120 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
[August, 1890. 
situations : Pansy, English daisy, dandelion, shep- 
herd's purse, chickweed {Stellana media), and 
groundsel (Senecio vulgaris.) — Wm. S. Richards, 
Melrose, Mass. 
264. Different Names for thk Peanut. — I 
have heard Kentuckians call the Arachis hypogrra 
"goobers;" Mississippians, "pindars;" others 
whom I cannot designate, "ground-peas," and 
" peanuts." The dictionary gives the name "earth- 
nut," but I have never heard it applied. Has any 
one heard other names for this plant? — C. W. 
CHAPTER ADDRESSES, NEW AND 
REVISED. 
No. of 
No. Name. Mciiibcrs 
281 Gwjncdil, Peiin. A 5 
Mis.s Anna M. Jenkins. 
211 Ann Arbor, Mich. A 15 
14 N. Ingalls St. 
291 Dulmque, lona. B 9 
ili^tiland Mtiscuni, o7 Highland Place. 
302 Ifadus, South Ualtota 8 
Misis Kate L. Doolittlc. 
311 Myerstown, Pcnn. A 6 
J. H. Bower. 
All, both young and old, are cordially 
invited to join the Agassiz Association. 
Those who cannot organize Chapters may 
join singly. Address Mr. Harlan H. Bal- 
lard, Pittsfield, Mass. 
[Written for " The Out-Door World."] 
PHOTOGRAPHY ABROAD. 
BY ELLERSLIE WALLACE. 
I CAN think of no more delightful place to visit 
than the quaint old city of Nuremberg, in Bavaria, 
and if a photographic camera forms part of the 
travelling impedimenta, the pleasure will be greatly 
increased. There is no other European city or 
town that offers such a wealth of picturesque mate- 
rial to the photographer, and few — or perhaps none 
— where the interesting buildings stand in such 
favorable situations for the camera. I have before 
remarked that none but those who have had some 
practical experience will be fully able to appreciate 
the advantages of having plenty of room for the 
camera. The following brief details concerning this 
famous old city may be of interest : 
Nuremberg is mentioned in history as early as the 
year 1050. It was an independent imperial town 
until 1806, and was an important member of the 
I lanseatic League. The great and wealthy patrician 
families originally governed the city, and it is doubt- 
less owing to this fact that the arts and sciences 
flourished there as they did. The private dwellings, 
where many of these families resided for centuries, 
are among the most interesting features of the 
town, and give an excellent idea of the magnificence 
and the art-loving character of these ancient burgh- 
ers. Painting was much cultivated here from the 
early part of the fourteenth century, down. Every- 
body is familiar with the names, at least, of Al- 
brecht Durer and Michiiel Wohlgemuth. Sculpture, 
stone-carving, and literature were also by no means 
neglected, and very clever work for those times was 
done by the brass-founder Peter Vischer, the artist 
in wood Veit Stoss, and the cobbler-poet Hans 
Sachs. 
The pleasant situation of Nuremberg is well 
described by Longfellow : 
•* In the valley of Ihc I'egnitz, where .icross broiid meadow 
lands 
Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nuremberg, the aneient, 
stands. 
Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and 
song, 
Memories haunt thy pointed gables, like the rooks that round 
them throng." 
It is certainly true that a visit to Nuremberg is 
like walking in a poem. Mv own experience on 
arrival here was different from that of most travel- 
lers. I had been all night in the train from 
Dresden, and got to the station at Nuremberg just 
as the sun was rising on a beautiful June day, about 
4 o'clock in the morning. The station stands out- 
side the town walls, and in the few motnents that 
passed before the conveyance to the hotel was 
ready, I could smell the sweet air from the fields, 
and get my first suggestive glimpse of this wonder- 
ful old place. A ride to the hotel through the 
deserted streets at such an early hour was of most 
picturesque interest; nothing interfered to prevent 
the grand niedianal architecture from producing its 
full effect, and the graceful church spires and high 
gables of the older houses were brilliant in the 
hazy, blood-red sun of the early morning, while the 
unsavory details of the crooked, narrow lanes were 
veiled in almost complete darkness. 
A leisurely stroll after breakfast convinced me 
that not only were the finest of subjects for the 
camera everywhere to be had, but that there were 
some neighborhoods — particularly near the walls in 
the Panier's Platz, by the Thiergartner Thor, in the 
Maximilian's Platz, etc. — where every separate house 
offered something of interest to the photographer, 
either in detail or as a whole. The town walls and 
fortifications, which date from medi.-Eval times and 
are still in excellent preservation, would alone con- 
sume many exposures to do justice to them. The 
four huge round towers close by the walls at the 
Neue, Spittler, Frauen, and Laufer gates give a very 
old-world look to these parts of the town, and come 
out admirably in photograpliic street views. 
