152 



POPULAR SCTKTTCE KEWS. 



[October, 1888. 



If, perchance, a wind of sufficient strength does 

 not blow when expected, the grub returns to the 

 work of cutting, and, having removed a little more 

 of the wood, retreats to its burrow as before. 

 Before very long the expected wind comes, and 

 down falls the branch, with its tenant snugly en- 

 cased. After its fall it continues to feed upon the 

 pith and fibre, until it has attained its full size, 

 which generally happens about the last of Sep- 

 tember. Then it goes into the pupa state, fiom 

 which it emerges a full-grown beetle, either that 

 fall or the next spring. 



According to one authority, not only the 

 branches, but small trees, of the white oak are 

 sometimes felled by these insects; in which cases 

 the grub, instead of cutting the wood off trans- 

 versely, severs it in a slanting direction. 



If one of these branches be picked up and ex- 

 amined not many days after its fall to the ground, 

 the grayish grub, with its large head and strong- 

 cutting jaws, will be discovered, still at work devour- 

 ing the woody fibre. This discovery suggests the 

 way in which to put a stop to the disfigurement of 

 our oaks and littering of our lawns with the twigs; 

 for if at this time the branches are collected as 

 they fall, and burned, the ravages of this insect 

 would soon be materially lessened. 



Providence, R.I., Aity. 15. 



TOILET RECIPES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Curious hair-recipes occur on some of the 

 papyri, some of which are very absurd. One to 

 prevent the hair from turning gray directs that a 

 salve should be made from the blood of a black 

 cat cooked in oil; in another, that of a black bull is 

 preferred for the same object. Evidently the color 

 of the animal was to pass through the salve into 

 the hair. In another place we read of the tooth 

 of a donkey dipped in honey being used for really 

 strengthening the hair; and the ingredients for an 

 ingenious compound are given for injuring the hair 

 of a rival, and the counter-remedy to be used by 

 those who think their hair-oil has been tampered 

 with by a suspicious friend. Cakes of some com- 

 position which absorbed oil were always placed on 

 the heads of the guests at feasts, and from them 

 the oil gradually trickled down through the hair. 

 A most disagreeable practice this may seem to us, 

 but to them it appears to have given great pleas- 

 ure; and with the Egyptians as well as with the 

 Hebrews oil was symbolical of joy and gladness. 

 Rouge and other coloring substances were used 

 by women of Egypt to enhance, as they thought, 

 their beauty. The eyes had often a green line 

 underneath them; the eyelashes and eyebrows 

 were pencilled ; and, as in modern Egypt, the nails 

 were always stained red with a preparation from 

 the henna-plant. In our museums we can see the 

 little pots and vases formerly filled with these 

 unguents and colors, and the pencils they used 

 with them, as well as various sorts of combs and 

 hairpins; of the latter there is a very pretty set 

 in the museum at Boulak, — single-pronged wooden 

 pins with jackal heads, stuck into a cushion in the 

 form of a turtle, which was evidently one of the 

 favorite dressing-table ornaments belonging to 

 the deceased lady. 



All these little essentials of the toilet were placed 

 in the tombs by the loving hands of friends and 

 relations for the use of that spiritual body which 

 they believed required all the adornment the lady 

 had loved upon earth. 



Notwithstanding the elaborate care lavished by 

 the Egyptian lady on her personal adornment, she 

 adopted a simplicity of dress suitable to the cli- 

 mate in which she lived. Except for the wig, the 



head was usually uncovered, with sometimes a 

 colored band tied round it. The queens often wore 

 the vulture head-dress, but this was more as an 

 official ornament than as a covering. In common 

 life also the women, both of high and low degree, 

 went barefoot, though they had sandals to wear 

 when they were in full dress. These sandals were 

 made of papyrus or palm fibre, or of leather. They 

 had straps to pass around the foot and between the 

 toes, and in some a piece of the sole was turned up, 

 and bent over the toes to protect them; in later 

 times some of the leather sandals had sides to 

 them, which causes them very much to resemble 

 modern shoes. — The Woman's World. 



[Original in Popular Science News.} 

 THE RAPID DEFOLIATION OF TREES. 



BY FREDERICK LEROY SARGENT. 



The phenomenon of rapid defoliation in the fall 

 is one which may be often observed in our common 

 trees. The causes at work are not a little myste- 

 rious; but some understanding of them may be 

 gained by considering the method of formation of 

 the separating cork-plane, already described in 

 J'opular Science News, vol. xxi. No. 3, p. 35. 

 This cork-plane begins to be formed sometimes as 

 early as the summer, and by autumn extends al- 

 most entirely across the leaf-stalk. All that is 

 needed to insure complete severance is the forma- 

 tion of a few more cells, and the ripening of the 

 whole into a readily separable condition. A sharp 

 frost seems to hasten this final process in a very 

 effectual manner; for, so far as we have ojjserved, 

 it is just after a " cold snap " that we have the most 

 marked defoliation. The exact way in which sud- 

 den cold acts to put all parts in readiness for the 

 separation is not clear, but it may be fairly sur- 

 mised that its effect is felt not so much in the 

 production of new cells as in the ripening of those 

 already formed. All who have prepared specimens 

 for an herbarium, know that, with many plants, 

 the leaves separate from the stem spontaneously 

 during drying. This shows clearly that cold is 

 not necessary to the process of defoliation, and 

 leads us to make the suggestion that it may be a 

 dryne.ss that comes with the cold, rather than the 

 temperature itself, which gives the final touch. 



