EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4 J 3 



rine Biological Laboratory anything we might 

 find of interest or of use. We took advan- 

 tage of this kind permission to detach from 

 the walls the inscriptions which decorated the 

 laboratory, and to which President Jordan re- 

 fers. They were written on heavy paper and 

 were in perfect preservation ; they will here- 

 after adorn the walls of the linear descendant 

 of the Penikese school the Marine Biologi- 

 cal Laboratory. 



The inscriptions were not written upon the 

 blackboard, as President Jordan states, on the 

 authority of Prof. Eigenmann. This was oc- 

 cupied by some notes and drawings apparent- 

 ly used in illustration of a lecture on the ver- 

 tebrata, said, I know not on what authority, 

 to have been delivered by Prof. Wilder. The 

 inscriptions themselves are not quite correct- 

 ly quoted by President Jordan. They are as 

 follows : 



" Study Nature, not books." 

 " Learn to say, I do not know." 

 " A laboratory is to me a sanctuary, and 

 I would have nothing done therein unworthy 

 of the great Creator." 



I quote these from memory, and am not 

 quite sure as to the completeness of the sec- 

 ond one, though what I have given contains 

 the gist of it. It is advice which all young 

 teachers, for whom it was primarily intended, 

 should conscientiously heed. 

 Yours respectfully, 



J. Playfair McMurrich. 

 University of Cincinnati, April 7, 1892. 



FLOWERING HABIT OF THE AMERICAN 

 ALOE. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly. 



Sir : In Grant Allen's very readable 

 paper in the May issue A Desert Fruit 

 mention is made of the American aloe (Agave 

 arnericana) in a way to mislead as to its 

 flowering habit. Permit me to say that the 

 plant in question does not, as the writer 

 says, " flower . . . once in some fifteen years 



or so " ; it Jloivers once only, and then dies. 

 In this city it is somewhat the exception for 

 a summer to pass without one or more speci- 

 mens of the agave throwing up an immense 

 flower-stalk not a spike but upanicle to the 

 height of twenty-five feet or more, with large 

 clusters of flowers on the ends of its two- to 

 six-foot branching pedicels ; but, after the de- 

 velopment of the flowers and ripening of the 

 fruit, nothing remains of the previous tall 

 rosette of fleshy leaves but a lot of withered 

 and empty skins. And, by the way, the house- 

 leek (Sempervivum tectorum), which takes 

 several years to flower five or six in these 

 parts has the same trick of dying as soon 

 as it completes the process. It is doubtless 

 on account of the habit which both these 

 plants have, of multiplying by suckers or 

 stolons, that many have overlooked their 

 monocarpous nature, and have supposed that 

 the new plants standing around were the 

 same as flowered fifteen years ago. 



George Pyburn. 

 Sacramento, Cal., May 1, 1892. 



[We are glad to have the above particu- 

 lars about the habit of the aloe, but we do 

 not find in Mr. Allen's casual words any as- 

 sertion that the same plant flowers more than 

 once. Editor.] 



A CORRECTION. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly: 



Sir : On page 13V of your May number you 

 inadvertently do a great injustice to Mr. Nicola 

 Tesla, by styling him " the able lieutenant of 

 Mr. Edison." 



Mr. Tesla is an independent investigator, 

 whose path has been the development of the 

 alternating current, while Mr. Edison has fol- 

 lowed the course of the direct current. I 

 venture to suggest a note of correction. 

 Yours faithfully, 



Charles Paine. 

 Century Club, New York, April 23, 1892. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



MOTHERHOOD. 



MUCH advance has been made with- 

 in the last generation in the mat- 

 ter of the education of women ; bat even 

 the ambitious programmes of the present 

 day do not make as full or as distinct pro- 

 vision as might be desired for instruction 

 in the elementary duties and responsi- 

 bilities of motherhood. We are very 

 ready to allow that not every woman is 



called to be a mother, and we sympa- 

 thize to a considerable extent with those 

 who object to holding up marriage as 

 the only goal at which women should 

 aim. At the same time we incline very 

 strongly to the opinion that the educa- 

 tion of no woman can be complete un- 

 less it embraces the best obtainable 

 knowledge as to how children should be 

 brought up and trained, and as to the 



