43 2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The nest was about ten feet from the 

 ground, and was somewhat loosely con- 

 structed of broad, dead leaves and green 

 branchlets of climbing plants and fibrous 

 material. Inside were two large concave 

 dead leaves underneath pieces of dry ten- 

 drils, which formed a springy lining for the 

 egg or young to rest upon. The nest con- 

 tained a single egg; was nineteen centi- 

 metres broad and nine deep; and the egg 

 cavity was nine centimetres by four. 



A proposition to establish a marine bio- 

 logical station in Jamaica as a memorial of 

 Columbus is approved by Prof. Huxley and 

 Prof. Ray Lankester, who regard the situa- 

 tion as a most excellent one for the study of 

 intertropical life. 



A small axe of nephrite found at Ohlau, 

 in Silesia, has been identified as to the specific 

 gravity, microscopic structure, and chemical 

 composition of the stone, as the same with a 

 mineral occurring near Jordansrnuhl, in Sile- 

 sia. This is the only prehistoric object found 

 in Europe of which the source has been sat- 

 isfactorily determined. 



Among the items of progress in chemistry 

 in Australia, Mr. W. M. Hamlet mentions the 

 discovery of the alkaloids brucine and strych- 

 nine in the fruits of Strychnos pilosperma, by 

 Prof. Rennie and Mr. Goyder ; and the work 

 done by Mr. J. H. Maiden in the examination 

 of Australian kinos, gums, and barks. Chief 

 among this chemist's researches was his work 

 on wattle bark, which he found contains from 

 fifteen to forty-six per cent of tannic acid. 

 As the wattle "tree is easy of cultivation, it 

 thus promises to be valuable. Mr. Kirkland 

 has discovered gallium and indium in some 

 specimens of blende. Some work has been 

 done toward determining the actual state of 

 combination in which elements occur in dif- 

 ferent ores. 



The first part of an account of the origin 

 and development of the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew has been published by Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer, in the Kew Bulletin. The present in- 

 stallment of the story relates the earlier period 

 of the history, when the gardens were a 

 purely private possession of the crown, and 

 closes with the time when, in 1841, they be- 

 came a national institution, with Sir William 

 Hooker as director. For this early period 

 there are hardly any authentic records, and 

 the author has had " to fall back on local 

 traditions, on local histories, the statements 

 of which are often confusing and inaccurate, 

 and on such scattered notices as could be 

 gathered from contemporary literature." 

 The history of the last half-century of the 

 gardens will be given in another number of 

 the Bulletin. 



In a lawsuit recently decided in London, 

 a householder had two poplar trees near a 

 railway, which the railway company wished 



removed. He was willing to shorten the 

 branches, but not to cut the trees down. The 

 company sent in its men, who felled the trees, 

 and then offered to settle with the owner, 

 first by giving him two hundred and fifty, 

 and later by offering him five hundred dol- 

 lars. He carried the case to the court, which 

 gave him fifteen hundred dollars for the trees 

 and additional damages of a thousand dollars 

 for the injury caused by their removal. 



Violets of highly intensified colors have 

 appeared on the streets of Paris, where 

 curiously colored lilacs and narcissuses are 

 likewise offered for sale. According to M. 

 Gaston Tissandier, in La Nature, the flowers 

 sold in Paris are artificially colored by plac- 

 ing the stems in water containing an aniline 

 dye of the tint desired. 



Mr. Smee, of the Gresham Insurance 

 Company, is credited with having declared 

 that the company has paid out during the 

 past two years, on account of deaths caused 

 directly by influenza, two and a half times as 

 much as it paid in forty-three years for 

 deaths by cholera. 



An exhibition of weeds at the World's 

 Columbian Exhibition is projected by Prof. 

 Byron D. Halsted, who suggests that each 

 person assisting secure at least three speci- 

 mens each of the worst weeds in his State or 

 section. Regard should be had, in collecting 

 them to the seeds, which are especially de- 

 sired ; seedlings in various states of develop- 

 ment ; the root system ; the flower and flower 

 cluster ; and the seed-vessel. To avoid un- 

 necessary duplication, persons designing to 

 collect for this enterprise are invited to com- 

 municate with Prof. Halsted at the State 

 Experiment Station, New Brunswick, N. J., 

 when their work will be arranged for them. 



A curious custom is described by Dr. J. C. 

 Evans as having prevailed at Oakham, Rut- 

 landshire, England, by which a horseshoe, or 

 payment in lieu thereof, was exacted from 

 every peer passing through the town. The 

 author exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries 

 an iron horseshoe of super-equine dimensions, 

 which had been deposited in the hall at Oak- 

 ham in 1693, by Richard Cumberland, Bishop 

 of Peterborough. 



OBITUARY NOTE. 



Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp, a famous 

 German chemist, died at Heidelberg, Febru- 

 ary 20th, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. 

 He joined Liebig in 1813 at Giessen, where 

 he labored for nearly twenty-five years ; be- 

 came a privat-docent in the university in 

 1841, an extraordinary prof essor in 1843, and 

 an ordinary professor in 1853 ; and was called 

 to Heidelberg in 1864, where he remained 

 till his death. His specialty was physical 

 chemistry. 



