THE BATTLE OF LIFE AMONG PLANTS. 7S 



Stonyhurst show marked and characteristic disturbances at the corre- 

 sponding points, which, allowing for the difference in longitude, were 

 the very moments of time when the solar disturbances were watched 

 at Sherman. 



The work of the last summer accomplished by the Sherman Astro- 

 nomical Expedition points clearly to the inference that a great national 

 observatory should be established without loss of time, in that posi- 

 tion on the American Continent most favorable to astronomical obser- 

 vation. Sherman is evidently not the place, on account of weather-con- 

 ditions, but some mountain-station must be found adapted for the 

 purpose, far above the fogs and impurities of the sea-level. A tele- 

 scope, the best and largest that scientific resources can furnish, and a 

 corps of observers devoted to the work, must be established on this 

 permanent locality. Then, from this high point, sun, planets, stars, 

 nebulae, comets, and meteors, may be attacked by observers armed 

 with the most effectual scientific weapons, until from the depths of 

 infinite space come answers to some of the great problems that are 

 puzzling the brains of thoughtful students of celestial mysteries. 



A recent writer proposes that the whole civilized world shall con- 

 tribute for a telescope which shall cost 81,000,000. Why should not 

 America contribute enough from her vast resources to possess the 

 most powerful one that can be built, and be the first among the na- 

 tions to bring about great results, and make certainties of what seem 

 now the shadowy possibilities of the future ? 



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THE BATTLE OF LIFE AMONG PLANTS. 



By MAXWELL T. MASTEES, M.D., F. E. S. 



EVERY day, every hour, there is going on around us a veritable 

 death-struggle. It excites little attention. People would be in 

 no hurry to read the telegraphic dispatches concerning it from the seat 

 of war, even if there were any to read. Special correspondents there 

 are, but their letters are appreciated but by a few. Nevertheless, it 

 cannot be said that mankind in general is not interested in the result 

 of the struggle. On the contrary, little as the affair is heeded, it is of 

 very serious import to the human race. Our food-supplies depend on 

 it ; the well-being of our flocks and herds is essentially dependent on 

 it ; the building of our houses, the fabrication of our raiment, are to a 

 large extent contingent on it ; nay, the soil beneath our feet, and the 

 very sky above our heads, are materially, very materially, influenced 

 by the result of the contest of which we are about to speak. Edward 

 Forbes was wont to say that the movement of a periwinkle over a rock 

 might be of greater consequence to the human race than the progress 



