rig SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Fea 



different climate of Virginia, produces a single bud, and this 

 yields a branch which ever afterwards yields nectarines. Now 

 nectarines differ, as every one knows, from peaches in their 

 smoothness, size, and flavour, and the difference is so great 

 that some botanists have even maintained that they are speci- 

 fically distinct. Thus does Nature intimate to us that she can 

 make use of the parent to produce something quite unlike the 

 parent's family. A. P. 



Fascination a Weapon of Destruction. 



The rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) feeds principally upon 

 smaller mammals and upon birds, which it seems certain it 

 possesses a peculiar power of fascinating the effect, it may be, 

 of intense fear. " When the piercing eye of the rattlesnake is 

 fixed upon them," says Mr. Murray, "terror and amazement 

 render them incapable of escaping ; and while involuntarily 

 keeping their eyes fixed on those of the reptile, birds have 

 been seen to drop into its mouth as if paralysed, squirrels, de- 

 scend from their trees, and leverets run into the jaws of the 

 expecting dovourer." Hogs and peccaries, however, are un- 

 affected by this panic, and feed greedily upon the reptile which 

 causes it, whose venomous fangs cannot penetrate their formid- 

 able hide. D. 



The Stupefying Effects of Fear. 



At the mere sight of one of the falcon tribe a partridge will 

 stop as though struck with stupor, and so overcome with fear 

 as almost to be incapable of concealing itself, remaining ab- 

 solutely immovable, and it is not until the dreaded enemy is 

 gone that it regains self-control. It will even permit itself to 

 be stifled in its hiding-place rather than expose itself to the 

 falcon, vulture, or sparrow-hawk. The like stupefying effects 

 of fear are constantly seen amongst mankind. The lives of 

 many are subject to constant misery as the result of fears, 

 sometimes reasonable, sometimes unreasonable, respecting the 

 intentions of real or imaginary enemies. And probably there 

 is no individual who has not at some time or other been under 



