MISCELLANY. 



397 



King Docemo toll him that all hi3 chiefs 

 and principal people were most desirous of 

 having their children educated, but they 

 did not want their religious ideas to be in- 

 terfered with. The king's own son was 

 obliged to quit a school under English con- 

 trol, being unwilling to believe in the teach- 

 ers' " mission to enlighten the natives in 

 matters of religion." All the " chiefs and 

 captains of companies " at Cape Coast as- 

 sured Governor Hennessy that " they would 

 give any thing for a good education ; " but 

 their religion must not be interfered with. 

 A few low-caste natives, they said, in hopes 

 of promotion to clerkships and catechist- 

 ship3, would continue to frequent the Eng- 

 lish schools ; but the only result would be 

 " flagrant hypocrisy and idleness." 



The same testimony was given by all 

 the native chiefs whom Mr. Hennessy met. 

 Bey Inca, King of the Small Scarcies, had 

 sent his son to the Portuguese settlements, 

 ts learn Arabic and Portuguese, and he was 

 about sending him now to Senegal, to learn 

 French, and to complete his Arabic. That 

 youth would one day be the ruler of a coun- 

 try on the border of the British settlement 

 of Sierra Leone, and yet he would be igno- 

 rant of the English language a thing deep- 

 ly to be regretted, thought King Inca. 



Purification of Bone-Black. The refined 

 bone-black of commerce is seldom possessed 

 of the qualities usually ascribed to it. Its 

 decolorizing properties are weak, and, be- 

 sides, it always contains sulphate of lime, 

 which dissolves in the liquids to be clari- 

 fied. Herr Griiger, in Dingler's Journal, 

 gives the following process for purifying 

 bone-black : It is to be ground to powder, 

 and then boiled in from four to six times its 

 weight of water, containing 4 or 5 per cent, of 

 carbonate of soda. After standing four days, 

 the water is drawn off, and hot water poured 

 on instead. This having been in turn 

 drawn off, the bone-black is next treated 

 with commercial chlorhydric acid, and 

 again heated. The latter treatment is fol- 

 lowed until the liquid is no longer turbid 

 from the presence of ammonia. The amount 

 of acid to be used i3 much greater than is 

 commonly supposed. The next step i3 to 

 wash with common water, to filter with dis- 

 tilled water, and to dry the bone-black at a 



temperature of from 212 to 248 Fahr. 

 One hundred parts of crude bone-black yield 

 20 parts refined. The product i3 a light 

 powder, very fine, with intense decolorizing 

 power, and but a small quantity need be 

 used to produce the required effect. 



The Mistletoe. The following, over the 

 signature of R. W. Newberry, occurs in 

 the New York World: "About last Christ- 

 mas-time I noticed on two occasions in the 

 World that the existence of the ' mistletoe ' 

 in this country was doubted. I knew of its 

 existence, but didn't want to make the as- 

 sertion till I had the proof, which I enclose 

 herewith. I found it on Staten Island many 

 years ago growing on pepperidge-trees. In 

 Maryland it affects the same tree, and also 

 the oak. There is plenty in Virginia, and 

 the specimen I send you was collected from 

 a persimmon-tree at the Bangle Gold-Mine, 

 near Concord, Cabarrus County, N. C, which 

 place I had occasion to visit last week. The 

 number of days it has been gathered and 

 the journey have rather spoiled the sam- 

 ple." 



Prof. S. Lockwood says that the false, 

 or American Mistletoe, used to be found 

 on the Nyssa multiflora, the pepperidge, or 

 gum-tree, in Mercer County, N. J., which 

 probably is its northern limit in the East- 

 ern States. But this is not the true mistle- 

 toe of Europe, which belongs to the genus 

 Viscum. The American parasite is the 

 Phoradcndron jlavescens. It infests a num- 

 ber of the deciduous trees, and almost cov- 

 ers some of the oak-trees in Plaquemine 

 Parish, La. The professor says that he re- 

 ceived specimens in full bloom, last Janu- 

 ary, from that locality. 



The statements of the Torrcy Botanical 

 Club, in regard to certain illusions concern- 

 ing the English mistletoe, will be interesting 

 in this connection. The idea that the Eng- 

 lish plant is limited to the oak is an error, it 

 being believed that it is not to be found on 

 more than three oak-trees in all Great Brit- 

 ain. There are but few people in England 

 that have seen it grow at all, and they have 

 generally found it on the apple and wild- 

 crab trees. And yet, as a decoration, with 

 holly, ivy, and laurel, it abounds at Christ- 

 mas, and is bought with these plants at two- 

 pence a bunch. This genuine English mis- 



