POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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tory of the tribes, with a description of their 

 social and religious customs ; and the explo- 

 rations in the mounds and burial places of 

 the Scioto and Little Miami Valleys of Ohio 

 — the most extensive and systematic of the 

 museum's explorations — which have yielded 

 extremely rich results in illustrating the life 

 and customs and rituals of the people to 

 whom they appertained. To these may be 

 added the decipherment and translation by 

 Mrs. Zelia Nuttall of a number of the Mexi- 

 can codices and inscriptions. 



The Scientific Privileges of Country 

 Boys. — " Nor is the study of natural things, 

 and the making of discoveries," says Pro- 

 fessor 0. P. Hay, in a paper on " The Am- 

 phibians and Reptiles of Indiana," " the ex- 

 clusive privilege of those who have received 

 a scientific training. There is not a farmer 

 boy in Indiana who may not make solid con- 

 tributions to science if he will but use his 

 opportunities. Persons who live in the 

 country are in direct contact with Nature. 

 They see a thousand things that the natu- 

 ralist would delight to see, and yet may 

 never be permitted to behold. The time 

 of coming and going of the various species 

 of birds ; their curious habits, as shown in 

 nest-building and obtaining food ; and the 

 occurrence here and there of rare species of 

 various animals, are examples of matters 

 which all may observe and report, and 

 which science needs to know." 



Rich Men's Duties to Themselves. — 



While the value of wealth as an alleviator 

 of suffering and a promoter of worthy pub- 

 lic objects is strongly appreciated by many 

 who possess it, says Lester F. Ward in 

 " The Forum," " its value as a direct means 

 of intellectual and moral culture is rarely 

 discerned by this class. Many rich people 

 are fully alive to their duty toward others, 

 and at the same time apparently devoid of 

 a sense of their duty toward themselves. 

 The function of wealth, in affording leisure 

 for culture and for thorough, painstaking 

 work in any field of progressive labor, has 

 always been and always must be a far more 

 important one than that of furnishing tem- 

 porary relief to suffering humanity. With- 

 out leisure, Humboldt could not have ex- 

 plored all the realms of Nature, and given 



the world an intelligible cosmos. Without 

 immunity from care, Newton could not have 

 found out and unfolded to his age and ours 

 the true nature of the universe. Without 

 leisure and resources, Darwin could not 

 have fathomed the mysteries of life and 

 solved the great problem of being. Civili- 

 zation, with all its mechanical accessories 

 and blessings, is the product of calm delib- 

 eration and patiently-wrought results. The 

 inventions that underlie it were impossible 

 until the principles of Nature upon which 

 they rest had been established, and this has 

 in most cases been the result of prolonged 

 researches made for truth's sake alone. . . . 

 This scientific work, this search for truth 

 for its own sake, can only be successfully 

 prosecuted when the means of subsistence 

 are made to be not in the least dependent 

 upon it. . . . The so-called men of leisure, 

 who have accomplished these good results, 

 have really been the most industrious of all 

 men. Leisure, in this sense, merely means 

 relief from the necessity of performing stati- 

 cal work, in order to be able to perform dy- 

 namic work. . . . But how few understand 

 it in this sense ! " 



New Economical Plants. — The directors 

 of the Saharunpur Gardens, India, are cul- 

 tivating a number of new plants, for accli- 

 mitization. Among them is the Acacia 

 Senegal, which, besides yielding the best 

 gum-arabic, furnishes a reddish-brown wood 

 which takes on a fine polish, and is used for 

 weavers' shuttles. The Cednla adorata, or 

 West Indian cedar, has a light wood of a 

 mahogany color, even-grained, easily worked, 

 and fragrant — the wood from which Havana 

 cigar-boxes are made. Cenchcris cathariicus 

 is a much-valued fodder-plant, which grows 

 in sandy-desert tracts. It is the Tuari of 

 Australia, a tree of magnificent proportions, 

 which furnishes most excellent hard-wood 

 timber. The Myricas, or wax-myrtles, of 

 North and South America, are cultivated 

 for the waxy exudations on their fruits, 

 from which the wax is separated by boiling 

 and skimming. The fruits of the Sapindns 

 saponaria, or West Indian soap-berry, con- 

 tain a large quantity of a saponaceous mat- 

 ter, which is used for washing clothes. The 

 hard, round, black seed.? are worn as beads 

 for necklaces. 



