ISSl.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



101 



shower, then, could not have been lizards. That 

 they were Newts, Tritons, Syrens or Salaman- 

 (In s is more likelj', because the native element 

 i.t most of these is water. California, which 

 luolific in everything, may furniBh these 

 I, lis in sufficient abundance to make a re- 

 I ible shower of them; but we have never 

 sc II tliem but once in a single locality so num- 

 cious that such a contingency would be at all 

 piohuble, if possible. Nearly forty years ago we 

 ::nv, in "Hunter's Lake," in the northern 

 (i:ul of Lycoming county, the water-newts so 

 niiinerous, that if a. waterspout had occurred 

 ii)M then and there, a very large number 

 inii;ht have been taken up and dropped,down 

 ,1-1 in. The lake contained pike and large 

 ei ],, and doubtless these fishes devoured 

 nuiltitudes of them, and as they were mainly 

 sn II iu the shallows along the margin of the 

 lak.\ they might have been exposed to such a 

 Kuiiingency. We also noticed multitudes of 

 small blackish tadpoles, which must have 

 b( 111 the young of the news, for we must re- 

 imiuber that newts, tritons and salamanders 

 iiir also Bdtrackiayis, as well as toads and 

 fro;,'s. and are developed from tadpoles, be- 

 sidi's, it was in the month of August, too late 

 for iliem to have been toads. Thus, it is pos- 

 sille there may have been a shower of these 

 Hatrachiaus. 



Queries and Answers. 



ABOUT BATS. 



Lancaster, Pa., June 27, 1881. 

 Dr. 8. 8. Rathvon, 



Dear Sir : I address you for Information upon s 

 subject that tliis season of the jear Is no doubt one 

 of general interest. A few evenings since a company 

 of ladies sitting in a parlor were thrown into a state 

 ■ of great consternation by the sudden appearance of 

 ' a bat. Their first impulse, after the manner of their 

 sex, and indeed of many people of both sexes, was 

 to cover their heads with the most convenient arti- 

 cles at hand, and the second to get out of the room 

 as quickly as possible. As the only adult male of 

 the party I was at once duly impressed with the grave 

 responsibility of my position, and securing a broom, 

 after a few passes dispatched the unwelcome intru- 

 der by a vigorous blow. Between my blushes I may 

 be permitted to remark that this performance wag 

 regarded by my fair companions as one of exalted 

 heroism ; but grateful as the reputation thereby ac- 

 quired has proved, I feel that its complete enjoyment 

 would be enhanced were I to be assured that it is 

 entirely deserved. What I write to ask, therefore, 

 is : Was there any especial degree of bravery in my 

 volunteering to meet the winged monster alone, with 

 uncovered head, and without other weapon of offense 

 or defense than the despised broom 1 Is the bat 

 such adreadfullydangerous creature, anyhow? Why 

 do nine people out of ten cover their heads the 

 minute they see a bat? and finally, what is the 

 easiest and most sensible way of getting rid of these 

 uncomfortable Intruders ? As these queries and 

 their answers have perhaps a more than personal 

 Interest, I take the liberty of imposing them upon 

 your attention and requesting a reply through the 

 columns of The Farmer.— Very truly yours, J. 



On the whole, if we all had an intelligent 

 apprehension of the functions of the bat in 

 the economy of nature, we, perhaps, would 

 not desire to get rid of them so long as a ne- 

 cessity for their continuance exists— indeed I 

 feel persuaded that if there were no bats in 

 the world, it might become a very comfortless 

 place to live iu. Taking the whole bat-family 

 together, (Cheieopteka or wing-handed) 



with a few exceptions, it is insectivoroif!, and 

 when an individual happens t» fly into an 

 open window of a dwelling, ten to one it has 

 been heedlessly in pursuit of a night-flying 

 insect. Our prejudices have been acquired 

 through our ignorance of their life, characters, 

 habits and economics ; and can only be dis- 

 pelled by scientific education. A few species 

 in the East Indies are frugivorons, and in 

 Central and South America there are sangui- 

 niverovi specious (tl>e"vampires"for instance), 

 but the characters of even these are ||;reatly 

 exaggerated. But those of North America, 

 and especially those of the United States, are 

 inseaivorotts ; and the whole end and aim of 

 their lives is the procreating of the species 

 and the capture of insect food as the sustain- 

 ing element of themselves and their offspring. 

 When the season for insects is over, and the 

 chill winds of autumn supervene, the benevo- 

 lent functions of the bat are ended for the 

 season, and he suspends himself in any cover 

 that will shield him from the wintry blast, out 

 of the way, and harms nobody or thing. But 

 as soon as genial spring returns, and the insect 

 world revives, the bat will also be there on 

 his beneficent mission to the human family. 

 If it were not for the demands of our mental 

 and spiritual maws, there are many indigent 

 specimens of humanity in the world, who 

 might well envy the physical endowments of 

 the bat. It would be a cheap and easy way 

 to pass a hard winter— to be suspended in a 

 comatose state, without eating anything or 

 needing to eat anything, until the return of 

 vivifying spring. 



