POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



121 



Local Deflections of the Plumb -Line near 

 the Forty-ninth Parallel. By Lieutenant F. V. 

 Greene. 1876. Pp. 13, with Diagram. 



Geological Survey of Alabama, for 1876. By 

 Eugene A. Smith, Ph. D., State Geologist. 

 Montgomery. Pp. 100. 



The Mechanical Engineer. An Address to 

 the Graduating Class of the Stevens Institute of 

 Technology. By R. H. Thurston, A. M., C. E. 

 New York : D. Van Nostrand. 1875. Pp. 34. 



Notes on the Ancient Glaciers of New Zea- 

 land. With Map. By I. C. Russell. 1876. Pp. 12. 



Bulletin of the American GeoCTaphical So- 

 ciety, No. 3. Containing Annual Address of 

 Chief-Justice Daily, delivered January 16, 1S77. 

 Pp. 70. 



Science Lectures at South Kensington : Tech- 

 nical Chemistry. By Prof. Roscoe. London : 

 Macmillan & Co. 1877. Pp. 46. Price, sixpence. 



Dynamics, or Theoretical Mechanics. By 

 J. T. Bottomlpy, M. A., F. R. S. E. New York : 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 142. Price, 75 cts. 



Myelitis of the Anterior Horns, or Spinal 

 Paralysis of the Adult and Child. By E. C. Se- 

 guin, M. D. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 1877. Pp. 120. Price, $1.50. 



Essays on Political Economy. By Frederick 

 Bastiat. English Translation, revised, with 

 Notes, by David A. Wells. New York : G. P. 

 Putnam's Sous. 1877. Pp. 291. Price, $1.25. 



The Cradle of Christ : A Study of Primitive 

 Christianity. By O. B. Frothingham. New 

 York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1877. Pp. 233 

 Price, $1.75. 



The Best Reading. Edited by Frederick B. 

 Perkins. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 1877. Pp. 343. Price, $1.25-$1.75 



The Chemist's Manual ; A Practical Treatise 

 on Chemistry. Bv Henry A. Mott, Jr., E. M., 

 Ph. D. New York: D. Van Nostraud. 1877. 

 Pp. 625. Price, $6. 



Washington Astronomical and Meteorologi- 

 cal Observations, made during the Year 1874, at 

 the United States Naval Observatory. Wash- 

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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Cotton-Cnitnre in Egypt, While the 

 Khedive is taxing to the utmost the re- 

 sources of his dominions iit liis desire to 

 subjugate liis southern neiglibors, lie must 

 regard as little less than providential the re- 

 puted discovery of a new and extraordi- 

 narily-productive species of cotton-plant, 

 the general cultivation of which in the cot- 

 ton-fields of Egypt will, it is said, more 

 than double the present annual product. 

 According to a correspondent of the Lon- 

 don Times, in the autumn of 1873, a Copt 

 living in the upper part of the Delta, at a 

 place called Berket-el-Sab, a station of the 

 Cairo Railway, in the province of Menuf, 

 noticed a plant in a cotton-field wholly dif- 

 ferent from the rest. He collected the pods, 

 separated the seed, and planted it in secret 

 in an. isolated plot of ground. For three 

 years he has carried on the cultivation, and 



now there are said to be from 800 to 1,000 

 pounds in the country, and the seed is sold 

 in the public market. This seed is sold at 

 a price twenty-five or thirty times higher 

 than the common kind. 



Comparing the product of this plant 

 with that of the old, the Times correspond- 

 ent remarks : 



"An ardeb (270 pounds) of ordinary cotton- 

 seed sows on an average eight /e(/ctan (acres), 

 and produces four cantars (100 pounds) of cot- 

 ton in seed that is to say, the cotton with the 

 seed inside it as it comes out of the cotton-pod. 

 Taking this yield as the average, every ardeb 

 planted produces 32 cantars of ginned cotton, 

 and about 24 ardebs of seed. An ardeb of seed 

 of the new species sows, like the other, eieht 

 feddans ; but its yield is more than treble, and 

 has even been stated at fivefold. But my most 

 trustworthy informant only gives ten cantars per 

 feddan, which I may add is the amount taken by 

 one of the leading firms as the basis of their cal- 

 culations as to the efl"ect of the new plant. They 

 add that it is difficult to say exactly what would 

 be the ordinary yield, as all returns hitherto 

 are the result of exceptional culture on a small 

 scale. On this calculation of ten cantars, each 

 ai deb of seed would produce 80 cantars of cot- 

 ton in seed that is to say, over double the 

 amount produced by ordinary seed. At pres- 

 ent prices each ardeb would return about 240 

 in seed and cotton together, instead of 96 as 

 it does now. The new cotton, I am assnred on 

 the best authority, is of good appearance, com- 

 mercially speaking, and quite equal in quality 

 to the ordinary Egyptian cotton. The plant 

 grows in a different manner from the ordinary 

 cotton-plant. It grows to about the height of 

 ten feet, has a straight, vertical stem, without 

 branches, with very few leaves, and is thickly 

 studded with pods. Seventy are said to have 

 been gathered from the first plant discovered. 

 The ordinary cotton is found on a shrub some 

 four to five feet high, with spreading branches. 

 Nearly a yard must be left for air, light, and 

 growing-room between each shrub, whereas the 

 new plant, from the absence of branches, re- 

 quires only half the space." 



Testimonials to Mr. Darwin. On the 



occasion of his sixty-ninth birthday, Mr. 

 Darwin was the recipient of two highly- 

 gratifying testimonials of esteem from sci- 

 entific men in Germany and iu the Nether- 

 lands. From Germany came an album con- 

 taining the photographs of 154 scientific 

 men ; it was inscribed, " Dam Rcformator 

 der Naturgeschichte " (To the Reformer 

 of Natural History). The offering of the 

 Dutch savants also consisted of an album, 

 with photographs of 21*7 of his admirers in 

 the Netherlands. Accompanying the latter 



