POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



to be removed from the plant, then placed in 

 wet sand and pulled open, so as to allow the 

 sun and the air to ripen the pollen, which is 

 carefully removed and placed on the finest 

 single blooms. Calceolarias are shy seed- 

 ers, and the most careful hybridization is 

 necessary to insure a crop. Every bloom is 

 examined, and the pollen is taken from the 

 stamens and placed on the pistil. As the 

 operation must be performed when the pol- 

 len is quite ripe, the flowers must be looked 

 through nearly every day to catch each bloom 

 as it comes to maturity. Seed is very diffi- 

 cult to obtain from carnations, and then only 

 in small quantities. The commoner kinds of 

 annuals are grown in masses. The plan of 

 improving stocks of seed is as follows : As 

 soon as the plants are fully in bloom they 

 are carefully examined, and the best and 

 truest in color or shape are marked by placing 

 a stick next to them. "When the seed is ripe 

 they are carefully gathered by themselves, 

 and kept for stock the following year. This 

 is very necessary in case of some annuals, 

 which show a great tendency to revert to the 

 wild state ; at the same time it improves the 

 stocks from year to year. 



Ahi mi i) 11 m in Food - vessels. Opinions 

 still differ with regard to the value of alu- 

 minum for use in food-containing vessels. 

 Messrs. Liibbert and Roscher asserted sev- 

 eral months ago, in a paper on the subject, 

 that aluminum was too readily acted upon by 

 food-substances or other substances used in 

 cooking, for its application in the construc- 

 tion of kitchen utensils to be safe. Prof. 

 Lunge afterward instituted experiments on 

 the subject, from which he concluded that 

 coffee, tea, and beer had practically no action 

 on aluminum, and the action of brandy was 

 very slight; while that of acids and acid 

 liquids (wine, sour milk, and fruit juices) was 

 more pronounced, but still too slight to cause 

 alarm. Taking the worst case, that of acetic 

 acid, this author found a maximum attack of 

 five milligrammes per one hundred square 

 centimetres in six days ; so that a given ves- 

 sel, kept always full, would be reduced to 

 half its original weight [in fifty-five years. 

 This, he holds, is too trifling an action to be 

 considered. There is no danger of any in- 

 jurious action upon the human body by alu- 

 minum compounds, which, moreover, are not 



poisonous as compounds of arsenic, mercury, 

 lead, and copper are poisonous. Before they 

 can act injuriously, a quantity will have to 

 be ingested a hundred times larger than he 

 found to be regularly entering the stomach 

 in this way. Finally, he adds, aluminum may 

 be employed without fear for canteens or any 

 other vessels used to hold food, at least at 

 ordinary temperatures. Against these con- 

 clusions is a report on the authority of the 

 telegraph of a soldier near Nuremberg, Ger- 

 many, who was taken sick after drinking 

 cognac from his aluminum flask. On analy- 

 sis of the brandy it was found to be muddy, 

 and to contain roundish, black particles, which 

 proved to be aluminum and iron. But in this 

 case we had not simple corrosion of alumi- 

 num by brandy, but galvanic action of the 

 liquor, aluminum, and iron, with resultant 

 corrosion. Further investigation of the sub- 

 ject is needed. 



Photography in Colors. M. G. Lippaman 

 announces that he has perfected a method of 

 photographing in colors which he mentioned 

 to the French Academy of Sciences fourteen 

 months ago, and has exhibited very brilliant 

 spectra which he obtained without the in- 

 terposition of the colored screen. The au- 

 thor claims to have obtained the compound 

 colors of natural objects as well as the natu- 

 ral colors of the spectrum. He exhibits a 

 series of plates representing a window of four 

 colors yellow, green, blue, and red ; a trophy 

 of French and other flags ; a plate of oranges 

 with a red poppy on top ; and a many-colored 

 parrot. The window and the parrot are of 

 dazzling brilliancy. They were photographed 

 with the electric light in ten minutes. M. 

 Lippaman admits that the plates require in 

 practice too long an exposure, and that it will 

 be necessary to make them more sensitive. 



Influence of Natural Snrronndings on 

 Hnman Character. Captain F. E. Younghus- 

 band makes a remark in one of his accounts 

 of central Asiatic exploration, on the influ- 

 ence of the natural surroundings on the char- 

 acter of the people of a country. " It has 

 been my fortune," he says, " to travel in 

 very varied descriptions of country in the 

 dense, gloomy forests of Manchuria ; over the 

 bounding grassy steppes of Mongolia ; across 

 the desolate wastes of the Desert of Gobi ; 



