Flowers in a state of vegetation are, I consider, more pernicious _at
night_, or during the absence of the sun, than those plucked and put
into water, provided they be not immersed too long a time; for
immediately the stem is severed from the plant, the vital action, if it
may be so termed, ceases, and decomposition commences; but till the
decomposition has been going on some time, nothing of a pernicious nature
need be apprehended. In like manner, directly the vital principle becomes
extinct in animals, decomposition ensues. For the space of five or six
days, however, no perceptible alteration of the fibres is visible; but
after that time a compound of gases begins to exhale from the body,
accompanied with a fetid odour, till the parts are entirely decomposed.
The effluvium arising from the _farina_ and _petals_ is
considered unwholesome, however agreeable it may be to the senses,
whether the plant be in a state of vegetation or not, it being too
powerful for the olfactory nerve.
S.S.T.
Our pages are always open to the correction of our readers, and in
this instance we thank _S.
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