M. Zantedeschi has proved, by a long series of experiments in the
Botanic Gardens at Venice, Florence, and Padua, that, contrary to the
general opinion, the diffused rays of moonlight have an influence
upon the organs of plants, as the Sensitive Plant and the _Desmodium
gyrans_. The influence was feeble compared with that of the sun; but
the action is left beyond further question.
Melloni has proved that the rays of the Moon give out a slight degree
of Heat (see _Things not generally Known_, p. 7); and Professor Piazzi
Smyth, from a point of the Peak of Teneriffe 8840 feet above the
sea-level, has found distinctly perceptible the heat radiated from the
moon, which has been so often sought for in vain in a lower region.