HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GO S SIP. 



called " corolla " ; this is the gaily-coloured and 

 attractive portion of the flower ; its divisions are 

 named "petals." In our next paper, if you do not 

 know these organs, they will be explained in a 

 homeiy, simple manner, so that you cannot after- 

 wards mistake them. 



But in the " spikelet " of the meadow soft grass, 

 now under examination, these organs, although 

 present, are altered so much in appearance that you 

 could not recognize them as the calyx and corolla, 

 or what you would call by that name in flowering 

 plants. Thus, on the outside, at the base, are two 

 small, purplish, boat-shaped, bract-like organs, 

 with three veins running up each ; these correspond 

 to the " calyx" but are called " glumes " ; then next 

 to these are the two "glumellas" or "corolla." 

 The latter are green, therefore easily recognized ; 

 they are also much smaller in size than the glumes, 

 which (glumes) in this grass are almost transparent 

 as a piece of glass, so that the glumellas can be 

 seen through them. The "perianth" mentioned 

 above, is applied to both the calyx and corolla, 

 when it is difficult to distinguish one from the 

 other; thus the glumes and glumellas are the 

 protective organs of the flowers in grasses, or the 

 perianth. Another name applied to the glumella in 

 some botanical works is the " palea." 



In some of the spikelets you will detect both 

 stamens and pistil ; in others only the stamens, or 

 pistil, are present. The stigma, or the upper part 

 of the pistil, is a very pretty, feathery appendage ; 

 also the anthers, or the head of the stamens, 

 containing the pollen, or fertilizing dust, 

 are very elegant, suspended on a most delicate 

 stalk ; but these parts shall be more fully explained 

 shortly. 



I hope in this short lesson we understand some 

 little about the formation of the grass flower, — 

 sufficient to stimulate us to know more, and enough 

 to persuade us that there no real difficulties what- 

 ever to those who are determined to be masters of 

 the subject. It. 



PAPUANS IN AMERICA. 



|_| AVING long taken an interest in American 

 -*-■- archaeology, allow me to call the attention 

 of your readers to traces which I think I have dis- 

 covered of the existence of certain tribes of Papuans 

 in America. This is in itself by no means impro- 

 bable, since there is every reason to believe that 

 both the civilized races and the Californian Indians 

 (at least) were of Polynesian origin, and reached 

 America through the Polynesian archipelagos. 

 We know from Williams, Wallace, Pickering, Earl, 

 &c, that the Papuans were the aborigines of a 



large portion of Western Polynesia, and possessed 

 (at least in Eiji) admirable sea-going canoes ; 

 I am, therefore, justified in suggesting that parties 

 of them extend further to the east, and reached 

 America in early ages through Eastern Polynesia. 

 Dr. Pickering thinks that stories of " black abo- 

 rigines" in America may be referred to Malay 

 Polynesians, but Papuans would answer much more 

 closely to the description. Helps tells us* that 

 the Spaniards, when they first discovered Panama 

 under Vasco Nunez, found a race of black men, 

 supposed to be shipwrecked negroes, in Darien, 

 living distinct from the other races. The Spaniards 

 appear to have allied themselves with them in their 

 contests with the Indians of the country. Some 

 of them built homes in trees as the Papuans and 

 Cambodians do. f In Brazil we find a native tribe 

 of Indians— the Cafutos— still existing, with negroid 

 features and wiry Papuan hair. These people are 

 ignorantly considered to be a cross between negroes 

 and Indians, + but are, I believe, pure Papuans. 

 A singular resemblauce between^the customs of Fiji 

 and the South American Indians is observable in 

 the method of manufacturing an intoxicating drink 

 by chewing. This drink is called " kava " in Poly- 

 nesia. The Yagnas of Brazil have an identical 

 method, thus described by a recent missionary : § — 

 " The process of manufacturing masdta (a drink 

 commonly patronized by the Indians in Ecuador, 

 Nueva Granada, and Venezuela) is certainly not 

 calculated to enhance one's relish for it. A quan- 

 tity of yuca is scraped and thrown into a number 

 of jars, each capable of holding from ten to fifteen 

 gallons, and then a bevy of females — in point of 

 fact, all hands — sit upon the ground and masticate 

 the root, throwing each mouthful into the jars. In 

 three days the milky liquor ferments, has an agreeable 

 acid taste, and, if imbibed in excess, intoxicates." 

 This method exactly agrees with the Fijian one. 

 It seems hardly probable that this singular style 

 of brewing was invented in two distinct localities — 

 i. e. in Polynesia and South America. 



It seems to me evident, from the descriptions 

 given of the black and ferocious Charruas or Char- 

 ruan Indians of Paraguay, whose hand was against 

 every other Indian tribe, and who were finally exter- 

 minated by the President of Uruguay in 1831, that 

 they were also evincing the" peculiar characteristic 

 of the Papuan race — which has proved fatal to 

 them in their contest with the Malays— i. e., that 



* See his "History of Spanish Conquest in America," 

 vol. i. p. 360. 



t Ibid., vol. i. p. 421; also Earl's "Papuans," pp. 53, 115; 

 and Mouhot's " Cambodia," p. 238. 



t See "The Golden Americas," p. 180. Ward & Lock, 

 London. 



$ See Mr. dough's "Journal of Travels on the Amazon," 

 ;n The South American Missionary Magazine, June, 1875, 

 p. 199. 



