Beaun-. 



ginning 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



[Iliad, viii, 555]. The sublime description 

 of the sylvan loneliness of Parnassus, with 

 its somber, thickly \vooded and rocky val- 

 leys, contrasts with the joyous pictures of 

 the many-fountained poplar groves in the 

 Phseacian island of Scheria, and especially 

 of the land of the Cyclops, " where meadows 

 waving with luxuriant and succulent grass 

 encircle the hills of unpruned vines " [Od., 

 xix, 431]. Pindar, in a dithyrambus in 

 praise of spring, recited at Athens, sings of 

 " the earth covered with new-born flowers, 

 when, in the Argive Nemaea, the first open- 

 ing shoot of the palm announces the coming 

 of balmy spring." Then he sings of Etna 

 as " the pillar of heaven, the fosterer of en- 

 during snow " ; but he quickly turns away 

 from these terrific forms of inanimate na- 

 ture to celebrate Hiero of Syracuse, and the 

 victorious combats of the Greeks with the 

 mighty race of the Persians. HUMBOLDT 

 Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. i, p. 24. (H., 1897.) 



337. BEAUTY, OF ORCHIDS- Innu- 

 merable Variety in South America. While 

 these plants [of the cactus family] form 

 green oases in the barren desert, the or- 

 chidace* shed beauty over the most desolate 

 rocky clefts, and the seared and blackened 

 stems of those tropical trees which have 

 been discolored by the action of light. The 

 Vanilla form is distinguished by its light- 

 green succulent leaves, and by its varie- 

 gated and singularly shaped blossoms. 

 Some of the orchidaceous flowers resemble in 

 shape winged insects, while others look like 

 birds, attracted by the fragrance of the 

 honey vessels. An entire life would not suf- 

 fice to enable an artist, altho limiting him- 

 self to the specimens afforded by one cir- 

 cumscribed region, to depict the splendid 

 orchidacese which embellish the deep alpine 

 valleys of the Peruvian Andes. HUMBOLDT 

 Views of Nature, p. 220. (Bell, 1896.) 



338. BEAUTY OF WILD PLANT FAILS 

 UNDER CULTIVATION The Pampas Grass. 

 On moist clayey ground flourishes the 

 stately pampa grass, Oynerium argenteum, 

 the spears of which often attain a height 

 of eight or nine feet. I have ridden through 

 many leagues of this grass with the feath- 

 ery spikes high as my head, and often 

 higher. . . . Every one is familiar with 

 it in cultivation; but the garden plant has 

 a sadly decaying, draggled look at all times, 

 and to my mind is often positively ugly, 

 with its dense withering mass of coarse 

 leaves, drooping on the ground, and bundle 

 of spikes, always of the same dead white or 

 dirty cream color. Now color the various 

 ethereal tints that give a blush to its cloud- 

 like purity is one of the chief beauties of 

 this grass on its native soil; and travelers 

 who have galloped across the. pampas at a 

 season of the year when the spikes are dead, 

 and white as paper or parchment, have cer- 

 tainly missed its greatest charm. The plant 

 is social, and in some places where scarcely 

 any other kind exists it covers large areas 



with a sea of fleecy white plumes; in late 

 summer, and in autumn, the tints are seen, 

 varying from the most delicate rose, tender 

 and illusive as the blush on the white un- 

 der-plumage of some gulls, to purple and 

 violaceous. At no time does it look so per- 

 fect as in the evening, before and after sun- 

 set, when the softened light imparts a 

 mistiness to the crowding plumes, and the 

 traveler cannot help fancying that the tints, 

 whicn then seem richest, are caught from 

 the level rays of the sun, or reflected from 

 the colored vapors of the afterglow. HUD- 

 SON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 1, p. 6. (C. 

 & H., 1895.) 



339. BEAUTY RESULTING FROM IN- 

 TERFERENCE OF WAVES Richly Chased 

 Pattern on Surface of Mercury. To the 

 eye of a person conversant with these prin- 

 ciples, nothing can be more interesting than 

 the crossing of water ripples. Through 

 their interference the water surface is some- 

 times shivered into the most beautiful 

 mosaic, trembling rhythmically as if with a 

 kind of visible music. When waves are 

 skilfully generated in a dish of mercury, a 

 strong light thrown upon the shining sur- 

 face, and reflected on to a screen, reveals 

 the motions of the liquid metal. The shape 

 of the vessel determines the forms of the 

 figures produced. In a circular dish, for ex- 

 ample, a disturbance at the center propa- 

 gates itself as a series of circular waves, 

 which, after reflection, again meet at the 

 center. If the point of disturbance be a 

 little way removed from the center, the in- 

 terference of the direct and reflected waves 

 produces magnificent chasing. The light re- 

 flected from such a surface yields a pattern 

 of extraordinary beauty. When the mer- 

 cury is slightly struck by a needle-point in 

 a direction concentric with the surface of 

 the vessel, the lines of light run round in 

 mazy coils, interlacing and unraveling 

 themselves in a wonderful manner. When 

 the vessel is square, a splendid checker- 

 work is produced by the crossing of the di- 

 rect and reflected waves. Thus, in the case 

 of wave-motion, the most ordinary causes 

 give rise to most exquisite effects. The 

 words of your countryman, Emerson, are 

 perfectly applicable here: 



" Thou canst not wave thy staff in the air, 



Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 

 But it carves the brow of beauty there, 

 And the ripples in rimes the oars for- 

 sake." 



TYNDALL Lectures on Light, lect. 2, p. 54. 

 (A., 1898.) 



340. BEAUTY REVEALED BY SUB- 

 DUED LIGHT To one who only beholds 

 the desert land bordering Great Salt Lake 

 in the full glare of the unclouded summer 

 sun, when the peculiar desert haze shrouds 

 the landscape and the strange mirage dis- 

 torts the outline of the hills, the scenery 

 will no doubt be uninteresting and perhaps 