GLEANINGS. 



If you feel tempted to swear at the cow, dip a 

 quart of milk out of the pail and pour it on the 

 ground. The effect Will be the same, so far as the 

 loss is concerned; but your moral nature will be 

 the gainer. 



For Fattening Cattle, especially to increase 

 the production of milk in cows, it is asserted that 

 the pressed cake from cotton-seed gives the best 

 results; the next in good results is the pressed cake 

 from peanuts. No other kind of food seems to 

 equal the two mentioned for milching-cows; the 

 milk results being greater in amount, and richer 

 in quality. 



Maxuriai, Value of Nitrogen from Dif- 

 ferent Salts. — llerr G. Klein has described 

 some experiments on the comparative manurial 

 value of nitrogen in form of ammonia salts and 

 Chili saltpetre. The experiments were made in 

 four localities. In three of them the soil was limy 

 and rich in humus, while the fourth was rich in 

 lime and poor in humus. These were all dressed 

 with phosphoric acid and kainite; and plots were 

 arranged without nitrogenous manure and with 

 nitrate of ammonia, or both. With the first three 

 soils the action of the manure was aboiit the same, 

 but with the fourth soil the nitrate was much more 

 effective than the ammonia salts. This failure of 



the ammonium salts is chiefly owing to the lime in 

 the soil, late sowing, and unfavorable weather. 



The Western Cattle Trail. — The last 

 vestige of the famous cattle trail from Texas to the 

 North, it is said, will soon be wiped out. This 

 trail was six hundred miles long and one mile wide; 

 and wlien the original survey of Colorado was made, 

 this strip was left for the use of the cattlemen. 

 Hundreds of thousands of cattle have been driven 

 along the trail; but the railroads have rendered it 

 useless, and it is now to be thrown open to settle- 

 ment. 



Barnyard Waste. — The heavy, driving rains 

 often carry away from the barnyard a deep stream 

 of valuable fertilizing material, which is irretriev- 

 ably lost. This may be prevented by keeping the 

 yard well scraped up, and the contents carried out 

 promptly to the fields, and spread. There they are 

 safe from leaching and waste, and there they will 

 do the most good. Neglect of this liability to wash 

 out the best part of the contents of the barnyard 

 is often one of the great leaks of the farm, and 

 yet it is one which may be easily prevented. 



Transplanting Large Pinks. — Pine-trees 

 six inches diameter at the base and twenty-five 

 feet high can be moved if sufficient root be taken 

 out; and to do this, cut back the tree some, both 

 at top and ends of branches, and in August or 

 September dig a trench around the trees, say four 

 or five feet from the body, and dig below the roots, 

 cutting them off. Leave the trees until the ground 

 is thoroughly frozen in mid-winter (having, how- 

 ever, holes dug for their reception before winter 

 sets in), and then dig under and raise them out 

 with levers upon stone boats, and transplant, pack- 

 ing the ground solidly around them. 



Curiosities of Plant-Life. — It has been 

 shown by Professor Schubeler, a Norwegian plant 

 geographer, that most plants in high latitudes pro- 

 duce much larger and heavier seeds than in warmer 

 regions near the equator. This effect he attributes 

 to the prolonged influence of sunlight during the 

 long summer days of the high latitudes. The dif- 

 ference in seed development was very remarkable 

 in some cases. Dwarf beans taken from Christiana 

 to Drontheim — less than four degrees farther 

 north — gained more than sixty per cent in weight ; 

 and thyme from Lyons, when planted at Dron- 

 theim, showed a gain of seventy-one per cent. 

 The grain of Northern fields is heavier than when 

 it grows in more Southerly localities, and seed from 

 Norway planted at Breslau decreased greatly in the 

 first year. The leaves, also, of most plants are 

 larger and more deeply colored in higher latitudes, 

 as was first noticed by Griesbach and Martins. 

 This is true of flowers, many of which, white in 

 Southern climates, become violet in the far North. 



Personified Plants. — Plants are thus per- 

 sonified by the Western Christian Advocate : The 

 pepper and mustard represent a class known as 

 "sharp" people; the spice-trees, others; and 

 tobacco and barley, saloon-keepers. The violet 

 and lily are the preachers of humility, purity, and 

 righteousness. The tea-plant and catnip are the 

 old ladies of the village, without whom society 

 would be incomplete. The beet and sugar-cane are 

 confectioners; roses and pinks, perfumers; wheat 

 and corn, provision-dealers ; and the cocoa-nut palm 

 fnrnishes as many articles as a country-store. The 

 little wayside plants by stagnant pools are scaven- 

 gers. Some plants prefer water, — they are the 

 Baptists; some run all over, — they are the Metho- 

 dists ; some stand up straight and orderly, — they 

 are Presbyterians; others cling to ancient walls and 

 churches, — they are the Episcopalians and Cath- 

 olics. There are plants that live alone, like her- 

 mits; others lead a nomadic life, wandering all over 

 every thing. 



