POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



7" 



lumber sawed in Australian mills is not 

 made from trees of only ten to fifteen years 

 of age, and it is probable that very few of 

 the eucalypts planted in California are as 

 old as fifteen years from the seed. Our na- 

 tive trees of so recent growth are not used 

 for or made into lumber, and nothing but 

 soft and sappy wood can be expected from 

 tree3 so young." Facts bearing upon the 

 profit of eucalyptus-growing for fuel pur- 

 poses are furnished by the yield of twenty 

 acres of a plantation belonging to General 

 Stratton, of which, after charging every 

 item of cost, and a yearly rental of five dol- 

 lars per acre, the net profits were $3,866.04 

 in eleven years. Notwithstanding that too 

 much may have been claimed by enthusiastic 

 friends in relation to the sanitary and medi- 

 cal value of certain species of the eucalyp- 

 tus, " there is enough, minus exaggeration, 

 to justify their being regarded as of un- 

 questionable merit." 







Dow Flies climb. Herr H. Dewitz has 

 communicated to the Berlin Society of 

 Natural History some facts that bear very 

 strongly against the generally received the- 

 ory that flies adhere to perpendicular walls 

 and ceilings by virtue of some sucking pow- 

 er in their feet. He asserts that the feet 

 of flies can not possess the sucking property 

 ascribed to them, for they are hard and des- 

 titute of muscles. The theory has long been 

 contradicted by the experiments of Black- 

 wall, who found that flies could climb the 

 sides of a jar under the receiver of an air- 

 pump, where there was no atmospheric 

 pressure ; and who asserted that the power 

 of adherence was due to a sticky matter 

 secreted froin the foot-hairs of flies. This 

 assertion was generally regarded as not 

 proved, and the case has rested there. De- 

 witz reports that his investigations have 

 shown that Blackwall was right. He has 

 watched the exudation of the sticky matter 

 from the feet of the flies by fastening one 

 of the insects to the under side of a plate of 

 glass and viewing it under the microscope. 

 A perfectly clear liquid was seen to flow 

 from the ends of the foot-hairs and attach 

 the foot to the glass. When the foot was 

 lifted up, to be put down in another place, 

 the drops of the sticky matter were per- 

 ceived to be left on the glass, in the exact 



I places where the foot-hairs had rested. The 

 i adhesive fluid appears to pass down through 

 the hollow of the hair, and to be derived 

 from glands which Leydig discovered in the 

 fojds of the foot in 1859. A similar adhe- 

 sive matter appears to be possessed by bugs, 

 by many larvae, and probably by all insects 

 that climb the stems and the under sides of 

 the leaves of plants. 



Flesh-eating no Sin. Mr. W. Mattieu 

 Williams gives a pointed answer, in the 

 "Journal of Science," to the protests of 

 a vegetarian writer against eating animal 

 food, on the ground that it involves cruelty 

 to living beings. No animals, he says, enjoy 

 a more comfortable life, or are better cared 

 for, than those we keep for food. If we did 

 not eat them, they would be exterminated, 

 for they would not be able to take care of 

 themselves. Yet, in the very sight of the 

 wonderful animal happiness that they en- 

 joy, " the sentimental vegetarians advocate 

 the extinction of all the pastoral bliss that 

 has been a leading theme to poets of all 

 ages." The final killing of them is in ac- 

 cordance with the order of nature, and, if 

 wc are to be denounced for it, the Creator 

 must also be denounced for giving life, and 

 at the same time making death one of its 

 necessary conditions. Then, if the killing 

 is wrong, the vegetarian kills on a far more 

 extensive scale, " for the boiling of a cab- 

 bage involves the immolation of innocent 

 slugs and caterpillars, and tens of hundreds 

 of thousands of aphides are sacrificed in 

 topping a row of broad beans, to say nothing 

 of the millions of Colorado beetles that 

 have been mercilessly murdered in order 

 that ruthless, selfish man may satisfy his 

 greed for potatoes." 



Sun- Worship and the Cross in Ancient 

 America. Mr. F. L. Hilder, of the Missouri 

 Historical Society, has made a study of a 

 pottery-vessel taken from one of the mounds 

 in the State, and finds that the ornaments 

 upon it represent the sun, figured under 

 four distinct designs. He draws the con- 

 clusion, from his examinations, that " the 

 symbolic character of all these devices is 

 so evident that it is impossible to mistake 

 their meaning. They are all well-known 

 emblems of that solar worship which was 



