FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



573 



ordinary writing material of the oldest 

 times. The earliest example is the Horiazi 

 palm-leaf Sanskrit MS. of the sixth century 

 A. D., which is preserved in Japan, and of 

 which the Bodleian Library, Oxford, pos- 

 sesses a facsimile. In northern India, where 

 they were written on with ink, palm leaves 

 ceased to be used after the introduction of 

 paper; but in the south, where the writing 

 was scratched in with a stylus, they are still 

 employed. Paper was introduced by the Mo- 

 hammedans, and has been very extensively 

 used for manuscripts. The oldest Gujerat 

 paper manuscript dates from the beginning 

 of the thirteenth century. Neither varnished 

 boards, such as are used in Burma for man- 

 uscripts, have been found in India, nor 

 leather or parchment, which the regulations 

 against impurity of materials would forbid 

 Hindus from using. Copper plates were 

 early and frequently used for inscriptions. 

 They furnish a curious illustration of the 

 narrowness of the limits of invention, in that 

 they practically all imitate the shape either 

 of the palm leaves or of strips of birch bark. 



Arid Yucatan. The second contribu- 

 tion by Dr. C. F. Millspaugh to the Field 

 Columbian Museum, on the Coastal and Plain 

 Flora of Yucatan, relates to a region pecul- 

 iar in its biological character, and differing 

 essentially from the surrounding regions, es- 

 pecially in its flora. There all plants have a 

 desiccated appearance, due to their struggle 

 against drought, while in the neighboring 

 areas Honduras, Guatemala, Chiapas, and 

 Tabasco the wealth of exuberant vegeta- 

 tion is marked. The difference is brought 

 about partly by orographic features the 

 other regions having elements of mountain 

 and ridge and large streams of which the 

 Yucatan region is destitute, and its soil and 

 coralline substratum being so porous that 

 whatever rain falls quickly filters into cavi- 

 ties, caverns, and faults beneath the surface. 

 Hence the only residual supply of water avail- 

 able for vegetation is held in the peculiar sar- 

 tenejas, aguadas, and cenotes. The sartenejas 

 are depressions in the plain, from a few ounces 

 to several hogsheads in capacity, at the bot- 

 tom of which sufficient marshy soil has been 

 formed to retain such water as falls into 

 them. These soon dry up after the rainy 

 season and their vegetation lies dormant. 



The aguadas are simply larger sartenejas, 

 usually of circular outline and from fifty to 

 one hundred feet in diameter. They retain 

 stagnant water and maintain a growth of 

 mud plants throughout the year. The 

 cenotes are deep, perpendicular-walled, near- 

 ly circular wells, penetrating the floor of the 

 plain and opening into an abundant supply 

 of clear, cool water, saturated with carbonate 

 of lime. They are from a few feet to a 

 hundred yards or more in diameter, and 

 from thirty to two hundred feet deep to the 

 water level, and prove by their frequency 

 and extent that this great plain is as freely 

 watered far below its surface as most coun- 

 tries are above. Mr. Millspaugh's list of 

 plants collected in this region and its islands 

 includes 418 genera and 734 species. 



Owl Trees. It is common knowledge or 

 common supposition that owls nest in the 

 hollows of trees; and since sentiment is 

 turning to regard these birds as beneficial 

 enemies of vermin rather than noxious de- 

 stroyers of useful things, talk is occasionally 

 heard of protecting and encouraging them 

 as Sir Montstuart Grant Duff has done. 

 An English writer has been investigating 

 their nesting places, and finds that they pre- 

 fer pollard elms in which repeated cuttings 

 have caused growths of gnarls and protu- 

 berances and all sorts of shapeless hiding 

 places. In one of these trees become a 

 habitation of birds be found the center of 

 the crown forming a kind of platform walled 

 round by the ruins of what should have 

 been branches. The floor of the platform 

 was constituted of rotten wood, leaf mold, 

 and dead sticks, mixed with the bones and 

 fur of "finely pulverized mice." "The 

 bases of the branches, or what should have 

 been branches, were hollow shells, often 

 measuring yards across, with various holes, 

 bulges, knots, and cracks, some piercing the 

 sides, some making only side chambers and 

 shelves. These caverns are the chosen 

 home of the white owl. In one she sleeps, 

 in another she lays her eggs, in a third 

 she has her larder when the young owls are 

 growing up. In another similar tree, if one 

 be near, her husband sleeps by day; and 

 from any one of the doors or windows she 

 slips out and flies noiselessly across the 

 meadow when an intruder scrambles into 



