POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



sertion of that principle of expansion which 

 is a law of nature : in other words, it is nat- 

 ural that all classes and all persons should 

 strive to be heard in matters of moment to 

 the entire community. This being, then, the 

 course which events must take, and which 

 it is even desirable that they should take, 

 we must prepare for the changes it will un- 

 avoidably bring about. This must be done 

 in two practical ways: 1. By making the 

 change easier, and this will be done by 

 certain alterations in the laws of bequest 

 and inheritance ; and, 2. By making due pro- 

 vision for the new order of things by re- 

 forming middle-class education. The state 

 (of which Mr. Arnold accepts Burke's defi- 

 nition, the nation in its corporate and col- 

 lective character) is to found schools for 

 the middle classes resembling those French 

 lycees which have made the middle classes 

 in France so superior to the same classes 

 in England, rather than the " classical and 

 commercial academies " whose advertise- 

 ments crowd the newspaper columns ; and 

 the purpose to keep in view in the bestowal 

 of that education is the awakening of a 

 wider sympathy and a greater tolerance 

 than have hitherto marked the English 

 middle classes. Tlney are to be delivered 

 at once from " narrow Biblism " and from 

 " immense ennui." For the rest, Mr. Ar- 

 nold points out how democracy, instead of 

 being, as it might be, the salvation of the 

 race, may be the end of progress if, in the 

 new conditions, the ideals of life and con- 

 duct are less high and less beautiful than 

 of old, and if the arts and other refining in- 

 fluences not bearing immediately on prac- 

 tical life be suffered to fall into disuse and 

 dishonor. 



The Argan-Tree of Southwestern Ma- 

 roceo. Dr. Hooker gives a full and very in- 

 teresting account of this tree in his " Jour- 

 nal of a Tour in Marocco." It is found 

 on a strip of land about forty miles wide 

 which extends along the coast some two 

 hundred miles. " It is absolutely unknown 

 elsewhere in the world." This tree was 

 first described about the year 1510, by Leo 

 Africanus, who saw it in its native habitat. 

 It is closely allied to the Sideroxylon (iron- 

 wood), a tropical genus. The wood is ex- 

 tremely hard, fine grained, of a yellow col- 



or, and apparently indestructible by insects. 

 It is of slow growth, and occurs on sandy 

 soils, and on barren hills, where irrigation 

 is impossible. Not far from Mogador is a 

 large specimen, probably three hundred 

 years old. It measures twenty-six feet in 

 girth. Three immense branches extend 

 from the trunk at only three feet from 

 the ground, one of which rests on the 

 ground and measures eleven feet in circum- 

 ference. The spread of the branches cov- 

 ers an area seventy feet across. The tree 

 attains only a very moderate height. As 

 the trees throw out branches near the 

 ground, goats frequently climb them to ob- 

 tain the oily fruit which they bear. Dr. 

 Hooker observes that he had not been ac- 

 customed to consider the goat an arboreal 

 quadruped. The oil extracted from the 

 nuts is used by the natives for many do- 

 mestic purposes, but has a rank and unpleas- 

 ant flavor, not relished by those unaccus- 

 tomed to it. About fifty tons is annually 

 consumed. The argan-tree is a striking fea- 

 ture of the plains of Southwestern Marocco. 

 It never forms a dense forest, but is distrib- 

 uted in clumps where few other trees are 

 found. 



What Modern Geography intlndes. In 



a memorial addressed by the Council of the 

 London Royal Geographical Society to the 

 Vice-Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge 

 Universities, the scope and purpose of geo- 

 graphical purposes are defined in the follow- 

 ing terms : By geography is meant a com- 

 pendious treatment of all the prominent 

 conditions of a cduntry, such as its climate, 

 configuration, minerals, plants, and animals, 

 as well as its human inhabitants ; the latter 

 in respect not only to their race, but also to 

 their present and past history, so far as it 

 is intimately connected with the peculiari- 

 ties of the land they inhabit. A scientific 

 geographer does not confine himself to de- 

 scriptions of separate localities, such as may 

 be found in gazetteers, but he groups simi- 

 lar cases together and draws those generali- 

 zations from them to which the name of 

 "Aspects of Nature" has been given. He 

 studies the mutual balance and restraint of 

 the various forms of vegetation and of ani- 

 mal life under different local conditions, and 

 he gathers evidence from the geographical 



