88 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[June, 1889. 



slip pips, and a handful of sweetbriar. The sweet- 

 briar is a delicious ingredient, but think of picking 

 seven pecks of pips! A recipe is given for making 

 elder-llower wine "from the tree which bears white 

 berries." We are confidingly told that "it drinks 

 very like Frontiniac." Wine of black elderberries is 

 said to be equal to the best Hermitage claret; and 

 another recipe instructs us how to make wine of 

 white elderberries. Or sycamore, birch, walnut, 

 blackberry, or balm wines — all these were once 

 made by fair and dainty housewives, and now are 

 made no more. And then there was shrub, wherein 

 to one gallon of new milk, flavored with lemons and 

 Seville oranges, was added two quarts of red wine, 

 two gallons of rum, and one of brandy. Sweet 

 dishes, also, were generalh' made by the ladies of 

 the family, and there is much play of fancy in the 

 naming of them. In turning over the pages, we 

 find directions how to spin gold and silver webs for 

 dessert, to spin birds' nests, to make a Chinese tem- 

 ple or obelisk, a fish-pond with silver and gold 

 fishes, a hen's nest, with strips of lemon for straw, 

 and eggs filled with flummery, a hen and chickens 

 in jelly, a desert island. "Take a lump of paste and 

 form it into a rock three inches broad at the top, set 

 it in the middle of a deep china dish, and set a cast 

 figure on it with a crown on its head and a knot of 

 sugar candy at its feet," etc. "If this dish is for a 

 wedding supper, put two figures instead of one," so 

 the desert island is not so much of a desert after all. 

 Next comes a "rocky island," and then a "floating 

 island," with sheep, swans, "or you may put in 

 snakes, or any wild animals of the same sort." 

 Moonshine is another dish with a pretty name, and 

 there is likewise a recipe for "moon and stars in 

 jelly," a half moon with seven stars shining out of 

 flummery colore^ with cochineal and chocolate to 

 imitate the color of the sky. We still have numbers 

 of people among us whose eye for color is as fine as 

 that of the inventor of this ; but who now makes 

 moon and stars in jelly? "Solomon's Temple in 

 flummery" is a yet finer flight of the imagination. 

 A recipe for making an amulet takes our fancy, but 

 loses its attraction when we find it is only Mrs. 

 RafTald's way of spelling omelet. Who can say how- 

 much the construction of some of these quaintly- 

 named and delicately-compounded dishes may have 

 been to our grandmothers.' Perhaps it was their 

 poetry, their sphere of art, their one escape from the 

 monotony of their quiet lives. — Exchange. 



THE FORMS OF LEAVES AND THEIR USES. 

 Even the most cursory observer of vegetable life 

 must have been often struck with the various forms 

 of leaves. Why they should be so variously formed 

 does not, however, often suggest itself, though there 

 is a reason for the special shape and texture of 

 almost every leaf in existence. Plants, such as 

 grasses, daffodils, and others which usually grow in 

 clusters, have generally narrow leaves growing up- 

 right, so as not to overshadow one another. Other 

 plants, of isolated habits, have an arrangement of 

 foliage which secures to themselves the space of 

 ground necessary for their development. The daisy, 

 dandelion, or shepherd's purse — which may mostly 

 be seen in pastures — are examples of this. A circle 

 ot broad leaves pressed against the ground, forming 

 what is known as a rosette growth, eflfectually bars 

 the approach of any other plant, and keeps clear 

 from all other roots the space of ground necessary 

 to its own nutriment. F"loating leaves, and leaves 

 of marsh plants, are usually of simple outline, for, 

 having few competitors, they are not liable to get in 

 one another's light. Submerged plants have mostly 

 leaves of narrow segments — the reason for which is 

 not very well understood, though it is assumed by 

 naturalists that it it for the purpose of exposing as 



large a surface as possible, in order to extract the 

 minute proportion of carbonic acid dissolved in a 

 vast bulk of water. Leaves on the boughs of trees 

 are often much divided, so as to fold easily, to pre- 

 vent their being rent and torn by high winds, whilst 

 the glossy surface of evergreens is intended to throw 

 off rain and dew, which might freeze on them, and 

 so cause injury to the tissues within. But the hairs 

 on the surface of leaves are perhaps the most inter- 

 esting study of all. With the aid of a microscope, 

 the beautiful and systematic arrangement of these 

 can be easily discerned, and their uses understood. 

 On many plants there are glandular hairs, to catch 

 or deter small creeping insects ;*on others, there are 

 hairs set so as to act as effectively against young 

 animals as a spike palisade against obtrusive boys-^ 

 on others, hairs which arrest the drops of moisture 

 and force them down the leaf-stalk, to moisten the 

 earth about the roots; whilst others are protected 

 by a series of poisoned stings. The ordinary nettle 

 is an example of this, and the beauty and ingenuity 

 of its mechanism is truly wonderful. Each nettle- 

 hair is armed with a brittle and pointed siliceous 

 cap, which breaks oft" in the wound; and the poison 

 is then able to flow out through a tubular hair, from 

 a reservoir at its base. There is scarcely a form of 

 leaf but is specially modified by nature for some 

 particular purpose, and the discovery of this pur- 

 pose is a source of very pleasant and profitable study 

 to young naturalists. — Horticultural Times. 



GLEANINGS. 



The Nasturtium came from Peru. 



Single Roses are becoming fashionable. 



Thin Pears when about one-third grown. 



Birds do not like black thread strung about. 



If the 1888 corn crop were loaded on two-horse 

 wagons, 33 bushels to the load, and the wagons 

 were placed 26 feet apart, or as nearly as possible in 

 a string, the line of wagons would reach twelve 

 times around the globe — 300,000 miles ! 



