FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



429 



ThQ flowering panicle or pole is a huge in- 

 florescence sent up from the heart of the 

 plant. It is fifteen to twenty feet high, and 

 sometimes higher. From the base, which 

 is about four inches in diameter, it gradually 

 tapers upward into a fine, slender rod. The 

 branches carry numerous greenish-yellow 

 flowers, giving the whole a candelabral char- 

 acter. In Agave skalana the flowers are sel- 

 dom followed by seed pods ; exceptionally, 

 one or two may be produced. When the 

 flowers have fallen off, at the ends of the 

 branches in the axils near the flower scar 

 there are produced numerous small bulbels, 

 which eventuall/ develop into plantlets of 

 considerable size. These are locally called 

 " pole plants," and the sisal plant is capable 

 of being abundantly propagated, either by 

 means of the "pole plants" or "root suck- 

 ers," the latter of which, however, are pre- 

 ferred by the planters. 



The. Toba Lake.— The most striking fea- 

 ture of the Batak tableland of Sumatra is 

 the great sheet of water known as the Toba 

 Lake, of which, though only as a name, 

 geographers have been cognizant for more 

 than a century. It lies, according to Baron 

 Anatole von Hugel, about twenty-five hun- 

 dred feet above the sea ; and, trending from 

 the southwest to the northeast, has a length 

 of about fifty miles, with an average breadth 

 of sixteen miles. It is oblong in shape, and 

 has a considerably indented coast line. The 

 natives call it by two distinct names ; for 

 the central third of its length is so blocked 

 by a large and populous island as to divide 

 it into two basins. The island consists of a 

 compact mountain range of gentle contour, 

 attaining its greatest height at fifty-two hun- 

 dred feet. Of the narrow channels which 

 separate this island from tlie mainland, one 

 is navigable at all times, while the other is 

 so shallow as to be fordable on foot when 

 the water is low. The lake has a consider- 

 able outflow, which, after a short course, 

 forms a respectable waterfall, and eventu- 

 ally joins the sea. No river, however, flows 

 into the lake; and the insignificant rivulets 

 and brooks that run down its steep shores 

 are the only visible streams that feed its 

 wide waters — a large expanse, indeed, con- 

 sidering that its water-surface area is three 

 times that of the Lake of Constance. The 



frequent and regular changes in the hue of 

 the lake are a peculiarity worth mention- 

 ing. " Of a morning, the surface being then 

 mostly unruffled, it appears of a fine dark 

 blue, which changes to a greenish tint along 

 the shores ; by noon it is of a leaden gray ; 

 and of an afternoon it is whitened with 

 foam by a fierce wind, which here blows 

 with strange regularity." 



The Professional Criminal. — In a recent 

 article in Blackwood's Magazine Mr. Ander- 

 son discusses the appropriate treatment by 

 the state of the professional criminal, and 

 the ineffectiveness of the present system. 

 In speaking of the sentencing of a criminal 

 of this class, who had previously spent sev- 

 eral terms in the penitentiary, to five years' 

 penal servitude, he says : " But have the in- 

 terests of the community been adequately 

 safeguarded in this case ? It may perhaps 

 be urged that such a sentence will be inade- 

 quate in deterring others from committing 

 burglaries. But what others ? People talk 

 as though the masses of the population were 

 kept from crime only by its penalties. As a 

 matter of fact, ci-imes of this kind ('bur- 

 glaries') are the work of professionals. 

 Here, then, is a class of men who have de- 

 liberately outlawed themselves. They have 

 had warning after warning, but on each oc- 

 casion have returned to their evil courses, 

 and now, having been once again brought to 

 justice, the state shuts them up for a few 

 years, and at the end of that time they are 

 to be let loose on society once more to per- 

 petrate a new series of crimes." To illus- 

 trate the absurdity of such a proceeding, Mr. 

 Anderson suggests a comparison: If game 

 preserves were being destroyed by a fox, 

 and carefully arranged traps were set at con- 

 siderable expense to catch him, it would be 

 considered a trifle short-sighted if, after cap- 

 turing and caging the fox for a time, he 

 were again set free, and the same process 

 gone through with at varying intervals for 

 the rest of the fox's life; and yet this is 

 substantially the process which is pursued 

 by the state with the professional criminal. 

 Most of his class are as hopeless, so far as 

 individual reform is concerned, as is the fox. 

 The whole trend of modern criminology 

 points toward the conclusion that he is a 

 criminal through nature, and is as much of 



