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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



averted by a marriage of this kind, when 

 the evil consequences will pass over to the 

 object chosen. In some regions a girl must 

 not marry before her elder sisters, but in 

 parts of southern India the difficulty is over- 

 come by the eldest daughter marrying the 

 branch of a tree. Then the wedding of the 

 younger daughter may be safely celebrated. 



Facts well known to boys who are famil- 

 iar with the woods are reported by Mr. C. 

 Fitzgerald in The Zoologist. During many 

 winters passed in the backwoods of North 

 America, he has seen squirrels frisking among 

 the trees in the coldest weather. On bright, 

 sunny days especially, they delight in chas- 

 ing one another from tree to tree among the 

 evergreens, and cover the snow with their 

 tracks. The chipmunks lay up in the au- 

 tumn a store of provisions of grain, nuts, 

 etc., for winter, and may be seen sunning 

 themselves on laright days. Mr. Fitzgerald 

 has on several occasions come across their 

 hoards, and once saw two large bucketfuls 

 of shelled buckwheat taken from the hollow 

 of an old birch tree. 



FKriT-TREES are planted along the road- 

 sides of several countries of Europe, but it 

 has not been usual to attach great impor- 

 tance to the value of their products. Recent 

 estimates made in Germany show that this 

 is considerable. The i-oadside trees of Han- 

 over gave a gross return in 1890 of 270,000 

 francs, of which 187,000 francs were de- 

 rived from the fruits. The roadside fruits 

 of the Hildersheim region returned 64,000 

 francs, and those of Gottingcn 41,000 francs; 

 and the district of Reutlingen, according 

 to the Gartcnflora, derived 333,000 francs 

 from the sale of these fruits. The trees of 

 the Monheim district, first planted in 1858, 

 yielded 9,500 francs in 1868, 22,000 francs 

 in 1878, and about 36,000 francs in 1888. 



Old newspapers are said to make valu- 

 able anti-moth wrappers for furs and winter 

 clothing, the ink upon them being nearly as 

 repulsive to all kinds of vermin as camphor 

 or coal-tar paper. They are likewise good to 

 lay on carpets for a like purpose. Being 

 impermeable to air, they also form excellent 

 envelopes for vessels containing ice and 

 fresh liquors. 



Garden and Forest tells the story of two 

 famous trees which were saved from de- 

 struction, each by the sagacity and liberality 

 of a man who appreciated their value. One 

 is the giant Manzanita (Arcfostaphylos »n«?i- 

 zanita), of St. Helena, Cal., which a wood- 

 chopper in the employ of the Napa Valley 

 Wood Company had begun to cut down when 

 Dr. C. Hitchcock, passing by, paid two dol- 

 lars to have it saved. The other is the fine 

 red oak of Dedham, Mass., which Thomas 

 Motley, father of the historian, who owned 

 the adjoining place, paid its owner to have 

 spared. Both of these trees are now owned 

 by men who will preserve them. The names 



of the men to whom their continued life is 

 due deserve to be remembered. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 

 OcR French papers bring news, with no 

 particulars, of the death, January 12th, of 

 M. A. de Quatrefages, the eminent anthro- 

 pologist, at the age of eighty-two years. 



M. Jean Servais Stas, the distinguished 

 Belgian chemist, died at Saint-Gilles, near 

 Brussels, December 13th, after a short ill- 

 ness. He was born at Lou vain in 1813, 

 studied in Paris under Dumas, and, return- 

 ing to Belgium, became a professor in the 

 Military School. He was afterward Commis- 

 sioner of Moneys, a member of the Commis- 

 sion of the Obsei'vatory, and, after the death 

 of Houzeau, of the Committee of Direction, 

 Belgian representative in the International 

 Committee of Weights and Measures, mem- 

 ber of many learned societies at home and 

 abroad, and bearer of many honors. His 

 chemical researches were numerous, and 

 have been much quoted from. 



Dr. H. K. H. Hoffmann, Professor of 

 Botany at Giessen, and Director of the Bo- 

 tanic Institute there, died October 27th, in 

 the seventy-third year of his age. 



Edouard Maillt, formerly aid at the 

 Royal Observatory of Belgium, died October 

 8th, in his eighty-second year. He entered 

 the Observatory as a computer in 1832, and 

 occupied himself there with the reductions of 

 the meridional observations. He published 

 in the Annuaire of the Observatory, and in 

 the Academical Collections, a number of 

 works in the history of science which were 

 highly prized. Among them were essays on 

 the Scientific Institutions of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, Spain, Italy, and the United States, 

 a sketch of Astronomy in the Southern Hem- 

 isphere and in India, papers on the history 

 of the Belgian Academy, biographical notices 

 of Adolphe and Ernest Quetelet, Van Ries, 

 and Argclander, and a book of reminiscences. 



The Right Rev. Harvey Goodwin, Bishop 

 of Carlisle, who died in York, England, No- 

 vember 25th, took a prominent part in the 

 discussion of questions involving the inter- 

 relations of science and religion. Being an 

 eminent mathematician, as well as a distin- 

 guished theologian, he enforced his arguments 

 with mathematical methods and principles, 

 which added greatly to their effect. He was 

 clear, judicious, and temperate in argument, 

 and rarely missed the essential point. The pa- 

 pers by him which have been published in the 

 Monthly attest his ability in this particular. 



Prof. Joseph Lovering, Hollis Professor 

 Emeritus of Harvard College, died January 

 18th of heart-failure following grip, in the 

 seventy-ninth year ot his age. A full sketch 

 of his life and scientific activity till his re- 

 tirement from work in 1888 was published 

 in the Monthly for September, 1889. 



