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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 1933 



SPRING LECTURE COURSE 



BEGINS MARCH 4 



The Fifty-ninth Free Lecture Course to 

 be presented by Field Museum will open on 

 Saturday, March 4, and continue on Satur- 

 day afternoons through March and April. 

 There will be nine lectures on science and 

 travel, illustrated with motion pictures and 

 stereopticon slides. All the lectures will be 

 given in the James Simpson Theatre of the 

 Museum, and will begin at 3 P.M. Follow- 

 ing is the complete schedule of dates, sub- 

 jects, and speakers: 



March 4 — What I Have Discovered in the 

 Arctic and Antarctic 



(By Dog Team, Airplane and Submarine) 

 Captain Sir Hubert Wilkins, F.R.G.S.. New 

 York City 



March 11 — Jungle Trails of the Congo 



Colonel Charles Wellington Furlong, F.R.G.S., 

 Cohasset, Massachusetts 



March 18 — Around the Globe in the Camargo 



Amos O. Burg, Portland, Oregon 



March 25 — The Tarahumara Indians — the 

 Cave Dwellers of Northern Mexico 



Robert M. Zingg, University of Chicago 



April 1 — Land o' Peaks and Sky Blue 

 Waters 



Fred Payne Clatworthy, Estes Park, Colorado 



April 8 — The Canadian Arctic and Its 

 People 



Richard Finnie, F.R.G.S., Ottawa, Canada 

 April 15 — Hunting Whales 



Chester Scott Howland, New Bedford, Massa- 

 chusetts 



April 22— The Utah Fairyland of Bryce 

 Canyon National Park 



Dr. C. O. Schneider, Chicago 



April 29 — Jungle Gods 



Captain Carl von Hoflfman, New York City 



No tickets are necessary for admission 

 to these lectures. A section of the Theatre 

 is reserved for Members of the Museum, 

 each of whom is entitled to two reserved 

 seats on request. Requests for these seats 

 may be made by telephone or in writing 

 to the Museum, in advance of the lecture, 

 and seats will then be held in the Member's 

 name until 3 o'clock on the day of the 

 lecture. Members may obtain seats in the 

 reserved section also by presentation of 

 their membership cards to the Theatre 

 attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture 

 day, even though no advance reservation 

 has been made. All reserved seats not 

 claimed by 3 o'clock will be opened to the 

 general public. 



WILD PINEAPPLES 



By Paul C. Standley 

 Associate Curator of the Herbarium 



Tropical fruits common in the markets 

 of the United States are bananas, pineapples, 

 and the citrus fruits: oranges, grapefruit, and 

 lemons. The only one native to America 

 is the pineapple. Although this fruit is 

 grown throughout the tropics, and the 

 supply for the United States comes from 

 Cuba and the Isle of Pines, and from Hawaii, 

 the plant is a native of Brazil. Before 

 Columbus' time it was probably unknown 

 north of South America. 



Field Museum has received from Roy 

 Carr, of the Ford Industrial Company of 

 Brazil, preserved material of the primeval 

 pineapple plant as it grows wild in the 

 Amazon Valley. This ancestor of the modern 

 cultivated plant is a striking contrast to the 

 huge Cuban pineapples sold in our markets. 

 The two plants are similar in general 

 appearance, but the fruit of the wild plant 



is little larger than a hen's egg, and is too 

 sour and acrid to be eaten with comfort. 



This wild plant is of a smooth-leaved 

 variety, and is of importance as a source 

 of fiber for the making of twine and other 

 articles in which length, strength, and 

 fineness of fibers are desirable. The smooth, 

 silky fiber of some varieties of cultivated 

 pineapple is likewise used in some parts 

 of the world. In Hall 28 there is an exhibit 

 of textiles and laces made of this fiber. 



Pineapples thrive in Florida, and formerly 

 were grown there for the northern market, 

 but it has proved possible to import them 

 at less expense than to grow them domes- 

 tically. A striking reproduction of a fruiting 

 pineapple plant, with its rarely seen blue 

 flowers, is exhibited in the Hall of Plant 

 Life (Hall 29). 



Pineapples were introduced to Europe 

 shortly after Columbus' discovery of 

 America, and they spread thereafter all 

 over the world probably more rapidly than 

 any other introduced plant. 



LIZARDS OF THE CHICAGO AREA 



By Kakl p. Schmidt 

 Assistant Curator of Reptiles 



The scarcity of lizards in the Chicago area 

 has led to the erroneous application of the 

 name to the local salamanders, which are 

 lizard-like in shape but are otherwise very 

 different. They are not reptiles at all, but 

 amphibians. True lizards are typical reptiles. 

 Numerous species inhabit our southern states 

 and many more are found in the southwest, 

 which is one of the great lizard centers of the 

 world. 



In the Chicago area, i.e., within fifty miles 

 of the center of the city, three very distinct 

 kinds of lizards have been found. One of 

 these is the five-lined skink, a shiny-scaled 

 creature with five golden stripes on the black 

 ground color of the back and sides, and a 

 brilliant azure blue tail in the young. This 

 species is abundant in southern Illinois but 

 is rare near Chicago, though it is found some- 

 what farther north. 



In the Indiana dunes we have a more 

 abundant lizard in the six-lined race-runner. 

 It lives in shallow burrows beneath the moss 

 or leaf-mold, coming forth on bright days to 

 capture its insect food and to bask in the 

 sun. This species is our representative of a 

 family of lizards whose variety of form, color 

 and size in a host of species is one of the 

 features of the American tropics. 



