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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Never, however, waste time in ever- 

 green woods or in any places that have 

 recently been burned, but look under 

 the bark or decaying logs, under the 

 logs themselves, under fallen leaves, 

 loose bark on the grass and all sticks. 

 You may find shells on stones or leaves, 

 or walking on some log, stone, stick or 

 leaf. Where the earth is very rich near 

 a tree, gather some in your skimmer 

 and in the fine stuff that falls through 

 you will find many minute shells. This 

 earth mould can be taken home and 

 dried and picked over when you have 

 time. Be sure to put the name of the 

 locality and the date in with each lot 

 of shells or earth mould you take, as 

 both will be important factors when 

 you begin to name your specimens and 

 in the collection. I also have found it 

 wise to state where the specimen was 

 found, whether on the bark or under a 

 leaf or elsewhere. 



In case you would like to collect 

 shells but do not want to keep them 

 alive, I can tell you a little about clean- 

 ing them. The way in which I clean 

 single shells is to put them in boiling 

 water for a few moments until they 

 pull easily. To "pull" or remove the 

 animal, all you need to do is to take 

 hold of it with a pin or a pair of forceps 

 and it will come out readily if it has 

 been cooked enough. As the liver is 

 at the tip end of the shell the animal 

 should be pulled carefully so as not to 

 break that organ. Two minutes is the 

 very longest time that one should ever 

 cook a shell. I have never cooked one 

 for more than a minute. Large marine 

 shells require more cooking. If there 

 is a horny door (operculum) on the 

 animal, this must be detached and put 

 in the opening of the shell and kept in 

 place with raw cotton. Any univalve 

 that is too small to be pulled may be 

 dropped in alcohol for a few days, and 

 then the animal will be so saturated 

 with alcohol that it will dry up without 

 smelling. All bivalves (two shells 

 united like those of a clam) may be 

 cleaned by putting them in boiling 

 water until they gape, when the mus- 

 cles may be cut and the animal re- 

 moved. The shells must be closed to- 

 gether again and tied until they are 

 perfectly dry. I usually leave mine 

 for at least a week. With each speci- 

 men write a label with the locality, the 



date of collection, on what it was 

 found or under what and by whom. 

 Then the shell may be placed with 

 others until it can be named and put 

 in the collection. 



When a Century Plant Could Attract a 

 Crowd. 



Times have changed in the last sixty 

 years. The hum of the moving picture 

 machine and the whir of the limousine 

 are heard everywhere. Think nowadays 

 of offering as a startling attraction a 

 century plant, no matter how large, 

 with tickets at twenty-five cents apiece. 

 Possibly some would even now go to 

 see it. Through the courtesy of Air. 

 H. E- Deats of Flemington, New Jersey, 

 we have been favored with a handbill 

 making an announcement of the kind 

 at Ogdensburg, New York, in 1856. Mr.. 

 Deats writes, "May be a subject for a 

 sermon." There surely is a sermon in 

 that handbill, but it must be so evident 

 to every appreciative reader of The 

 Guide to Nature that we will leave 

 each one to preach it for himself. The 

 editor wrote to several elderly residents 

 of Ogdensburg for information in re- 

 gard to the exhibition, and several re- 

 port that the family that had the plant 

 is now extinct. Perhaps the most in- 

 teresting information on the subject 

 came from Louis Hasbrouck. He 

 writes that he was sixteen years old 

 at the time and says : 



"Mr. Henry Van Rensselear had a 

 large greenhouse attached to his resi- 

 dence and in it was a century plant. 

 When it was ready to bloom, Mr. Van 

 Rensselear gave public notice that if 

 any of the citizens of Ogdensburg de- 

 sired to see it, they might come up to 

 his place and examine it. Some of my 

 relatives took me, but all that I remem- 

 ber about it is that it was very large 

 and reached to the roof of the building - . 

 I can tell you nothing more than this 

 about the looks of the flower or of the 

 plant- Mr. Van Rensselear's place was- 

 burned down a few years afterwards, 

 and he removed to New York and prob- 

 ably some of his descendants are living 

 in that city now. One of his sons be- 

 came a Jesuit priest and was attached 

 to a mission in New York. I have 

 never heard of his death ; probably you 

 can learn what became of him. A few- 

 years ago I spent the winter in Cali- 