What the swallows and other purely insec- 

 tivorous birds do by day, the bat does by 

 night, and when one enters a house in pursuit 

 of his' pray, he is frightened fully as 

 much as any of its inmates possibly can be 

 and his efibrts to escape are interpreted, 

 through our prejudices or aversions, as so 

 many sinister designs upon us. Of course if 

 we seized a bat with our hands, he would bite 

 us in self-defence, but so would a hundred 

 other small and otherwise inoffensive animals. 

 With all our repugnance to the bat, he is not 

 very far removed from us in systematic classi- 

 fication. At the head of the column are the 

 two-handed animals (man), then the four- 

 handed, (monkey), and then the vnng-lMnded 

 (bats). All the other subjects of the animal 

 kingdom are below these. 



It is true, that a large £at-tery in or near 

 our dwelling is not a contiguity that is at all 

 agreeable, for the fragrance of it is not as 

 pleasant as peaches, or "Araby the blest;" 

 but all we have to do is to expose it to the 

 light of day, and it will soon be vacated by 

 its occupants. On one occasion I expelled a 

 colony of five hundred that had located itself 

 behind a sign-board, by merely removing the 

 board about six inches from the wall, and 

 letting it remain so two or three days. They 

 "vamosed" and never returned. 



In an abstract sense the absolute necessity 

 of the bat as an equipoise in nature's econo- 

 my, may not lie very complimentary to the 

 moral condition of the human family— no 

 more are prisons and gibbets to its civil con- 

 dition. It is the representative of an evil 

 that is permitted to counteract or circumvent 

 some greater evil, and when that greater evil 

 is entirely subdued Jwo may feel reasonably 



assured that the bat's occupation will begone, 

 and that it then will become extinct as many 

 animals before it have : but until then we 

 must tolerate it and allow it to perform its 

 allotted tunctiou. If every man on earth 

 was a perfect "law unto himself," and drank 

 no intoxicating liquor, there would be an end 

 to its manufacture and sale. But this would 

 impose a mountain of self-denial on man, and 

 through that self-denial alone can the evil be 

 radically extinguished, or held in abeyance. 

 Moles and bats, and noxious insects, and 

 hideous reptiles, are but the representative 

 outbirths of corresponding principles which 

 have had their existance in the moral realm, 

 and if we learn to shudder at the principles a.s 

 we do at their ropresentatives, it would indi- 

 cate the "beginning of the end." 



Contributions. 



HELLEBORE. 



The genus Hellcborus is not an extensive 

 one. I have never found more than five species 

 described. None are native iu America; its 

 economic value is limited to its medicinal prop- 

 erties. It was known to Hippocrates who de- 

 clared it the most violent of purgatives. In 

 Linnajus' time it was used by farmers for dis- 

 eased cattle; the method for this purpose was 

 to insert a piece of the green root under the 

 skin, which caused a great swelling and sup- 

 puration. Kather a clumsy method of getting 

 at the virtues of a derivative or counter irri- 

 tant. 



The genus Ilelleborus is the Neiswurtz of 

 the German botanists. The species are Ilelle- 

 borus hyemai or winter wolfskraut, found in 

 Italy, Schwartz, and the Appenines ; has the 

 acrid properties of the order. Helleborus 

 niger or Christmas flower; Schwartz Neis- 

 wurtz or Christblume; Zwart Neiskruid in 

 Holland; EUebore noir in French, is a native 

 iu the Alps in Italy, Austria, Schweitz: Habi- 

 tat, stony places in shady wood. It grows 

 about a foot in height, its pedate foliage rising 

 from the root; the flowers appearing in De- 

 cember until spring. The sepals resemble 

 petals, are white with a purple tinge, persis- 

 tent, in numlier, five or six. The petals are 

 numerous, merely two-lipped nectaries, and 

 with the stamens fall ofl" very soon after open- 

 ing, leaving the showy calyx apparently desti- 

 tute of petals or stamens. 



Helleborus viridis is not quite as hardy or 

 frequent as the black Hellebore; it is- found 

 in Italy, France, Austria and Schweitz. 



Helleborus foetidus is a very hardy species, 

 growing in the south of Europe; it is perennial, 

 and h.ad an ancient reputation as a vermifuge, 

 and for the relief of toothache. Its odor pro- 

 cured for it a variety of significant terras, 

 "Stinkend Neiswartz," "Lanskraut," "Pied 

 de Grifibs," "Vuurkrand," in Bollandisch; 

 Helleboraster, in Latin. 



The fifth genus is Helleborus trifolius; the 

 foliage is described as resembling clover; the 

 general aspect of the plant is not that of Helle- 

 bore, the fructification alone declaring its 

 kinship; found in Siberia, Canada and Iceland, 

 thrives under the same unfriendly conditions 

 as the other species. A valuable description 

 of the domestic habits of the Black Hellebore, 

 by Dr. Rathvon, is contained iu the May num- 

 ber of The Lancaster Farmer. 



