390 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Voi 



of yielding colouring matter ; and yet, when treated in the ordi- 

 nary way, it yields a brilliant pink, cherry, or claret colour, 

 which in France has been applied to so many useful purposes 

 that the lichen in consequence has obtained the common name 

 of " Herpette des Tenturiers." FO. 



The Virulence of a Venomous Nature. 



The natives of South Africa designate the striking echidna, 

 a singularly formidable viper, the picakolou. These reptiles 

 possess so abundant and deadly a venom that when one of them 

 is attacked by a band of dogs, the first dog bitten dies im- 

 mediately ; the second, five minutes afterwards ; the third, at 

 the end of an hour; and the fourth, after a more or less 

 lengthened agony. A great number of beasts is annually de- 

 stroyed by the picakolous ; the fangs of an individual killed at 

 Kolobeng distilled poison for several hours after its head had 

 been severed from its body. D. 



Dormant Vitality. 



The eggs of birds and seeds of plants do not possess all the 

 characters of a living being, and yet they live. Once place them 

 in conditions favourable for the development of their existence, 

 and they become transformed into animals or plants. Such 

 bodies are regarded as collections of organic matter possessing 

 dormant vital properties, which, under certain circumstances, 

 waken up and become active. There are in our libraries, and 

 in human minds, ideas in a condition which bears an analogy 

 to this state. They are full of vitality, but dormant. But 

 there are conditions under which they will develop into a 

 tremendous existence. ou. 



Silent Voices. 



We may say of the stars, that though there is neither speech 

 nor language, their voices are heard ; " their sound is gone out 

 into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the earth.' 

 Though placed at inconceivable distances from our earth, stars 



