns to the sun by nutation, not by gyration
Dispersion of seeds
Drosera catches flies
Of the nectary, its structure to preserve the honey from insects
Curious proboscis of the Sphinx Convolvoli
Final cause of the resemblance of some flowers to insects, as the
Bee-orchis
In some plants of the class Tetradynamia, or Four Powers, the two shorter stamens, when at maturity, rise as high as the others
Ice in the caves on Teneriff, which were formerly hollowed by volcanic fires
Some parasites do not injure trees, as Tillandsia and Epidendrum
Mosses growing on trees injure them
Marriages of plants necessary to be celebrated in the air
Insects with legs on their backs
Scarcity of grain in wet seasons
Tartarian lamb; use of down on vegetables; air, glass, wax, and fat, are bad conductors of heat; snow does not moisten the living animals buried in it, illustrated by burning camphor in snow
Of the collapse of the sensitive plant
Birds of passage
The acquired habits of plants
Irritability of plants increased by previous exposure to cold
Lichen produces the first vegetation on rocks
Plants holding water
Madder colours the bones of young animals
Colours of animals serve to conceal them
Warm bathing retards old age
Male flowers of Vallisneria detach themselves from the plant, and float to the female ones
Air in the cells of plants, its various uses
How Mr. Day probably lost his life in his diving-ship
Air-bladders of fish
Star-gelly is voided by Herons
Intoxicating mushrooms
Mushrooms grow without light, and approach to animal nature
Seeds of Tillandsia fly on long threads, like spiders on the gossamer
Account of cotton mills
Invention of letters, figures, crotchets
Mrs. Delany's and Mrs. North's paper-gardens
The horologe of Flora
The white petals of Helleborus niger become first red, and then change into a green calyx
Berries of Menispernum intoxicate fish
Effects of opium
Frontispiece by Miss Crewe
Petals of Cistus and Oenanthe continue but a few hours
Method of collecting the gum from Cistus by leathern throngs
Discovery of the Bark
Foxglove how used in Dropsies
Bishop of Marseilles, and Lord Mayor of London
Superstitious uses of plants, the divining rod, animal magnetism
Intoxication of the Pythian Priestess, poison from Laurel-leaves, and from cherry-kernels
Sleep consists in the abolition of voluntary power; nightmare explained
Indian fig emits slender cords from its summit
Cave of Thor in Derbyshire, and sub-terraneous rivers explained
The capsule of the Geranium makes a hygrometer; Barley creeps out of a barn Mr. Edgeworth's creeping hygrometer
Flower of Fraxinella flashes on the approach of a candle
Essential oils narcotic, poisonous, deleterious to insects
Dew-drops from Mancinella blister the skin
Uses of poisonous juices in the vegetable economy
The fragrance of plants a part of their defence
The sting and poison of a nettle
Vapour from Lobelia suffocative; unwholesomness of perfumed hair-powder
Ruins of Palmira
The poison-tree of Java
Tulip roots die annually
Hyacinth and Ranunculus roots
Vegetable contest for air and light
Some voluble stems turn E.S.W. and others W.S.E.
Tops of white Bryony as grateful as asparagus
Fermentation converts sugar into spirit, food into poison
Fable of Prometheus applied to dram-drinkers
Cyclamen buries its seeds and trifolium subterraneum
Pits dug to receive the dead in the plague
Lakes of America consist of fresh water
The seeds of Cassia and some others are carried from America, and thrown on the coasts of Norway and Scotland
Of the gulf-stream
Wonderful change predicted in the gulph of Mexico
In the flowers of Cactus grandiflorus and Cistus some of the stamens are perpetually bent to the pistil
Nyctanthes and others are only fragrant in the night; Cucurbita lagenaria closes when the sun shines on it
Tropeolum, nasturtian, emits sparks in the twilight
Nectary on its calyx
Phosphorescent lights in the evening
Hot embers eaten by bull-frogs
Long filaments of grasses, the cause of bad seed-wheat
Chinese hemp grew in England above 14 feet in five months
Roots of snow-drop and hyacinth insipid like orchis
Orchis will ripen its seeds if the new bulb be cut off
Proliferous flowers
The wax on the candle-berry myrtle said to be made by insects
The warm springs of matlock produced by the condensation of steam raised from great depths by subterranean fires
Air separated from water by the attraction of points to water being less than that of the particles of water to each other
Minute division of sub-aquatic leaves
Water-cress and other aquatic plants inhabit all climates
Butomus esculent; Lotus of Egypt; Nymphæa
Ocymum covered with salt every night
Salt a remote cause of scrophula, and immediate cause of sea-scurvy
Coloured spatha of Arum, and blotched leaves, if they serve the purpose of a coloured petal
Tulip-roots with a red cuticle produce red flowers
Of vegetable mules the internal parts, at those of fructification, resemble the female parent; and the external parts, the male one
The same occurs in animal mules, as the common mule and the hinnus, and in sheep
The wind called Harmattan from volcanic eruptions; some epidemic coughs or influenza have the same origin
Fish killed in the sea by dry summers in Asia
Hedysarum gyrans perpetually moves its leaves like the respiration of animals
Plants possess a voluntary power of motion Loud cracks from ice-mountains explained
Muschus corallinus vegetates below the snow, where the heat is always about 40.
Quick growth of vegetables in northern latitudes after the solution of the snows explained
The Rail sleeps in the snow
Conserva ægagropila rolls about the bottom of lakes
Lycoperdon tuber, truffle, requires no light
Account of caprification
Figs wounded with a straw, and pears and plumbs wounded by insects ripen sooner, and become sweeter
Female figs closed on all sides, supposed to be monsters
Basaltic columns produced by volcanoes shewn by their form
Byssus floats on the sea in the day, and sinks in the night
Conserva polymorpha twice changes its colour and its form
Some seed-vessels and seeds resemble insects
Individuality of flowers not destroyed by the number of males or females which they contain
Trees are swarms of buds, which are individuals