THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



141 



Centipede and Young. 



BY H. STUART DOVE, WEST DAVENPORT, 

 T A S M A N I A, A U ST R A L I A . 



In December last (midsummer with 

 us in Tasmania), while splitting" some 

 partly deca\ed gum logs on my land, I 

 exposed to light, in a niche in the wood, 

 a large greenish centipede, about three 

 inches in length, curled round about 

 twenty young ones. The young were 

 each nearly one-half inch long, whitish, 

 almost transparent and delicate in ap- 

 pearance. The mother would not de- 

 sert them in spite of the uneasiness 

 caused by the sudden exposure of her 

 home to the strong sunlight. The shock 

 of the axe having caused a partial dis- 

 persal, she gathered them again as well 

 as she could and curled snugly around 

 them. I thought this was so fine an in- 

 stance of maternal care under untoward 

 circumstances, that I gathered the fam- 

 ily on their piece of gum log and placed 

 them under shelter where they could ma- 

 ture and be undisturbed. 



Strange Vegetation of the Sea. 



BY MAME BUXTOX, REDONDO BEACH, CALI- 

 FORNIA. 



Msitors to the beaches of Southern 

 California view with wonder and sur- 

 prise the strange marine vegetation that 

 is washed up on the shore by the fury of 

 the waves during a storm. While there 



are many beautiful and curious speci- 

 mens of seaweed the giant kelp is the 

 most wonderful. Its striking peculiarity 

 is the bulb or air sack that gives the plant 

 sufficient bouyancy to float on the surface 

 of the water. The foliage, resembling 

 antlers, grows out of the top of the bulb, 

 and the plant is anchored to the rocks at 

 the bottom of the sea by a cord-like ap- 

 pendage that is sometimes 300 feet long. 

 It is said to be the longest plant in the 

 Avorld. The growth of the kelp is some- 

 times so extensive as to form a natural 

 breakwater, and sometimes endangers 

 navigation. 



The value of kelp as a fertilizer has 

 led to investigations by the Department 

 of Agriculture with the view to arous- 

 ing interest in the commercial possibili- 

 ties. Germany has furnished the potash 

 used in the United States, and now that 

 the supply is cut off doubtless manufac- 

 turies will soon be erected along the Paci- 

 fic coast for the production of potash from 

 these plants, as well as iodine. The kelp 

 is sometimes used medicinally in glandu- 

 lar aft'ections on account of the iodine it 

 contains. 



"The man who tamed the blueberry, 

 Frederick V. Coville, has been trying 

 his hand at the still wilder Mayflower. 

 He reports that the two plants are much 

 alike in their requirements, since each 

 demands a "sour" soil that has never 

 been treated with lime, manure or 

 chemical fertilizer. The fruit of the Mav- 

 flower is a small edible berry not unlike 

 that of the wild strawberry, but much 

 smaller, and ripening about the same 

 time. This must be collected by search- 

 ing under the leaves in June' or July, 

 and promptly sown in a mixture of one 

 part clean sand with two parts upland 

 peat, preferably from laurel thickets. 

 The young plants are repotted from 

 time to time, and after exposure to win- 

 ter cold are ready to bloom the next 

 spring. Under cultivation the blossoms 

 are much finer than in the wild state. 



THE GIAXT KELP IS THE MOST WONDER- 

 FUL OF SEAWEEDS. 



A recent German authority main- 

 tains that the irritant of the nettle is 

 not. as has commonly been supposed, 

 formic acid, but a substance of at 

 least the general nature of the pro- 

 teins resembling in many respects an 

 ■nzyme. In other words, the poison 

 of the nettle not unlike that of the 

 cobra and rattlesnake. 



