RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



11 



LONSDALE BOTANICAL AND FIELD 

 NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 



At a regular meeting held Feb. 18, 1884, 

 the Secretary', Mr. John Dearden, delivered 

 an essay upon *■' Useful and Injurious In- 

 sects.'' Those, he said, most useful to man 

 are the silk-worms, the larvae of the Bomb}'- 

 cidea and fSaturnidea moths. 



Bombex mori is the onl}' one of economic 

 value reared in Europe. Their usual food 

 is the mulberry, but Mr. D. had raised great 

 numbers on the garden lettuce. 



Attempts have lately been made to intro- 

 duce other silk worms into Europe, the best 

 known being the Ailanthus silk worm {Atta- 

 cus-cinthia) ^ common throughout the East 

 Indies, which feeds on Ailanthus glaudu- 

 losa, but feeds well on the common lilac ; 

 it yields, however, a small cocoon of doubt- 

 ful quality, which is difficult to unwind, 

 the American oak-feeding species (Telea 

 pohjpliemus), the Japanese and North Chi- 

 nese oak-feeding species {Antheria yama- 

 mai), and (A. pernyi)yie\d large cocoons of 

 excellent quality, which are easily unwound; 

 but they are only reared with great difficulty 

 and uncertainty, and rapidly degenerate in 

 Europe. Mr. D. gave a very interesting 

 account of the injury caused to vegetation 

 by various lepidoptera and coleoptera, and 

 exhibited many beautiful specimens. 



Preserving the Colors of Pressed Plants. 



The following process is said by the 

 London Chemist aixl Druggist to give very 

 excellent results : Dissolve one part of sal- 

 icylic acid in 600 parts of alcohol, and heat 

 the solution to the boiling point in an eva- 

 porating dish. Draw the plant slowly 

 through the liquid, wave gently in the air 

 to get rid of superfluous moisture, and dry 

 between folds of blotting-paper several 

 times repeated. In this manner the plants 

 dry rapidly, which is a great gain, and they 

 thus furnish specimens of superior beauty. 



We have now anobher particularly well-selec- 

 ted collection of Shells in our hands for sale. 

 The specimens are nearly all marine, and most 

 of them foreign, represented by S5 genera, 1420 

 species, and 4523 specimens, beside a fine lot of 

 bivalves, and fluviatile shells, not entered in the 

 catalogue, together with a black walnut cabinet 

 of forty-five drawers. Price, $700. 



PORPHYRITIC IRON ORE. 



Cumberland is the Switzerland of Rhode 

 Island. Cumberland Hill itself, where the 

 village stands, is 556 feet above the sea- 

 level. Beacon Hill, where signal fires blazed 

 during the Revolution of '76 is 756 feet. 

 Diamond Hill, abruptly precipitous on the 

 west, is about the same height. The Quarry 

 Hill opposite, commanding a magnificent 

 view, is higher. The hill back of Sneech 

 Pond rises boldly from the lake, and is about 

 600 feet. There are fifty ancient mine-holes 

 on this hill, which the gra}' fathers worked 

 for gold before the Revolution. Iron Mine 

 Hill is 660 feet above the sea. Compare 

 with these the celebrated Mount Hope of 

 Bristol, which is scarcely 195 feet above the 

 tide. 



These country hills ma}' not vie with the 

 Matterhorn or Mont Blanc in altitude ; yet 

 planted in Rhode Island, the grand Radial 

 of all the civil and religious liberty the 

 world enjoys to-day, they are more distin- 

 guished and interesting than the highest of 

 the Alps. 



Our state, although the smallest, is fore- 

 most in every department of human interest 

 and welfare. We have the oldest and the 

 poorest coal, " stone coal," decidedly ; coal 

 debituraiuized and altered not simply to an 

 obdurate anthracite, but to plumbago or 

 graphite, which the great axles of machinery 

 cannot burn. We have the oldest and the 

 poorest mines, which yet furnish some of the 

 finest minerals and most curious gems. But 

 we must hasten to Iron Mine Hill. 



Fifty-nine years ago Dr. Robinson, in a 

 valuable but now seldom seen book, entitled, 

 American Minerals and their Localities, 

 under Cumberland, R. I., wrote : 



''^Magnetic Oxide of Iron, two miles N. 

 N. E. of the m.h., on the left of the Wren- 

 tham road, in an iminense bed constituting a 

 hill. Most of this ore is a Metalliferous 

 Porphyry, having crystals of feldspar im- 

 bedded in the iron." 



The hill is bleak and cold, and, this winter 

 at least, covered with perpetual snow. But 

 little shelter is afforded by the few stunted 

 oaks near the top, or the sweet-smelling 

 pines on the south side. It is a mountain 

 mass of magnetic iron 462 feet long, 132 



