POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



*77 



Function of Cypress Knees. The cypress 

 tree (Taxodium disiichum) of the Southern 

 swamps is marked by a peculiar growth of 

 protuberances rising above the soil in the 

 region of the roots, and called knees. The 

 purpose of the knees has not been satisfac- 

 torily determined. They have been regarded 

 by botanists as simply affording a means for 

 securing the aeration of the sap when the 

 roots are too deeply covered with water to 

 permit them to serve that purpose. Mr. 

 Robert H. Lamborn, after examining the 

 trees in the swamps, has come to a diiFerent 

 conclusion. He believes that the knees se- 

 cure a firm hold to the tree in the exceed- 

 ingly loose soil in which it grows. The for- 

 mation of knees is accompanied by roots 

 projecting more or less perpendicularly into 

 the earth. The knee, when fully developed, is 

 generally hollow, comparatively soft, gnarled, 

 and hard to rupture, so that it has the quality 

 of a spring that becomes more rigid as it is 

 extended or compressed out of its normal 

 shape. " When, in a hurricane, the great 

 tree rocks back and forth on its base, and 

 with its immense leverage pulls upon this odd- 

 shaped wooden anchor, instead of straight- 

 ening out in the soft material, as an ordinary 

 root might, thus allowing the tree to lean 

 over and add its weight to the destructive 

 force of the storm, it grips the sand as the 

 bower-anchor would do, and resists every 

 motion. The elasticity at the point of junc- 

 tion allows one after another of the per- 

 pendicular flukes attached to the same shank 

 to come into effective action, so that before 

 being drawn from the sand or ruptured the 

 combined flukes present an enormous resist- 

 ance." The knees, with their sharp tips, 

 may also serve the purpose of catching the 

 drift of plant-food as it floats on the cur- 

 rents of floods, and effecting its deposition. 

 Mr. Lamborn adds, in his articles in Garden 

 and Forest and the American Naturalist, an 

 observation regarding the roots of other 

 trees that trench upon soils affected by the 

 cypress, and often take advantage of the an- 

 chors it sets in treacherous bottoms. They 

 project their cable -like, flexible roots in 

 every direction horizontally, interlacing con- 

 tinually until a fabric is woven on the sur- 

 face of the soft earth like the tangled web of 

 a gigantic basket. Out of this close wicker- 

 work, firmly attached to it, and dependent 



for their support upon its integrity, rise the 

 tree trunks. Thus slowly, and by a com- 

 munity of growth and action, a structure is 

 formed that supplies for each tree a means 

 of resisting the storms. Such communities 

 of trees, provided with ordinary roots, ad- 

 vance against and overcome enemies where 

 singly they would perish in the conflict. 



The Chigger. Dr. H. M. Whelpley has 

 published two papers on the chigger (Leptus 

 irritans), an insect which is very troublesome 

 to blackberry-pickers in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley. It has no relation to the chigoe (Pulex 

 penetrans) of South America, which resem- 

 bles the fleas, while this insect is like the 

 ticks. It is found in the Eastern and South- 

 ern States as well as in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley, but has not been reported north of the 

 fortieth degree of latitude, and does not 

 seem to thrive in the far West. Besides 

 human beings, it attacks the house-fly and 

 is very troublesome to young fowls, where 

 the parasites collect in lumps as large as 

 a pin, and cause death, with the symptoms 

 of poisoning by strychnine. Some persons 

 are more susceptible to its attacks than 

 others. Some specimens of the insect are 

 almost transparent, but they all become 

 darker in color as they become gorged with 

 blood. Several remedies are prescribed for 

 the living chiggers and for the sores they 

 cause. Among them are kerosene and spir- 

 its of camphor. 



Malays and Negritos of Malacca. In his 



account before the Anthropological Institute 

 of the races of the Straits Settlement (Ma- 

 lacca), Mr. Swettenham, of the Settlement's 

 Civil Service, assumed that the Malays are 

 not indigenous to the peninsula ; but the 

 exact place of their origin has not been es- 

 tablished. According to their own tradi- 

 tions, they are of supernatural origin, and 

 crossed over from Sumatra. Until about 

 a. d. 1250 they were pagans or Hindooists, 

 but near that time they came under the in- 

 fluence of Mohammedanism. The Perso- 

 Arabian characters were introduced then, 

 while the language had not previously been 

 written. Relics of Hindoo superstition still 

 exist among the Malays and Negritos of the 

 peninsula, and customs that savor strongly 

 of devil-worship. The author would classify 



