52 



POPULAR SCIENCE ]S"EWS. 



[April, 1888. 



Flowers considered in Relation to Insects, which, 

 although not at all juvenile, are popular in tlie best 

 sense of the word, and will be found thoroughly 

 enjoyable. The same may be said of Kerner's 

 Ftotvers and their Unbidden Guests. Mueller's 

 Fertilization of Flowers, a voluminous book, is es- 

 pecially valuable as a practical aid to the more 

 advanced student. 



Several of Grant Allen's books will be found 

 particularly useful for their suggestiveness. Such 

 are his Vignettes from Nature, Colin Clout's Calen- 

 ■ dar. Evolutionist at Large, Flowers and their Pedi- 

 gree, and The Colors of Flowers. These are all light 

 reading, and are well calculated to supplement the 

 other books in a very pleasant way. 



The man of all others who has done most to 

 advance this department of botany is Charles Dar- 

 win, and it would be impossible to set before the 

 student a more perfect model of careful experi- 

 menting, keen observation, and clear reasoning, 

 than is afforded by his invaluable works. The 

 simplicity of the apparatus and the methods 

 which he used in the prosecution of his researches 

 not only excites our wonder and admiration, but 

 puts it easily within our power to repeat many of 

 his experiments, and so observe for ourselves some 

 of the most marvellous phenomena of plant-life. 

 The following are his principal botanical works: 

 Insectivorous Plants, Climbing Plants, Power oj 

 Movement in Plants, Fertilization in the Vegetable 

 Kingdom, Fertilization of Orchids, Forms of Flowers. 

 So far in our consideration of physiological bot- 

 any we have referred only to such matters as ad- 

 mitted of practical study, without, as a rule, in- 

 volving the use of the compound microscope or other 

 elaborate apparatus. There remains now a portion 

 of the subject which presents greater difficulties in 

 practice, as it grapples with some of the profounder 

 secrets of nature. These more advanced parts of 

 physiological botany we may divide into micro- 

 scopical anatomy, and physiology proper. 



A most valuable text-book, comprising both di- 

 visions, and with copious references to highest au- 

 thorities in the several departments, will be found 

 in Goodale's Physiological Botany. In the introduc- 

 tion, much practical information is given regard- 

 ing the use of the microscope ; and in an appendix, 

 directions are offered for performing many of the 

 most important experiments mentioned in the book. 



Strasburger's Practical Botany deals exclusively 

 with the microscopical side of the subject, and, for 

 the field it covers, cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended. Strasburger is one of the most thorough 

 masters of microscopical technique that ever lived, 

 and he has the rare gift of imparting in the clearest 

 way just such information as a student needs, to 

 arrive at satisfactory results. 



Finally, we may recommend as a thoroughly 

 readable account of physiology proper, Vine's 

 Lectures, which embodies the latest views on the 

 subject. 



It will be unnecessary for us to add more titles 

 to what we fear may have already proved to be a 

 rather tedious list, although many books deserving 

 of mention have been omitted. We trust that 

 enough has been said to enable any one to make a 

 good beginning in these lines of study, which must 

 prove a source of lasting pleasure to all who pursue 

 them in a proper way. 



We are far from believing that the study of 

 botany is inherently more interesting than any 

 other department of science: but there are cer- 

 tain tastes to which it will more strongly appeal, 

 and certain circumstances under which it will be 

 the most fitting study; and when this is the case, 

 we feel confident that the student will have no cause 

 to accuse us of having exaggerated the pleasures of 

 botany as a recreation. 



[Original in Popular Science yew9. | 

 FERNS. 



Ferns belong to the higher Cryptogamia, and 

 are distributed all over the world, excepting the 

 polar regions. They are beautiful and attractive, 

 but the question is asked by those who prefer the 

 useful to the ornamental, " What are their uses? " 



Amid the dearth of uses, it is said that in India 

 and New Zealand several kinds were used as food; 

 and in the north of Europe starch was made from 

 the roots of the Osmunda, and bread from those of 

 the Bracken; and that in the time of Henry VI. 

 the people of England were reduced to the use of 

 this bread. 



The ancients used the roots and whole plant in 

 decoctions for all kinds of chronic diseases, and in 

 some countries the stalks of the Bracken were used 

 in the place of straw for thatching. 



All of the common ferns are sweet morsels of 

 food to donkeys in the pasture, and dried, they 

 pick them out as dainty bits among the hay. 



Many varieties of ferns are useful in the arrange- 

 ment of cut flowers. Used among the exotics, noth- 

 ing can exceed the beauty of the Adiantum, or 

 maiden-hair, in its grace and delicacy; and growing 

 in its native haunts, beneath the rich, shady woods, 

 its only rival is the Lygodium, or climbing fern. 



The Athyrium or lady-fern, "in all her graceful 

 power," is a favorite with poets. Scott thus de- 

 scribes its hiding-places: — 



" Wliere the copsewood is the greenest, 

 Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest, 

 There the lady-fern grows strongest." 



W. 



SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 



Leaden pipes for the conveyance of water were 

 brought into use in 1236. 



Cavendish, in 1766, discovered hydrogen ; and 

 between 1774 and 1779 Priestley discovered oxygen, 

 azote, and nitrous gas. 



