FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 



2279 



FOWL 



made by forcing water .up through pipes. The 

 Tyler-Davidson fountain, which is considered 

 one of the finest in the world as well as a mas- 

 terpiece of art, is located in Fountain Square, 

 Cincinnati, and was presented to the city by 

 Henry Probasco, after being cast at the royal 

 foundry, Munich, at a cost of $200,000. Another 

 beautiful fountain is the Spirit of the Great 

 Lakes by Lorado Taft (see illustration in article 

 on CHICAGO), which is located at the south 

 end of the Art Institute in Chicago. The five 

 female figures represent the five Great Lakes 

 of North America, and as each pours the water 

 from her shell it falls into the basin below. 

 Some of the famous fountains of recent date 

 have been constructed for great expositions, 

 such as the Fountain of the Republic, by 

 Macmonnies, at the World's Columbian Ex- 

 position in Chicago in 1893; the fountain of 

 Man, Nature and Progress at the Pan-Amer- 

 ican Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 ; the Cas- 

 cades at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at 

 Saint Louis in 1904; and the Fountain of the 

 Earth by Robert Aitken and the Fountain of 

 Energy at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 

 1915. 



The fountains of the Greeks and Romans 

 combined ornament and utility, for they sup- 

 plied water for the poor who could not afford 

 to have it brought to their homes. Many 

 beautiful ones were constructed in Italy, 

 France and Spain. The most famous in Europe 

 are the Schone Brunnen at Nuremberg, Ger- 

 many; the Fontana Maggiore at Perugia, 

 Italy; the Fontaine des Innocents at Paris, 

 and the Alameda Fountain at Malaga, Spain. 



FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, a mythical spring 

 supposed by certain old tribes of Indians in 

 Central America and the West Indies to exist 

 in a northern region called Bimini. Its waters 

 were believed to restore youth and heal sick- 

 ness. This legend was common to the peoples 

 of many lands. The Indians made expeditions 

 to Florida and the Bahamas in search of this 

 spring; and early in the sixteenth century 

 Ponce de Leon, Narvaez, De Soto and others 

 led bands of explorers into the interior to seek 

 it. A spring in Saint Augustine, Florida, which 

 now has a paved courtyard and canopy, is 

 said to be one of the many discovered by 

 Ponce de Leon in his search for the elusive 

 youth-restoring fountain. 



FOUR-O'CLOCK, or MARVEL OF PERU, 

 an old-fashioned South American plant, so 

 called because its blossoms open late in the 

 afternoon. Four-o'clocks send forth their fra- 



grance to the night moths and insects, but 



close in the morning, 



never to open again, for 



each flower blooms but 



once. This plant thrives 



almost anywhere and is 



cultivated in gardens 



throughout America, 



especially as a bushy 



border plant or hedge, 



growing about two feet 



high. If the large FOUR-O'CLOCK 



dahlialike roots are saved and planted in the 



spring, stronger plants will grow than if seed 



is sown. 



Throughout the summer, until frosts appear, 

 these plants send forth a succession of flowers, 

 red, pink, yellow or white ; sometimes there are 

 several colors on one branch. The leaves are 

 attached in pairs, are heart-shaped at the base, 

 sharply-pointed at the tip, and the edges are 

 smooth. The flowers are funnel-shaped, spread- 

 ing into five-notched lobes whose edges over- 

 lap. Above the flower opening appear five 

 slender stamens, and above these stretches a 

 slender thread ending in a white knob. When 

 the flower has withered it will be seen that 

 at the end of this thread a seed-pod has 

 grown, in which rests one large seed. 



The bare-headed, dull-plumaged friar bird 

 of Australia is called four-o'clock, in imitation 

 of its cry. 



FOURTH OF JULY. See INDEPENDENCE DAY. 



FOWL, foul, a word derived from the An- 

 glo-Saxon fugol, and the German vogel, mean- 

 ing a bird. It is now applied generally to cer- 

 tain land and water birds known respectively 

 as wild-fowl and waterfowl, but more particu- 

 larly to the common domestic chicken. There 

 are many varieties of domestic fowls, but all 

 are more or less directly descended from the 

 wild pheasant (which see). Careful breeding 

 and selection have modified the form and 

 coloring, but many of the original character- 

 istics remain. The feet and beak of the fowl 

 are similar to those of the pheasant, but it 

 grows a naked fleshy substance called a comb 

 instead of the feathers ornamenting the top 

 of the pheasant's head. 



The fowl has been domesticated for over 

 2,000 years, and has gradually spread from 

 the East Indies, China and the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, of which countries it is a native, to 

 every part of the world. Most common of the 

 varieties is poultry, closely followed in eco- 

 nomic value by ducks and geese (see POULTRT; 