To Kill the Cabbage- Worm. — A correspondent 

 of an exchange says : I have found nothing better 

 than the following: Seven parts sour milk, one 

 part kerosene oil. They must be thoroughly mixed 

 at the start, and then stirred to the bottom every 

 time the brush is put into the pail, or the kerosene 

 will separate from the milk" and kill every plant it 

 touches. It is to be sprinkled on the plant with a 

 brush, and, if the head has begun to form, the 

 leaves must be pulled apart, so as to kill the worms, 

 as it kills only those it touches. 



Expediting Their Season. — White canterbury 

 bells, phlox drummondi, garden carnations and 

 verbenas, alyssum and heliotrope, are perpetual 

 bloomers from May till frost, if care is only taken to 

 cut or rub off all blossoms as soon as faded, if not 

 before, and dig a trowelful of fertilizer at the roots 

 every three weeks, with plenty of water and mulch 

 in hot season. It is a labor merely to cut the wealth 

 of bloom by this method. By the way, flowers were 

 meant to cut if not wanted for seed. Better far give 

 them away than suffer them to fade and exhaust the 

 plant. 



Weed Pests in the Lawn. — Plantains and dan- 

 delions are a great blemish to many a lawn. A re- 

 cent reliable writer says he has destroyed thousands 

 of them by dropping crude carbolic acid right into 

 the hearts of the plants. Roots of dandelion dug up 

 a week after the crowns were dressed with acid were 

 found to be killed right down to the tips, a foot be- 

 low the surface. It is not sufficient to merely kill 

 the leaves of the plants; the acid must enter the 

 hearts quite in the centre. Carbolic acid is poison- 

 ous, and should not be allowed to come in contact 

 with the skin. 



Peach Stones as Fuel. — It has been demon- 

 strated in Vacca Valley,' Cal., that peach stones will 

 make as good a fire for household purposes as the 

 best of coal. The fruit growers, instead of throwing 

 the pits away, dispose of the stones at the present 

 time at the rate of $6 a ton. A sack of the stones 

 will weigh about eighty pounds, and will last as 

 long as an equal number of pounds of coal, and give 

 a greater intensity of heat. The apricot stones do 

 not burn as readily as the peach, and will not com- 

 mand as good a price. A large number of peaches 

 are dried during the summer season for shipment. 



Birds That Destroy Insects. — The following 

 birds are to be clas.sed among the most helpful kinds 

 in the general warfare against insects: Robins, 

 (cut, and other earth worms) ; swallows, night 

 hawks, purple martins, (moth-catchers) ; pewees, 

 (striped cucumber bugs) ; wood thrushes and wrens, 

 (cut worms) : cat birds, (tent caterpillar) ; meadow 

 larks, woodpeckers, crows, (wireworms) ; blue- 

 throated buntings, (canker worms) ; black, red- 

 winged birds, jays, doves, pigeons, and chippies, 

 (strawberry pests) ; quails, (chinch bugs, locusts) ; 

 whip-poor-wills, (moths) ; hawks, all night birds, 

 owls, etc., tanagers and black-winged summer red 

 birds, (curculios) ; nut-crackers, fly-catchers, chim- 

 ney swifts, indigo birds, chipping and song spar- 

 rows, black birds, mocking birds, titmouses, vireas, 

 orchard orioles. 



A Crop of Four-Leaved Clovers. — Here is a 

 curious circumstance in natural history : Last 

 spring, in the time when daisies blow, a lady living 

 on Mount Bowdoin went out to gather a bunch of 

 the golden-hearted flowers. Seeing some excep- 

 tionally large and deeply colored clover blossoms, 

 she stooped to pick them, and discovered a four- 

 leaved clover, and another, and another, until she 

 had found 17 four, and one six-leaved one on the one 

 plant, not larger than her own hand. The plant 

 was in a rocky spot, and its roots readily detached 

 themselves from the scant soil and came up in her 

 hands. She took it home, set it out in her garden, 

 and it produced its kind through all the summer 

 long. The plant never increased in size, its roots 

 refusing to spread themselves, but she rarely visited 

 it without being rewarded by from one to eight four- 

 leaved specimens. In the autumn the lady trans- 

 planted the root to a small salt box, which it does 

 not nearly fill, but, since that time, it has borne 37 

 four, and a dozen five-leaved clovers. — Boston Tram- 

 script. 



Effect of Electric Currents on Plants. — 

 Prof. E. Wollny, of Munich, has experimented on 

 the effect of electric currents of different intensities 

 and characters on the growth of plants. Small 

 plats of about four metres square were provided, 

 and were separated by plates penetrating 25 centi- 

 metres into the soil. On the two sides of one of 

 these beds, plates of zinc were sunk, the dimensions 

 being thirty centimetres by two metres. They were 

 connected by an insulated wire, with five Meidinger 

 cells in the circuit. Another enclosure had an 

 alternating current constantly sent acro.ss it, while 

 in a third there were simply buried a copper and 

 zinc plate, connected above the earth by an insu- 

 lated wire. The three enclosures were therefore 

 subjected to different conditions, — to a weak direct 

 current, to a comparatively strong direct current, 

 and to an alternating current. Several specimens of 

 grain, potatoes, carrots, etc., were planted, and were 

 subjected to the action of the currents until they 

 reached maturity. Comparing them with plants 

 grown under ordinary conditions, the result to 

 which Professor Wollny is led is, that electricity, 

 whether under the form of continuous currents of 

 different intensities, or of alternating currents, 

 exerts no influence on the vegetation of plants. 



