POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



421 



trial-work, divided by the total population 

 of the country, will give the measures of 

 correction to be applied to the assumed 

 point, in order to deduce the true center 

 from it. In the case of a population so ex- 

 tensively and diversely scattered as that of 

 the United States, there is room for any 

 amount of refinement in the details of the 

 calculation. The larger cities arc treated 

 as special centers. Leaving them out, the 

 population of the country is grouped by 

 square degrees that is, by the spaces, in- 

 cluded between two consecutive degrees of 

 latitude and of longitude, the centers of 

 which, except where there are reasons for 

 exception, are taken as the local centers of 

 population. By this process, the center of 

 population of the United States for 1880 is 

 placed in latitude 39 4' 8" and longitude 

 84 39' 40", or at a point in Kenton County, 

 Kentucky, one mile south of the Ohio River, 

 and eight miles west by south from the 

 heart of the city of Cincinnati. This loca- 

 tion is, after all, only approximate, and ex- 

 treme accuracy is hardly attainable under 

 ordinary modes of calculation. In fixing it, 

 the surface of the country has been as- 

 sumed to be plane, whereas it is spherical 

 or spheroidal, and a parallel of latitude has 

 been made one of the axes, whereas the arc 

 of a great circle should have been taken. 

 Then there are differences in the kind of 

 map-makers' projections that are used, all 

 distorting the spheroidal surface in attempt- 

 ing to represent it as a plane, but some 

 giving worse distortions than others. Mr. 

 Carpenter believes that if it were practi- 

 cable to make an absolutely correct calcu- 

 lation, the actual center would be found 

 about thirty miles to the north and a trifle 

 to the east of the present estimated location, 

 or in Butler County, Ohio. The center is 

 thrown so near the northern boundary, by 

 the fact that our country in general shape is 

 the segment of a zone ; and the case is sup- 

 posable, if the segment were extended far 

 enough in longitude, in which the center of 

 population would be situated entirely out- 

 side of the country. 



Movements of Plants. Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan, of Philadelphia, has recently no- 

 ticed some apparent irregularities in the mo- 

 tility of various plants which have not been 



adequately accounted for. The expansion 

 and closing of the petals of Draba verna, 

 which take place in connection with the di- 

 urnal erection and drooping of the pedicle, 

 appear to require a clear light ; yet while at 

 one time the expansion seemed to be prevent- 

 ed by a cloudiness that hardly dimmed the 

 Bun's rays, it was at another time not at all in- 

 terfered with during a densely cloudy, warm, 

 and moist day that followed a thunder- 

 shower. The earliest flowers of Lamium 

 amplexicaule are the largest ones in the Isle 

 of Wight ; here the case is reversed : the 

 flowers never expand ; and plants alongside 

 of each other under the same conditions and 

 external influences vary a week in the time 

 of their flowering. The drooping branches 

 of the Kilmarnock willow have grown from 

 the upward branching Salix caprea without 

 any known external influence to determine 

 a different direction of growth, and they 

 bear erect catkins, while erect branches 

 bear pendulous ones. Such facts should 

 teach us that external causes have but little 

 influence with motility, and that in many 

 cases a combination of circumstances con- 

 trols the influences attributed to one. The 

 facts will vary with various observations 

 those of one observer seeming rather to 

 conflict with than to confirm another and 

 it is too soon to form any conclusion as to 

 the motive cause. 



Inscriptions of the Monnd-Bnilders. 



Major William S. Beebe, of Brooklyn, gave 

 an interesting account, at the recent meeting 

 of the American Association, of his efforts 

 to decipher the inscriptions that have been 

 found in the mounds at Davenport, Iowa, 

 and Piqua, Ohio. Two pieces of slate were 

 found in a mound at Davenport, one of 

 which was inscribed on one side, the other 

 on both. The stone inscribed on but one 

 side bore on its surface a series of concen- 

 tric circles, between the outer two of which 

 were twelve equidistant signs, presumably 

 the zodiacal signs. About two years after 

 these slates were found, two terra-cotta tab- 

 lets were dug up at Piqua, Ohio, bearing 

 series similar to each other of characters, 

 "evidently letters," ranged in horizontal 

 lines, on four of which the letters were in 

 each case six in number. In the fifth and 

 remaining instance there were five lines, 