Forests and Rainfall. — In concluding a 

 paper in Science upon the question whether for- 

 ests influence rainfall or not, Henry Gannett says : 

 " It seems idle to discuss further the influence of 

 forests upon rainfall from the economic point of 

 view, as it is evidently too slight to be of the least 

 practical importance. Man has not yet invented 

 a method of controlling rainfall." 



Etruscan Antiquities. — A fine glass vase, 

 just discovered in an Etruscan tomb at Bologna, is 

 of a sea-green color, like a soda-water bottle, thick 

 and of a unique form, with two handles. It is nine 

 inches high, and without ornamentation. There is 

 not a single defect, flaw, crack, or chip about it. 

 With it was found an ivory chair made after the 

 fashion of a modern camp-stool , having all its screws 

 and rivets still in perfect condition, and a small cas- 

 ket containing beads and some very elegant articles 

 in bronze. The articles are supposed to date from 

 the fifth century. The tomb in which they were 

 found was closed at the top by an enormous globu- 

 lar mass of stone, as fresh as if it had been fash- 

 ioned only yesterday. 



Geological Work of Marmots. — Professor 

 Mushketoff's account of his explorations in the 

 Caspian steppes contains some interesting remarks 

 on the work done by marmots [Spermophylus Evers- 

 manii) in the modification of the surface of the 

 steppe. They made their appearance in the region 

 only a few years ago, but their heaps of earth al- 

 ready cover hundreds of square miles. Like earth- 

 worms, they must therefore be regarded as a factor 

 of some importance in modifying the surface of the 

 soil. Their heaps of earth have an average length 

 of 3J meters, and a width of 2J meters, with an 

 average height of from 30 to 50 centimeters, and 



it was found that on each 2 square meters there 

 were no less than five, seven, or even eight heaps, 

 each of which represented at least 2 cubic meters of 

 earth removed. It may be safely asserted that on 

 each square kilometer of surface no less than 30,000 

 cubic meters of earth have been brought to the sur- 

 face, owing to their activity. Their influence on 

 vegetation is also well worthy of notice. 



Diamonds in Meteoric Stones. — In a Russian 

 paper appears a preliminary report of the examina- 

 tion by Latschinof and Jerofeif, professors of min- 

 eralogy and chemistry respectively, of a meteoric 

 stone weighing four pounds, which fell in the dis- 

 trict of Krasnoslobodsk, government of Penza, 

 Russia, on Sept. 4, 1886. In the insoluble residue 

 small corpuscles showing traces of polarization 

 were observed; they are harder than corundum, 

 and have the density and other characters of the 

 diamond. The corpuscles are said to amount to one 

 per cent of the meteoric stone. Carbon in its 

 amorphous graphitic form has been long known as 

 a constituent of meteoric irons and stones; lately 

 small but well-defined crystals of graphitic carbon, 

 having forms often presented by the diamond, were 

 described as having been found in a meteoric iron 

 from Western Australia. "If this supplementary 

 discovery be confirmed," says Nature, " we may at 

 last be placed on the track of the artificial pro- 

 duction of precious stones." 



A Precious Stone of much interest has been 

 discovered in Colorado. It is an opaque white 

 hydrophane. The finder calls it " magic stone," 

 because, as usual with this mineral, it has the 

 property of becoming transparent if water is 

 dropped slowly on it from one to three minutes. 

 It is so porous, that it will absorb its own height 

 in water. It quickly recovers its opacity. 



Compounds of Alcohol with Water. — Men- 

 deljeff has, by a study of specific gravities of 

 mixtures of alcohol and water, arrived at the con- 

 clusion that there are three definite hydrates, con- 

 taining respectively three and twelve molecules of 

 water to one molecule of alcohol, and three of 

 alcohol to one of water. The first of these has 

 been obtained in the crystalline form at the temper- 

 ature attained by a mixture of solid carbon dioxide 

 and ether; the second solidifies at —17°. 



Newspaper Science. — An English daily paper 

 recently published the following novel information 

 regarding the lunar eclipse of Jan. 28 : "A solar 

 eclipse only lasts a few minutes, owing to the fact 

 that the shadow of our earth is so much smaller than 

 the sun; but in the case of a lunar eclipse, our 

 earth's shadow is much larger than the body of our 

 satellite, and consequently her passage through the 

 shadow, from side to side completely, occupies sev- 

 eral hours." 



An Interesting Spider. — The habits of a 

 running spider of Southern Europe, Tarantula nar- 

 bonensis, Latr., studied by Herr Beck, are curious. 

 It makes a vertical round hole in the ground about 

 ten inches deep, and this, with a small earth-wall 

 sometimes made round the mouth, is lined with 

 web. A little way down is a small lateral hole 

 into which the spider shrinks when an animal falls 

 into the tube; when the animal has reached the 

 bottom, the spider pounces on it. One can readily 

 tell that a tube is tenanted by the bright phos- 

 phorescent eyes of the spider turned upwards. In 

 fighting the spider erects himself on its last pair 

 of legs, striking with the others. The bite is not 

 fatal to man, but it causes large swellings. The 

 children in Bucharest angle for these spiders by 

 means of an egg-like ball of kneaded yellow wax 

 tied to a thread. This is lowered with jerks into 

 the hole, and the spider fastens on it, and can be 

 pulled out; whereupon another thread is passed 

 round one of the legs, and the animal is played with. 



