NOTE.
(See page 13, vol. i.)
A method has since been mentioned to me, by which the colours of the flowers of plants are well preserved. The process was this:—The paper being first heated before the fire, or in an oven, the plant recently gathered is placed between the hot sheets, and pressed. It is requisite, however, that the paper, in the same heated state, be renewed at intervals, on account of the expressed juices from the stalks and leaves fermenting, which might otherwise injure the plants.
There is also a method of preserving plants in flower, by which their natural form, as well as colours, can be preserved. It consists in placing the plant in a jar, and pouring fine sand upon it, until the whole plant is covered: it is then to be placed, still kept in the jar, into an oven; after which, being taken out, and the sand removed, the plant is found preserved both in its form and colour.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Madeira signifies, in the Portuguese language, “woody;” and the island was so named from the very wooded appearance it had on its discovery.
[2] In summer, Horsburgh states that the north-east winds prevail, and a south-west current sets through the channel, between Madeira and the Desertas. The current along the south side of Madeira and the Desertas mostly sets to the leeward in strong gales; but at the conclusion of a gale, it sometimes changes suddenly, and sets contrary to the wind.
[3] They are called “Guinea Ships” by the old navigators, from their floating like a vessel on the water, and from having very probably been first seen in great numbers about the coast and gulf of Guinea.
[4] Mr. John Fuge, of Plymouth, informed me that he captured a specimen of the Physalia pelagica, in the Catwater, (Plymouth Sound,) a few years since, in the month of August; it was floating upon the surface of the water, and living when caught; he placed it in a glass globe of sea water, and preserved it for three weeks. The only motion he observed in the animal, was an occasional contraction and elongation of the beaked end of the bladder portion of the animal, and the tentaculæ were also drawn up and thrust forward.
[5] Physalis tuberculosa, P. megalista, P. elongata, and P. pelagica, are the species given by Lamarck. (Sur les Animaux sans Vertèbres, tom. ii. p. 478.)