POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



283 



bright, illustrate the development and vicis- 

 situdes of art, from the rude efforts of 

 archaic and provincial stampers to the finely 

 finished medals of which those bearing the 

 handsome features of Alexander the Great 

 and those of the first Roman emperors may 

 be taken as specimens. The base metal of 

 which the coins of whole epochs were com- 

 posed attests the antiquity of the dishonesty 

 of " fiat money." The collection, which is 

 offered for sale in this country, will be of 

 great value to the institution that is for- 

 tunate enough to secure it. 



Vegetation of the Catskill Mountain- 

 Tops. Professor Charles H. Peck, of the 

 Adirondack Survey, has recorded the fact 

 that many swamp-loving plants grow on 

 the higher mountains of the Adirondacks, 

 where they find the conditions of moisture 

 suited to their growth in the frequent rains, 

 the general prevalence of elouds, and the 

 low temperature, all operating as obstacles 

 to evaporation. He has found on the open 

 summit of Mount Marcy, 5,344 feet above 

 the sea, seven species of swamp-plants, 

 growing five hundred feet above the tree- 

 line, with no protection from the sun except 

 what the vapors afford. Mr. E. P. Bicknell 

 remarks, in his " Monograph on the Summer 

 Birds of the Catskill Mountains " (" Transac- 

 tions of the Linna?an Society of New York "), 

 that the same fact is observable in that 

 range, and is most strikingly illustrated by 

 the white hellebore, which was noticed in 

 low, damp woods in the valleys and along 

 the streams, and growing in some profusion 

 near the summit of Slide Mountain. " Close 

 around the summit, too, were found, grow- 

 ing in abundance upon the carpeting of wet 

 moss, plants which, at a less altitude, were 

 rare or altogether absent, owing obviously 

 to the scarcity of suitable swampy land. 

 Thus, Coptis trifolia, which had not been 

 noticed lower, was abundant ; Viburnum cas- 

 sinoides, elsewhere met with only in a small 

 marsh at an elevation of about 1,900 feet, 

 here reappeared, as well as Viola blanda 

 (Willd), Carex intumescens (Rudge), and oth- 

 er plants less distinctly confined to wet and 

 marshy situations." Mr. Bicknell also ob- 

 serves that in passing from the valleys into 

 the mountains it was interesting to observe 

 of plants of general distribution how much 



less advanced was their seasonal condition 

 as the elevation increased. The extremes 

 of this contrast, as shown by the vegetation 

 at the summit of Slide Mountain and that of 

 the valleys below, were most striking. Some 

 species, which in the valleys had ceased 

 flowering and were bearing green fruit, were 

 still in full bloom at the mountain-tops; 

 while others, in like condition in the valleys 

 and on lower slopes, on the mountains had 

 not advanced beyond their earliest buds. 



Animal Revenge. The active existence 

 of a feeling like that of revenge and the 

 possession of powers of memory of consid- 

 erable definiteness and endurance in ani- 

 mals are illustrated in some anecdotes pub- 

 lished in a recent number of " Chambers's 

 Journal." Vixen and Viper were two dogs 

 sent to hunt an otter. Only Vixen was able 

 to attack the animal, and she was killed by 

 him. Viper, who mourned for her intense- 

 ly, went out in the night to hunt the otter; 

 and the two were found on the next day 

 clinched in death, with all the evidences of 

 a desperate struggle around them. A New- 

 foundland dog was enraged by a traveler 

 who, passing on horseback through the vil- 

 lage, struck at him with his whip. A year 

 afterward the traveler was passing through 

 the same village, when the dog recognized 

 him, and bit him through the leg. A friend 

 of the owner of a dog, Tiger, set a stout 

 bull-dog against him, and Tiger got the 

 worst of the fight. He remembered the 

 event, and watched faithfully at the neigh- 

 bor's door for his opportunity. It came ; the 

 dog seized the man, and avenged his wrong. 

 Afterward he tried to make friends with 

 him, and to restore the relations as they had 

 been before the offense was given. A serv- 

 ant-maid was accustomed to throw water 

 upon a dog chained up during the hot 

 weather, and for the best of motives to 

 cool him off. The dog, however, took the 

 proceeding as an insult, and the first time 

 he found himself loose sprang upon the girl 

 and killed her. It was the duty of two dogs 

 to take their turns at a turnspit. One of 

 them shirked his task, slunk away, and hid. 

 The other, when called upon to take his 

 companion's turn as well as his own, led the 

 people to where the truant was hid and 

 killed him on the spot. A Newfoundland 



