RTa"Ri<:.\'i'i()NS wmi Tin-: aiicroscuiM': 



195 



ing" objectives and resolving difficult 

 diatom tests, and to this tact the improve- 

 ment of the microscope objective was 

 largely due. During this period, or more 

 particularly from 18O0 to 1880, very 

 elaborate and costly instruments were 

 made by Tolles, JJulloch, Zentmayer, 

 Spencer and others in this country, and 

 by Beck, Swift, Watson, Baker and 

 Powell & Lealand in England. Object- 

 ives made by Robert B. Tolles and the 

 Spencers were considered by many mi- 

 croscopists as superior to any others ever 

 constructed. 



Accompanying' this article is a photo- 

 graph of a large microscope stand and 

 several objectives made in 1882 by Rob- 

 ert B. Tolles of Boston. These large, 

 elaborate, costly stands have, during the 

 last thirty years, been displaced by the 

 more practical, compact and comparative- 

 ly simple model of the present day, the 

 principal manufacturers in this country 

 being the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., of 

 Rochester, N. Y., and the Spencer Lens 

 Company of Buffalo. 



Although the compound microscope has 

 become, in recent years, more of a scien- 

 tific "tool" for the laboratory, at the same 

 time so much pleasure and profit may be 

 derived from its use by lovers of nature, 

 that more popular interest should be 

 stimulated in the use of the microscope. 



An interesting- little book etitled "The 

 Microscope and Its Uses" by Wilfred 

 Mark Webb, is published by Sully & 

 Kleinteich, New York. Wood's "Com- 

 mon Objects for the Microscope" is also 

 an excellent book for the bes^inner. 



Milkweed Butterflies in Migration. 



Des Moines, Iowa. 

 To the Editor : 



I read with interest the different ar- 

 ticles written by your members, and, I 

 think, subscribers too. They are all so 

 delightful. It is almost as though we 

 were all friends and were talking over 

 together the incidents that befall us in 

 our walks with nature. 



An exquisite experience came to me 

 all unexpectedly one day recently. 



As I was going to the car, I noticed 

 how blue the sky was how clear, without 

 the sign of a cloud anywhere. On look- 

 ing up over a meadow, I saw some 



winged creatures dying high in the air. 

 At first I thought they were birds, but on 

 examining them closer found they were 

 butterllies. There must have been 

 twenty-five or more, some flying very 

 high, where the birds fly, some lower, but 

 all seemed conscious of each other, to be 

 flying up and down, back and forth, to- 

 gether, as though they had come out to 

 while away an hour in delight that way. 

 They were deep orange in color, and 

 made a bright picture up against the blue 

 sky. I had often seen them flying from 

 flower to flower on the ground but never 

 up high like that before. 



Yours very truly, 



HklEn Griffiths. 



Potato Seed Balls. 



The only suggestion I can offer regard- 

 ing the failure of potatoes to produce seed 

 balls more abundantly in Connecticut is 

 that the climatic conditions are not fav- 

 orable to a normal development of the 

 potato plant during the period of growth 

 in which the blossoms are developing. 

 The failure to set seed balls is primarily 

 due to a lack of viable pollen. 



Some years ago. Dr. E. M. East was 

 able, at New Haven, Connecticut, to pro- 

 duce seed balls almost at will on his potato 

 experimental plant. I am well aware, 

 however, that in New England, at least 

 outside of the northern portion of it, 

 potato seed balls are more or less of a 

 rarity. — William Stuart, Horticulturist, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The Russians are planning to estab- 

 lish a biological station at Lake Baikal, 

 in southeastern Siberia, and have already 

 secured by gift eight thousand dollars 

 toward the project. Lake Baikal, the 

 source of the Lena River, is the largest 

 body of fresh water in Eurasia and the 

 deepest in the world. Some of the fishes 

 are ancient forms, apparently survivors 

 from Upper Tertiary times when Si- 

 beria had a sub-tropical climate. In 

 other respects, also the fauna is unique. 



If you make a friend of Nature, 

 You will ever bless the day, 



When you put your trust in something 

 That will gladden all your way. 



— Emma Peirce. 



