NATURE'S OWN BAROMETER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 434, 4 January 1890, Page 5

NATURE'S OWN BAROMETER.

Weather Chances Foretold Two Days Ahead by a Plant. To knovy, forty-eight hours in advance exactly what sorb of weather is coming would, everyone must admit, be a great convenience. A gentleman in London,. Professor Nowack by name, claims to have solved the problem, says the London ‘Herald.’ He says he can tell with unerring accuracy not only the weather which will be experienced in a given locality, but that which will prevail within a radius of fifty miles, or even at a much greater .distance. The Professor says that Nature herself foretells what sort of weather she. is preparing, and that he has discovered the key of the cipher in which her rey.elation is made. In other words, he relies, for the information upon a plant which is peculiarly susceptible to atmospheric changes. , : . • There are numerous plants, particularly in the tropics, as is well known, which are thus affected to a greater or less extent by changes in .atmospheric conditions. Professor Nowack has, he claims, discovered just how one variety of these planes is affected, or in other words, has found out how to' read from the changes the plant exhibits the kind of impending weather which causes them. He has secured a patent on this idea of plant read-, ing, and on the apparatus he has invented for maintaining his weather plants in a uniform temperature, and otherwise subject to favourable, conditions. This .plant, the botanical name of which is Abrusorecatorious, belongs to the acacia family and: is native to Upper Egypt and India. It is the plant which produces ‘ India peas ’ or ‘ crab’s eyes ’—those little red seeds with black spots on them which are often seen in .curiosity collections. Its t wisrs and leaves are in appearance not unlike those of the mountain jash, only they are much smaller and far more delicate. ‘ • -.