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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



able to use their specific gravity as a ful- 

 cium, by means of wliich they present their 

 bodies and outstretched wings and tails at 

 various angles to the wind, and literally sail. 

 How often when becalmed on southern seas, 

 when not a breath of air was stirring, have I 

 seen the albatross, the petrel, and the Cape- 

 pigeon, resting on the water, or rising with 

 difficulty, and only by the constant action 

 of their long wings able to fly at all ! But 

 when a breeze sprang up they were all life 

 and motion, wheeling in graceful circles, 

 now presenting one side, now the other to 

 view, descending rapidly with the wind, and 

 so gaining velocity to turn and rise up again 

 against it. Then, as the breeze freshened 

 to a gale, the petrels darted about .... 

 poising themselves upon the wind with as 

 little effort as a man balances himself upon 

 his feet." 



An Aged Pelican. — Land and Water con- 

 tains an interesting " obituary notice " of 

 Jack the Pelican, for upward of forty years 

 an inhabitant of the Dublin Zoological Gar- 

 dens. This tine specimen of the genus An- 

 ser was presented to the gardens in 1831, 

 being then full grown, and supposed to be 

 seven or eight years old. Jack was gen- 

 erally about the first specimen which was 

 introduced, or rather introduced himself, to 

 the notice of visitors, as he was seldom shut 

 up in a cage, but walked or waddled about 

 where he pleased. He usually treated stran- 

 gers with sovereign contempt, hardly deign- 

 ing to get out of their road; but when 

 seized, and his beak opened to show his cu- 

 rious little cleft tongue, which lay at the 

 bottom of the pouch, under the bill, his eye, 

 usually a splendid ruby, or rather carbuncle 

 color, got red as a coal, with anger, at the 

 indignity. His plumage was always in the 

 most beautiful order and the most brilliant 

 white, except about the head, where the 

 soft, downy hackles assumed a pinky hue. 

 Curiously enough, he never went into the 

 water, except occasionally for the purposes 

 of ablution, when he would duck and wash 

 himself all over; then, returning to land, 

 squeeze the water out of his feathers with 

 his bill, and stand in the sun to dry. But 

 he never seemed to swim for pleasure or to 

 fish, in which respect he differed from the 

 three junior members of his tribe, also 



locked up in the gardens. Another pecu- 

 liarity of his was that he would never touch 

 any food but fish. The others soon learned 

 to eat and relish horse-flesh on occasion, but 

 Jack stood out stanchly, and fish, and fish 

 only, he would have, at whatever cost, all 

 attempts at deceiving him being in vain. 

 Jack knew his friends and enemies well, 

 and when he first came, and until the death 

 of his original owner, a Mr. Egan, it was 

 absurd to see the way he attached himself 

 to that gentleman, running to meet him at 

 the gate, and never leaving his side. For 

 some time before his death he subsided on 

 a stimulating diet of live eels and whiskey- 

 punch. 



Species of Dicotyledonons Plants. — The 



number of that great section of flowering 

 plants which, when the seed sprouts, give 

 off" two ledons, or embryonal leaves, is shown 

 in the " Prodromus " of De CandoUe, re- 

 cently finished in seventeen volumes, to be 

 very large. Not counting the emiuent men 

 that have given earnest work on it as spe- 

 cialists, it has had the conduct of three 

 generations of De CandoUes, the grandfather, 

 Augustin, who dying bequeathed it to his 

 son Alphonse, who in like manner left it to 

 his son Casimir. The first and the second 

 wrought together for years, as did also the 

 second and the third. The work describes 

 5,134 genera and 58,9V5 si)ecies, which is 

 probably not more than one-half the num- 

 ber of species of dicotyledonous plants ex- 

 isting. The principal natural orders de- 

 scribed are : 



Genera. Species. 



Composite 911 8,561 



Leguminosa? .' 283 8,863 



Eubiaceas 225 1.888 



Euphorbiaceje 191 3,272 



Scrophulariaceje 176 1,879 



Umbelliferfe 160 1.016 



Acanthacege 154 1,481 



Asclepiadaceae 134 1.013 



Labiatae 122 2,401 



Cruciferse 100 '.88 



Solanaceae 65 1,725 



The most numerous genera are as fol- 

 lows : 



Species. 



Solanum 915 



Euphorbia 751 



Senecio 601 



Croton 461 



Phyllanthus 447 



Erica 429 



Salvia 410 



Peperomia 389 



