EANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



optera as the bacon-beetle and several 

 others, all well known with sorrow by most 

 collectors of botanical and zoological speci- 

 mens. 



Mr. George Dimmock states, Standard 

 Natural History, Part 25, 2Xige 379, that 

 this buffalo-bug or carpet-beetle, like other 

 species o{ Anthrenus, is found out-of-doors, 

 upon the pollen of plants, and often in 

 swarms upon flowers of the different kinds 

 of Spiroia. and upon those of the shad 

 bush, Amelanchier canadensis. 



Historical Trees of Rhode Island. 



Concluded. 



In the town of Warwick, on the place 

 known as the Moses Lippitt farm, south of 

 the head of Conimicut Point, is a linden 

 tree of noble proportions. Its place of sub- 

 division is about nine feet from the ground. 

 The girth at three and one-half feet up is 21 

 feet ; spread of branches, about thirty feet. 



The white ash which grew at Apponaug, 

 in the town of Warwick, behind the town 

 hall, was one of the largest known. Its 

 circumference did not vary much in the 

 columnar trunk, which was nearly as large 

 horizontally as vertically. Girth at two 

 feet up, 14 feet ; three feet up, 13 feet 8 

 inches ; four feet up, 13 feet 9 inches. At 

 five feet up it abruptl}' diverges into a very 

 spreading head, making at first three main 

 divisions with considerable space between 

 them, these divisions speedily breaking up 

 into numerous small branches. Its spread 

 toward the SSE. is 35 feet ; less in the 

 other direction. The tree is, say 60 feet 

 high. There has been much decay from 

 water oozing down into the trunk. The bark 

 is ash}' gra}', less fissured in the trunk than 

 that of an elm equally large ; on medium- 

 sized branches smooth with longitudinal 

 splits, as in a chestnut ; it was often thickly 

 laden with samara. 



There is a sassafras tree in this town 

 whose circumference near the ground is 14 

 feet 3 inches, two and one half feet up 

 1 2 feet, and it is about eleven feet up to the 

 branches. 



On the ancient homestead of the late 

 Lemuel Angell, of North Providence, stand 

 Rhode Island greening apple trees 137 

 years old, still bearing edible fruit. 



In the state are found chestnut trees 

 which measure 15 feet around the trunk. A 

 specimen of the ash tree {Fraxiyius america- 

 nus) is found 16 feet in girth. Some large 

 specimens of the butternut tree {Plantanus 

 occidentalis ) are found near the Lonsdale 

 station, and along the banks of the Moshas- 

 suck. Some of these trees measure around 

 their trunk 15 feet. Fine examples of this 

 tree and the shell-bark hickory are seen in 

 the town of Smithfield. Trunks of the ma- 

 ples {Acer rubrum and Acer sacharinum) 

 are found that girth 10 feet. Of the pine 

 family Pinus strobus presents the largest 

 trees in this group, measuring 9 and 10 

 feet in circumference. Some in the swamps 

 at South Kingstown measure around the 

 trunk 12 feet. A magnolia ( cucumber tree ) 

 is found growing in the garden of the late 

 Mrs. Moses B. Ives, in Providence. It was 

 planted more than half a century ago, and 

 said to be the finest specimen in New Eng- 

 land; and here also grows the bladder nut 

 tree, a solitar}' specimen in this climate. In 

 the front yard of Mr, Henry G. Russell, on 

 Brown Street, may be seen a tree of the 

 horse chestnut, of rare beauty, its spreading 

 branches extending nearly to the ground, 

 whose graceful cone stands alone almost 

 motionless. AVhen in verdure and flower it 

 is the perfection of a tree. In front of the 

 residence of Mr. Frederick G. King, over- 

 hanging the sidewalk on Waterman Street, is 

 a Chinese tree whose fruit is now hanging 

 on its naked branches. How it came to live 

 these fifty years no one can tell, and its blos- 

 soms in purple clusters late in the spring 

 are a rare curiosity. J. H. B. 



Providence Jouknal, April 17, 1884. 



The following, written by Mayor Prince, 

 of Boston, when a Harvard student, and 

 addressed "To Pupils in Elocution," has 

 had considerable circulation, but is well 

 worth I'epeating : 



" The human lungs reverberate sometimes with great 



velocity 

 When windy individuals indulge in much verbosity, 

 They have to twirl the glottis sixty thousand times a 



minute, 

 And push and punch the diaphragm as though the 

 deuce were in it. 



Cho7-us.— The pharynx now goes up; 

 The larynx, with a slam, 

 Ejects a note 

 From out the throat, 

 Pushed by the diaphragm." 



