68 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the different strata of crania in the burial places. The general 

 extent of this Slavonization of Germany is indicated upon our large 

 double-page map of brunette types. The wedge of color which 

 seems to follow down the Oder and over nearly to Holstein is un- 

 doubtedly of such origin. Because of this historic movement Sax- 

 ony, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg are less purely Teutonic than 

 they once were in respect of pigmentation. The whole east is, as we 

 have already seen, broader-headed, shading off imperceptibly into the 

 countries where pure Slavic languages are in daily use. Thus the 

 contrast in customs and traditions between the eastern and western 

 Germans, which historians since Caesar have commented upon, seems 

 to have an ethnic basis of fact upon which to rest. 



We have now studied the Teutons at home and in their wander- 

 ings on the mainland. In our next article we shall see how pro- 

 foundly they have modified the ethnic complexion of the British 

 Isles. Then we shall be prepared to see how much truth there is in 

 the theory, boldly proclaimed as a proved fact, that they were the 

 original Aryan inventors of European civilization, as well as the 

 chosen agents for its dissemination. 



BURS AND BEGGAR'S-TICKS. 



By SPENCEB TEOTTEE, 



PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA. 



MY setter comes out of the underwoods, after one of his incur- 

 sive rambles, garnished with strings of green " stickers " and 

 with harsh, brown burs clinging tenaciously to the long, feathery 

 hairs of his tail and about his legs and ears. I have kept in the 

 narrow path to avoid these pests of the autumn woods only to find 

 that they have laid fast hold upon my clothes when by some unwit- 

 ting step I brushed against the border tangle. In picking them 

 off I notice their curious forms and the fact that they are not all 

 alike. Here are some slender darts that seem to hold by barbed 

 heads; there a row of flattened pods clinging by their whole surface; 

 while numberless tiny brown burs are gathered in groups or scat- 

 tered promiscuously about trouser legs and coat skirt. 



It is strange how an interest is suddenly awakened about the most 

 commonplace objects in life. We move for years among old, familiar 

 things without giving them a passing thought, when all at once some 

 subtle spell is cast about them, and they become vested with a charm- 

 ing interest. I have tramped many times through autumn woods and 

 picked off the " stickers " with no good will, but to-day they strike 



