76 



THE PLANT WORLD. 



Baron von Mueller in 1854, and figured in 

 his beautiful "Eucalyptographia," Decade 

 V. 



In the accompanying cut, Fig. i rep- 

 resents the fossil leaf, and Fig. 2 one of 

 the leaves of E. largijiorens^ having ap- 

 proximately the same size and shape as 

 the fossil one, copied from the plate ac- 

 companying the description given in the 

 work already referred to. The substan- 

 tial identity of the nervation is apparent 

 at a glance. 



At the present day the genus Euca- 

 lyptus is found native only in Australia 

 and the Indian Archipelago, but in this 

 fossil leaf we have another link in an al- 

 ready long chain of evidence which goes 

 to prove that the genus has had a long 

 history, and was widely distributed over 

 the globe in Cretaceous and Tertiary time, 

 millions of years before man made his i^ 

 appearance. 



I have verified the fact that the Sensitive Briar ( Schrankia ) will 

 close its leaves if one stamps on the ground near it, but without touch- 

 ing it, whether from the current of air or dust or from the jar commu- 

 nicated through the ground I could not determine. I also observed 

 that the wind does not seem to affect the plant; but if you hold your 

 face near it or blow on it even very gently with your breath its leave? 

 will close instantly. — J. M. Milligan, Kerr County^ Texas. 



" Columbus found cotton growing abundantly in the West Indies 

 in 1492. He and other explorers found it equally abundant upon the 

 mainland of the New World, and found the inhabitants of those coun- 

 tries using its fibre for the weaving of cloth, and showing considerable 

 skill in its manipulation. Cortez found cotton in Mexico in 15 19; he 

 gathered it and used the wool to stuff the jackets of his soldiers to 

 enable them to resist the arrows of the natives. Cotton was the chief 

 article of clothing among the Mexicans, as they had neither wool nor 

 silk, and did not use flax, although they possessed that plant. They 

 made large webs from cotton fibres spun into yarn, as delicate and as 

 fine as those made in Holland at that date." — R. B. Handy., in " The 

 Cotton Plaiit. " 



