Part 2

CHANGES OF THE POPPY.

Some flowers which are red, become blue by merely bruising them. Thus, if the petals of the common corn-poppy be rubbed upon white paper, they will stain it purple, which may be made green by washing it over with a strong solution of potash in water. Put poppy petals into very dilute muriatic acid, and the infusion will be of a florid red colour; by adding a little chalk, it will become the colour of port wine; and this tint, by the addition of potash, may be changed to green or yellow.

TO CHANGE THE COLOUR OF A ROSE.

Hold a red rose over the blue flame of a common match, and the colour will be discharged wherever the fume touches the leaves of the flower, so as to render it beautifully variegated, or entirely white. If it be then dipped into water, the redness, after a time, will be restored.

LIGHT CHANGING WHITE INTO BLACK.

Write upon linen with permanent ink, (which is a strong solution of nitrate of silver,) and the characters will be scarcely visible; remove the linen into a dark room, and they will not change; but expose them to a strong light, and they will be indelibly black.

THE VISIBLY GROWING ACORN.

Cut a circular piece of card to fit the top of a hyacinth glass, so as to rest upon the ledge, and exclude the air. Pierce a hole through the centre of the card, and pass through it a strong thread, having a small piece of wood tied to one end, which, resting transversely on the card, prevents its being drawn through. To the other end of the thread attach an acorn; and, having half filled the glass with water, suspend the acorn at a short distance from the surface.

The glass must be kept in a warm room; and, in a few days, the steam which has generated in the glass will hang from the acorn in a large drop. Shortly afterwards, the acorn will burst, the root will protrude and thrust itself into the water; and, in a few days more, a stem will shoot out at the other end, and, rising upwards, will press against the card, in which an orifice must be made to allow it to pass through. From this stem, small leaves will soon be observed to sprout; and, in the course of a few weeks, you will have a handsome oak plant, several inches in height.

CHANGES IN SAP GREEN.

Sap green is the inspissated juice of the buckthorn berries: if a little carbonate of soda be dropped into it, the colour will be changed from green to yellow; it may be reddened by acids, and its green colour restored by chalk.

TO REVIVE APPARENTLY DEAD PLANTS.

Make a strong dilution of camphor in spirit of wine, which add to soft water, in the proportion of a dram to a pint. If withered, or apparently dead plants be put into this liquid, and allowed to remain therein from two to three hours, they will revive.

SINGULAR EFFECT OF TEARS.

If tears are dropped on a dry piece of paper, stained with the juice of the petals of mallows or violets, they will change the paper to a permanently green colour.

BEAUTIES OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

Dissolve alum in hot water until no more can be dissolved in it; place in it a smooth glass rod and a stick of the same size; next day, the stick will be found covered with crystals, but the glass rod will be free from them: in this case, the crystals cling to the rough surface of the stick, but have no hold upon the smooth surface of the glass rod. But, if the rod be roughened with a file at certain intervals, and then placed in the alum and water, the crystals will adhere to the rough surfaces, and leave the smooth bright and clear.

Tie some threads of lamp-cotton irregularly around a copper wire or glass rod; place it in a hot solution of blue vitriol, strong as above, and the threads will be covered with beautiful blue crystals, while the glass rod will be bare.

Bore a hole through a piece of coke, and suspend it by a string from a stick, placed across a hot solution of alum; it will float; but, as it becomes loaded with crystals, it will sink in the solution according to the length of the string. Gas-coke has mostly a smooth, shining, and almost metallic surface, which the crystals will avoid, while they will cling only to the most irregular and porous parts.

If powdered tumeric be added to the hot solution of alum, the crystals will be of a bright yellow; litmus will cause them to be of a bright red; logwood will yield purple; and common writing ink, black; and the more muddy the solution, the finer will be the crystals.

To keep coloured alumn crystals from breaking, or losing their colour, place them under a glass shade with a saucer of water; this will preserve the atmosphere moist, and prevent the crystals getting too dry.

If crystals be formed on wire, they will be liable to break off, from the expansion and contraction of the wire by changes of temperature.

TO CRYSTALLIZE CAMPHOR.

Dissolve camphor in spirit of wine, moderately heated, until the spirit will not dissolve any more; pour some of the solution into a cold glass, and the camphor will instantly crystallize in beautiful tree-like forms, such as we see in the show-glasses of camphor in druggists’ windows.

CRYSTALLIZED TIN.

Mix half an ounce of nitric acid, six drams of muriatic acid, and two ounces of water; pour the mixture upon a piece of tin plate previously made hot, and, after washing it in the mixture, it will bear a beautiful crystalline surface, in feathery forms. This is the celebrated moirée metallique, and, when varnished, is made into ornamental boxes, &c. The figures will vary according to the degree of heat previously given to the metal.

CRYSTALS IN HARD WATER.

Hold in a wine-glass of hard water, a crystal of oxalic acid, and white threads will instantly descend through the liquid, suspended from the crystal.