X 



THE GUIDE To NATURE 



bined with Louis -Vgassiz's scholarly 

 ideas, and transforniiug- the old panic 

 idea into thoughts of love, then we shall 

 be glad to receive it. 



ArcAdiA, therefore, with its own par- 

 ticular spelling, means this particular 

 Institution at Sound IJeach. The insti- 

 tution stands for all the beauty and the 

 happiness of the original Grecian Arca- 

 dia, and, as indicated by the capital A's 

 in its name, has as the beginning, the 

 principal aim and the central point of 

 view — the first and the last, the first and 

 the middle, and the middle and the last — 

 The A A (The Agassiz Association) 

 permeated and threaded into all nature. 



Any correspondent or any publication 

 that uses the name of the Greek Arcadia 

 is using a name that does not apply to us. 

 The old Arcadia has been transformed 

 as the old Saul was transformed into the 

 loving and devoted Paul. 



There is no law, Mr. Editor, applicable 

 to us, or to any of our correspondents, to 

 stop our use of the term ArcAdiA, the 

 headquarters of the world-wide Agassiz 

 Association, situated here at Sound 

 Beach, Connecticut. It is ArcAdiA ; it 

 is not anything else. We spell it with the 

 three capital letters, not to be freakish, 

 but for the reasons that we have given. 

 It has been used for nearly six years. 

 Most newspapers and correspondents 

 have accepted our spelling, but there are 

 some that still say that he should be called 

 Zacharias when we know that his real 

 name is John. 



We often see the necessity of coining 

 a new word to meet a new situation. A 

 man may take two family names, put a 

 hyphen between and a capital letter after 

 the hyphen. In reality it is only one 

 name. 



Two newspapers merge into one and 

 invent a ne\v word, as, for example, 

 "Globe-Telegram" — one word with a 

 capital in the middle of it. 



Coining new words is a well-known 

 pursuit. Take, for example. The Uneeda 

 Biscuit Company. Who gave the Com- 

 pany authority for the nhonetic spelling 

 of you by the letter U? It is generally 

 recognized that they have a right to do 

 that, and the public acknowledges it by 

 buving their wares. 



Originally a certain bird found in the 

 lowlands was called a meadow lark, but 

 all the ornithological books combine the 

 two into one, and the bird is now the 



meadow lark,, with not even a hyphen in 

 its name. 



Previously to the establishing of this 

 institution at Arc/\diA we do not believe 

 that there ever was a similar representa- 

 tive of ideas similar to ours. We do not 

 know of such. A new thought became a 

 practical application, and necessitated a 

 new word. ArcAdiA is such a word ; it 

 it not the transference of an old name 

 used hundreds of years ago, and repre- 

 senting something radically different. 

 From the old. heathen idea of xArcadia, 

 we have taken the good, discarded the 

 objectionable; have added the recogni- 

 tion of the true God. ArcAdiAn, but 

 not pagan. 



An Astonishing Fact Regarding 

 Clover. 



Professor Nobbe of Tharandt, Ger- 

 many, finds that when clover seed is 

 put in water, only about half the seeds 

 germinate. These, he discovers are 

 those which have the thinnest coats. 

 The rest remain dormant indefinitely. 

 But even after a quarter century soak- 

 ing, scratching the surface with a pin 

 point ruptures the resistant skin, and 

 the seed sprouts within a few days. 

 This, apparently, explains why clover, 

 and various well-known weeds, once 

 they get started in a soil, keep on com- 

 ing up year after year, although none 

 are permitted to blossom. 



It is said that lawns, once planted to 

 clover, no matter how closely clipped, 

 will keep on throwing an occasional 

 clover plant for more than a hundred 

 years. 



The so-called "flying spiders" do 

 most of their flying in autumn during 

 the Indian summer. What they really 

 do is to take advantage of the fact that 

 whenever cold nights are followed by 

 sunny days, with the sun low in the 

 sky, every vertical surface of fence, 

 wall, or building exposed to the sun- 

 shine becomes much warmer than the 

 general mass of the air. There forms, 

 therefore, late in the forenoon, against 

 the warm surface, a little ascending 

 current of warm air. The spiders take 

 advantage of this fact, throw out a yard 

 or two of web and are wafted oiY, some- 

 times for miles, till the air cools and 

 drops them in a new place. 



