A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 202, 13 December 1876, Page 4

A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENT.

A Reach horticwltttrist, to sfcw;-ty the physiology of the vegetable kingdom, conceived that the smaHness of certain plants : the violet, for example—was owinj: to 1 an atmospheric pressors to© great for i"» delicate organs. Having carefnKy r« solved i this idsS into form, he determined to test i the correctness of it by some satis!actory j experiment. After not. a little calculation,. ; he at hut hit npon the possible, and proI. bably only, means by which he might i flfnetrate his new theory. He prvparyd a bateoa of as light material as was : consistent with the necessary qnalitv of : durability, and! this he made- perfectly s tight ■© as to prevent the escape of any : 1 gas with which he filled it. T.» thts he 1 attached! a strong; silken cer.l, 1,200 I metres long, or say 4,090 feet. Attached to the bolooo, in place of a basket, was a ;i sot of earth, in which were planted '; Parma Violets, jttst springing from the | XOOt. The result has been wonderful. : i In the thin air which the delicate violets |j breathed at that height—for flowers do 'I breathe, in .their own delicate way—they f* throve marvellously, the blossoms entarg* ! fag to five times the siae attained at the : earth's anrfsce. This beautiful ex peri--1! meat, after ebotrt two months of judicious ' trial, rewarded the ingenious and scientific ! harbeoltnrist-by presenting him with vt»- ' ]«ts as large as Bengal ruses, something > probably never before seen on earth.