The taste is quite bitter. Formerly the 

 roots, flowers and seeds- were also used 

 medicinally. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. A B, plant 



somewhat reduced, i, flower; 2, 3, 4, 

 stamens; 5, pollen; 6, 7, style and 

 stigma; 8, 9, ovary; 10, fruit; n, 12, 

 13, seed. 



FRUIT BATS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 



THE Agricultural Department at 

 Washington is taking precau 

 tions to prevent the importa 

 tion into the United States of 

 any of the animal pests which are found 

 in Porto Rico, the Philippines, and the 

 other new colonies. Among these none 

 is more feared than the great fruit bats 

 which abound in the Philippines. A 

 full grown specimen of the fruit bat 

 measures five feet from tip to tip of its 

 wings. The fruit bats live together 

 in immense communities and feed 

 almost altogether on tropical and sub 

 tropical fruits. They crowd together 

 so thickly on the trees that sometimes 

 large branches are broken down by 

 their weight. In Australia they have 

 increased so rapidly that great sums of 



money have been spent in their destruc 

 tion, one organized movement of the 

 fruit growers of New South Wales re 

 cently resulting in the killing of 100,000 

 bats at a cost of 30 cents each. An 

 other possible immigrant which is 

 much dreaded is the mongoose, which 

 abounds in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the 

 other West Indian Islands. The mon 

 goose was first brought to the islands 

 for the purpose of destroying the rats 

 and mice, which it did so thoroughly 

 that it was soon forced to adapt itself 

 to another diet. It was found that the 

 mongoose thrived on young poultry, 

 birds, and even young pigs and lambs, 

 while it also consumed great quantities 

 of pineapples, bananas, corn and other 

 vegetable products. 



MONKEYS AS GOLD FINDERS. 



c 



APTAIN E. MOSS of the Trans 

 vaal tells the following story of 

 the monkeys who work for him 

 in the mines: "I have twenty- 

 four monkeys," said he, "employed 

 about my mines. They do the work of 

 seven able-bodied men. In many in 

 stances they lend valuable aid where a 

 man is useless. They gather up the 

 small pieces of quartz that would be 

 passed unnoticed by the workingmen, 

 and pile them up in little heaps that 

 can easily be gathered up in a shovel 

 and thrown into a mill. They work 

 just as they please, sometimes going 

 down into the mines when they have 



cleared up all the debris on the outside. 

 They live and work together without 

 quarreling any more than men do. 

 They are quite methodical in their 

 habits, and go to work and finish up in 

 the same manner as human beings 

 would do under similar circumstances. 

 It is very interesting to watch them at 

 their labor, and see how carefully they 

 look after every detail of the work they 

 attempt. They clean up about the 

 mines, follow the wheelbarrows and 

 carts used in mining and pick up every 

 thing that falls off on the way."- 

 Tit Bits. 



173 



