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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ing 4,133 specimens, and largely adding to 

 the representation of the flora of Louisiana 

 and Texas ; the interesting herbarium of Gus- 

 tav Jermy, of San Antonio, Texas, contain- 

 ing a very full set of Carpathian plants and 

 a nearly complete local flora ; the important 

 pre-Linna?an herbarium formed by Boehmer 

 and Ludwig ; and a Chinese collection by Dr. 

 A. Henry. Even larger additions were made 

 to the library. The instruction of garden 

 pupils was continued, and the garden was 

 visited by several research students. Among 

 the scientific papers accompanying the re- 

 port and bound with it are those of C. H. 

 Thompson on American Lemnaceas; N. N. 

 Glatf elter on Salix longipes ; H. C. Irish on 

 the Genus Capsicum ; A. S. Hitchcock on 

 Cryptogams collected in the Bahamas, Ja- 

 maica, and Grand Cayman ; J. N. Rose on 

 Agaves ; C. H. Thompson on Cacti Anhalo- 

 nium ; and seven shorter papers under the 

 heading of " Notes and Observations." 



The Indian Idea of the " Midmost Self." 



— In attempting to explain the significance 

 of a pentagonal stone dodecahedron with 

 vestiges of figures on it found near Marietta, 

 Ohio, Dr. J. C. Morris assumed that, besides 

 the Aryan idea of three dimensions of space, 

 there is, to the Indian and to the Eastern 

 mind, another — the fullness. " It is not the 

 length and breadth and thickness of a cube, 

 for instance, but the whole of it, which is as 

 much to be considered as any one of its 

 sides. A cube would therefore be represent- 

 ed numerically by seven, a dodecahedron by 

 thirteen. Among the Mexicans the thirteen 

 lunar months would thus correspond in the 

 year with the twelve zodiacal signs and the 

 earth which passed under and embraced 

 them all." Again, the five digits came to be 

 a measure of man's power or individuality, 

 and thus a sacred number. A pentagonal 

 dodecahedron, then, might be the emblem 

 of the world ; and the best time to be ac- 

 tive in some contemplated pursuit might be 

 shown by the zodiacal sign that came upper- 

 most when the dodecahedron was thrown or 

 rolled with appropriate ceremonies. As Mr. 

 Frank H. Cushing interpreted the doctrine at 

 the same meeting of the Anthropological So- 

 ciety, when the primitive man contemplates 

 or considers himself or anything in its rela- 

 tion to space or the surrounding directions, 



" he notices that there is ever a front or face, 

 a rear or back ; two sides, or a right and a 

 left ; a head and a foot, or an above and a 

 below ; and that of and within all of these 

 is himself or it ; that the essence of all these 

 aspects in anything is the thing itself — that 

 is, the thing that contains their numbers or 

 sum, yet is one by itself. This is indeed the 

 very key to his conception of himself and of 

 anything in relation to space and the uni- 

 verse or cosmos. He observes that there are 

 as many regions in the world as there are 

 aspects of himself or sides to any equally 

 separate thing; that there are as many di- 

 rections from him or his place in the world 

 (which is his ' midmost ' or place of attach- 

 ment to the Earth-mother), or from anything 

 in the world (which is its midmost or natu- 

 ral station), toward these corresponding re- 

 gions. Hence to him a plane would be sym- 

 bolized not by four, but by five — its four 

 sides and directions thence, and its central 

 self — as was actually the notion of the prairie 

 tribes ; a cube, not by six, but by seven, as 

 was the notion of the valley Pueblos and 

 Navajos; a dodecahedron, not by twelve, 

 but by thirteen, as was the notion of the 

 Zunis, the Aztecs, and apparently — from this 

 example — of the mound builders as well." 



The Bactrian Camel for the Klondike. — 



The great Siberian or Bactrian camel is rec- 

 ommended by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the fa- 

 mous Hamburg importer of wild beasts, as 

 the best animal for the Klondike climate. 

 It is at home in the coldest regions, can 

 carry or go in harness, can cross mountains 

 or traverse valleys, and is so easily supplied 

 that Mr. Hagenbeck can undertake to deliver 

 any number in New York, duty paid, for three 

 hundred dollars each. It can endure thirst 

 and long spells of hunger as well as freezing 

 cold, and is not too delicate to make its bed on 

 the snow. It sheds its coat before the sum- 

 mer heat, but as the cooler weather of the fall 

 comes on " it grows a garment of fur almost 

 as thick as a buffalo robe and equally cold- 

 resisting. It is far more strongly built than 

 the southern camel. It does not ' split ' 

 when on slippery ground, though it falls on 

 moist, wet clay which yields to the foot. On 

 ice and frozen snow it stands firmly, and can 

 travel far." It is said that an excellent cross 

 can be made between the male Bactrian and 



