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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



at last the queen escaped without having 

 completed her work. Thus the workers 

 knew how to advise the queen that some- 

 thing was as yet to be done, but they knew 

 not how to show her where it had to be 

 done. In the same hive there appeared to 

 be two political parties among the workers, 

 dissenting about the construction of the 

 combs, one destroying what the other had 

 begun to build. 



The Western Grasshopper Plague.— A 



lady correspondent of a Western journal 

 gives the most graphic description we have 

 anywhere seen of the annoyance and dis- 

 comfort caused by the grasshoppers during 

 their recent invasion of some of the "Western 

 States and Territories. Writing from North- 

 eastern Kansas, under date of August 5th, 

 the correspondent states that then the grass- 

 hoppers were flying all around, and alight- 

 ing on every thing, pelting against doors 

 and windows as fast as hailstones ever came. 

 It was scarcely possible to see through a 

 screen door, on account of the insects 

 swarming on the netting. Out-of-doors, 

 the appearance was as though a severe 

 snow-storm were raging, the wings of the 

 flying grasshoppers looking white like flakes 

 of snow. " They destroy every thing they 

 alight on ; every tree and shrub is covered 

 with them. You know we read of Pha- 

 raoh's plague, where the insects got into 

 the kneading-trough. I think this is one 

 of them. I went out by the door to try and 

 drive them off, and they flew all over me, 

 and I had to change my dress to get rid of 

 them. Instead of having rain, we are hav- 

 ing showers of grasshoppers. Our six win- 

 dows are completely covered with them, 

 and as I write they are pouring down the 

 chimney, and coming down the stove-pipe." 



The Flora of tlie Black Dills.— General 



Custer, in a dispatch dated August 2d, 

 graphically describes the botanical wonders 

 of the Black Hills country, Dakota. Of 

 " Floral Valley " he says that it surpasses 

 in its display of flowers any public or pri- 

 vate park he had ever seen. Every step of 

 the march up that valley was amid flowers 

 of the most exquisite colors and perfume. 

 So luxuriant in growth were they that the 

 troopers plucked them without dismounting. 



At one of the halting-places, General For- 

 syth plucked, choosing at random, seventeen 

 beautiful flowers, of different species, and 

 within a space of twenty feet square. The 

 same evening, while seated at the mess- 

 table, an oflScer called attention to the car- 

 pet of flowers under foot, and the question 

 arose, how many different species could be 

 plucked by the company without leaving 

 their seats at table. Seven beautiful va- 

 rieties were thus gathered. Prof. Donald- 

 son, botanist of the expedition, estimated 

 the number of flowers in bloom in Floral 

 Valley at fifty, while an equal number of 

 varieties had bloomed or were yet to bloom. 

 The number of trees, shrubs, and grasses, 

 was twenty-five, making the total flora of 

 this valley embrace 125 species. Through 

 this beautiful valley meanders a stream of 

 crystal water, so cold as to render ice unde- 

 sirable, even at noonday. The temperature 

 of two of the many springs found flowing 

 into it was ascertained to be 44° and 44^° 

 respectively. 



An Interniitional Pharmacopoeia. — In 



the American Journal of Pharmacy for 

 July 1st, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, of Philadel- 

 phia, calls attention to the serious disagree- 

 ments existing between the British and 

 United States Pharmacopoeias ; and strongly 

 advocates the adoption of some measures 

 by which the two books may be brought 

 into greater accord, or, better still, fused 

 into a single one. As they stand at present, 

 the terms employed and the formulae used 

 are widely different, so that, while in the 

 other departments of medicine what the 

 student finds in the text-books and oral 

 teaching of one country is common to both, 

 in the department of materia medica, and in 

 pharmacy, the variations and discrepancies 

 could hardly be greater were it a case of 

 two different languages. This condition of 

 things operates as a great annoyance to the 

 physician of one country wishing to practise 

 in the other, and is still more aggravating 

 to the teacher, who is unable to lay down 

 any established rules of guidance beyond the 

 limits of his own country, whereas these 

 rules should be coextensive with the lan- 

 guage. 



Dr. Thomas thinks that the general 

 adoption of the metrical, or some other 