The castle, gray with age, and standing on a 
height at the back of the city, makes capital pictures 
from every direction, particularly from the street by 
the side of Albrecht Durer's house. These two 
buildings no one will omit to visit. The collection 
of instruments of torture in the lower part of the 
castle gives only too vivid an idea of the atrocious 
cruelties practiced upon unfortunate criminals and 
prisoners of war in the Middle Ages. The most 
interesting of these is the "iron virgin," a hollow 
figure with folding doors furnished with iron spikes. 
The victim was secured to the inside, and the doors 
gradually closed upon him ; and to render it still 
more terrible, the chamber where the figure stands 
is far away from all the others, and perfectly dark, 
so that torch-light had to be used for carrying out 
the cruel purpose. 
The views over the town to be obtained from the 
castle heights are quite imique, and show the steep 
pitched roofs with row after row of dormer windows, 
so characteristic of old German buildings. These 
bird's-eye views are, of course, not so suitable for 
photography, but if the weather was very clear an 
attempt might be made. 
Modern buildings in Nuremberg possess little or 
nothing of interest when compared witli those 
in other cities. The German Museum, however, 
will surely not be passed by, as it is famous 
throughout the world for its national curiosities. 
I can, personally, offer iny heartiest congratulations 
to anyone fortunate enough to go to Nuremberg on 
a photographic trip; and perhaps the best advice I 
can give him is, to leave his photographic outfit 
behind on first going out for a walk. Let him just 
wander about the town with his guide-book and 
map, noting down what strikes him as particularly 
worthy of being photographed, and then return at 
his leisure with the camera. 
The largest barometer yet made has been put in 
working order in the Saint Jacques tower, in Paris. 
It is 12.65 metres high. 
[Written for " Tlie Out- Door World."] 
WILD ROSES. 
BY PROF. W. WHITMAN BAILEY, 
0/ the Agnssiz Association. 
Si'MMER is at her best when the wild roses open 
to the sunlight. • When the meadows are l>espangled 
with daisies- and buttercups ; when the bees hum 
about the clover-tops, we love to wade knee-deep in 
the Billowy grass upon which these beauties seem 
to float. It is then that the sweet wild roses gather 
about the stone-walls of New England. They come 
quietly into bloom. It is peculiarly inappropriate 
to say of them that they hurst into flower. Creatures 
so gentle have not so demonstrative an evolution. 
All their movements are, like their outlines, grace- 
ful. The colors are the most delicate conceivable — 
an embodied blush ; a sunrise glow enshrined. The 
perfume is as sweet as the memory of our loved and 
lost; it is not over-powering, but pervasive, subtle, 
delicious. 
In the rose season we keep a cluster of these 
native blossoms— the full-blown flowers and the 
opening buds— upon our table. They hallow our 
thoughts and make us at peace with all men. They 
are as transient as all things worthy. Hardlv can 
one say, "How admirable!" when the petals fall 
upon the table. With the splendid mountain laurel 
they are commencement flowers, opening into love- 
liness at the time when the young graduate tries his 
wings. The kalmia is a type of mature summer; 
the rose of the later days of spring. For our spring 
is not confined to May; if we possess such a season 
at all it is in June. 
We do not underrate the ro.ses of the garden when 
we express our delight in their unpretending field 
relative. The undoubled flower, as nature designed 
it, is dearer to us than the long-prized and modified 
horticultural favorites. In the early morning, when 
the dew beads its wondrous petals, we seek the rose 
as a part of our devotion. Surely no sweeter 
incense rises to the throne of God I 
Providence, R. I. 
— <«> 
CURIOUS FACTS. 
The height of ocean waves has recently been 
measured in a very ingenious way by floating a 
sensitive aneroid barometer, to which a recording 
apparatus was fitted, on the surface of the water. 
It has thus been proved that waves attain a height 
of forty feet from trough to crest in a fairly heavy 
sea, and probably very much more in violent gales. 
A RELATIONSHIP between the flora of Eastern 
Asia and of Eastern North America was pointed 
out, as to Japan, by Dr. Asa Gray thirty years ago. 
It has been illustrated since by discoveries of new 
species alike in both regions, but they have been for 
the most part unimportant herbs. Greater force is 
now given to the fact by the discovery, by Dr. 
Augustine Henry, that the Chinese and American 
tulip-trees are identical. The discovery is signifi- 
cant in that it gives evidence that the climates 
of Eastern America and of China have continued 
to be alike since the Tertiary period. 
At an exhibition given by the department of 
microscopy of the Brooklyn Institute, seventy-two 
exhibits were shown, and one of them consisted 
of: Teeth of mosquito, showing eleven teeth at the 
extremity and upon the thin edge of each flattened, 
bristle-like mandible. Another slide showed the 
stinging hairs of nettle, how the top of the sting is 
broken ofl' on entering the skin while poison from 
the gland below is pressed through the tube of the 
sting into the flesh. Thus are insects and plants 
provided with instruments of torture for men ; 
though these are only two minor examples of hun- 
dreds of tortures to which we are liable. 