Our most remarkable lizard is the all too 

 scarce "glass snake." As its name implies, 

 the glass snake is limbless and, to that degree, 

 snakelike. It is readily distinguishable from 

 all snakes by its evident ear openings and 

 well developed eyelids. The glass snake's 

 tail breaks off with great ease and without 

 serious injury to its owner, for no blood is 

 lost and the tail grows out again in time. In 

 this species the tail is considerably longer 

 than the body, so that a glass snake may 

 actually be broken in two without injury to 

 its vital organs. These facts are only a little 

 less remarkable than the fallacious belief that 

 the glass snake can reassemble its parts after 

 being broken with a stick. 



An unusually handsome specimen of this 

 species was recently found in the territory 

 just south of the dune region of Indiana by 

 Maurice Weil, who presented it to Field 

 Museum of Natural History. 



MARCH GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS 



Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 

 guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 

 afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, 

 Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 

 is the schedule of subjects and dates for 

 March : 



Wednesday, March 1 — Spring Birds; Thursday — 

 General Tour; Friday — Egyptian Burials. 



Week beginning March 6: Monday — Fishes, Past 

 and Present; Tuesday — Minerals; Wednesday — Makers 

 of Totem Poles; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — 

 China and Its Art. 



Week beginning March 1.3: Monday — Primitive 

 Uses of Bark; Tuesday — Musical Instruments; Wed- 

 nesday — Cereals and Their Uses; Thursday — General 

 Tour; Friday — South Seas Exhibits. 



Week beginning March 20: Monday — Primitive 

 African Art; Tuesday — Life in the Far North; Wed- 

 nesday — Prehistoric Life; Thursday — General Tour; 

 Friday — Crystals of Artistic and Economic Value. 



Week beginning March 27: Monday — Animal 

 Habitat Groups; Tuesday — Industrial Models; Wed- 

 nesday — Trees and Wood Products; Thursday — 

 General Tour; Friday — .\rchaeology of South America. 



Persons wishing to participate should 

 apply at North Entrance. Tours are free 

 and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new 

 schedule will appear each month in Field 

 Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services 

 for special tours by parties of ten or more 

 are available free of charge by arrangement 

 with the Director a week in advance. 



Gifts to the Museum 



Following is a list of some of the principal 

 gifts received during the last month: 



From John T. Pirie — a sharp-shinned hawk, Illinois; 

 from Phillip Vainisi — a scorpion, Cuba; from Martin 

 Petersen — an armored catfish, South America; from 

 Dr. S. C. Bishop — a small boa; from Companhia 

 Ford Industrial do Brasil — 21 herbarium specimens 

 with accompanying wood specimens, Brazil; from 

 University of Texas — 110 herbarium specimens, 

 Austin, Texas; from Fritzache Brothers — 75 samples 

 of perfume ingredients; from Crane and Company, 

 Inc. — 16 paper and linen products; from Mrs. Charles 

 W. Dempster — a porcelam ewer and plate, and a 

 gourd teapot, Japan; from Herbert J. Devine — a clay 

 Mgurine of rhinoceros of Han period, China; from Air 

 Reduction Sales Company — a cabinet of eight tubes 

 of rare gases of the atmosphere; from William B. 

 Pitts — 5 specimens wax opal, Nevada; from Allan 

 Caplan — 6 specimens pickeringite and goslarite, 

 Colorado; from H. H. Nininger — 2 photographs of 

 Huizopa meteorite, Colorado; from Hayden Lake 

 Mining and Milling Company — 4 specimens copper 

 ore, Idaho; from Frank von Drasek — 13 specimens 

 minerals, Arkansas; from School of Forestry, Yale 

 University — 46 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from 

 Dr. Roman S. Flores — 8 herbarium specimens, Yucatan , 



NEW MEMBERS 



The following persons were elected to 

 membership in Field Museum during the 

 period from January 17 to February 14: 

 Associate Members 



Dr. E. H. Hohman, Mrs. John H. S. Lee, Mrs. 

 Richard I. Stearns. 



Annual Mentbers 



Mrs. David E. Brainerd, Miss Mary V. Culp, 

 Isak Dahle, M. J. Flynn, Walter E. Fowler, Conrad 

 J. Kalbfell, Mrs. Phillip Miller, Mrs. Bernhard Rosen- 

 berg, Edward F. Schoeneck, Walter H. Schultz, G. 

 Leland Seaton, Mrs. E. H. Siebel, James P. Soper, 

 Jr., Arthur W. Straus, Joseph H. Trausch. 



A large collection of the curious forms of 

 rocks, clays and sands known as concretions 

 is on exhibition in the Department of 

 Geology. 



Museum Library Open to All 



In addition to its assistance rendered to 

 the scientific staff, the Library of Field 

 Museum is open for reference purposes to 

 the general public. Among persons it is 

 now serving regularly are students from 

 universities, representatives of manufac- 

 turing firms and business houses needing 

 specific information, authors engaged in 

 research work, and many others engaged 

 in diverse occupations. 



The fruit of a bush — jaboncillo or soap- 

 berry — is used by certain South American 

 Indians as soap. Specimens of this and 

 other plants of the soapberry family form 

 an exhibit in the Hall of Plant Life. 



PRINTED BV FIELD MUSCUM rRCSB 



