160 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



November 



Dangerous Insects. 



There are two small insects whose blood- 

 thirstiness goes so fur as to make them the 

 tc-rror of man and beast alike. The one is 



the famous Tsetse of Africa, a fly not larger 

 than a hi)Use fly, but whose bite is certain 

 death to horse, ox, and do,?, while the pnisun 

 has uo off'Ct on m;ia or wild auimals — onu. of 

 the great mysteries of nature, which neither 

 sava'tt nor traveler has yet been able to 

 solve. The otli"r is simply looked up;iu as 

 the genuine oflspriiig of Beelzebub, the 

 father of flies, and often c.illed his owii. It 

 is a small fly, which has its home iu the vast 

 marshy plains of Himgary, from whence it 

 comes forth iu April, waaders over a largo 

 part of the kingdom, and vauishi-s again iii 

 the month of Jnne. When they are wan- 

 dering they often fill the lower strata of the 

 atmosphere so densely that, at every breath, 

 mouth and nose are filled with hundreds. — 

 If a herd of cattle is overtaken b}' them, it 

 is lost. The thirsty creatures press without 

 ceasing, into mouths, nostrils, ears and eyes, 

 and quickly fill every opening till far into 

 the interior of the body, so thut death must 

 ensue. During damp or r.tiny weather the 

 cunning flies bide in the limestone grottoes, 

 with which that country abounds; but as 

 soon as the sua shines out again, their im- 

 mense hosts also break forth once more, and 

 set out on their wanderings. When the 

 cloud is seen from afar, the cattle run in wild 

 terror to tlie stables, the plowman unhitches 

 his horses, and follows at a full gallop, tlie 

 sheep are driven to their stable, and all win- 

 dows and doors are closed as tightly as pos- 

 sible. And if flight is out of question, 

 hundreds of horses and oxen, of hogs and of 

 sheep, have b-en known to perish under this 

 terrible affliction. — Hours at Home. 



Animalcules. 



If some hay is placed in a glas^ of pure 

 rainwater, and allowed to soak a few days 

 in a sunny place, and if it be then removed, 

 the water will be found, under a powerful 

 niisroscope, to cimtain many very small mov- 

 ing things which are called infusoria, from 

 their being produced after infusing the hay. 

 The eggs which were on the hay bred there 

 myriads of small things, which often have 

 a verj' beautiful exit of transparent flint of 

 silica. If the water is kept clean, and is not 

 allowed to decompose or smell, generation 

 after generation of the infusoria live, die, 

 and fall to the bottom of the glass. They 

 form a very delicate film there, and minute 

 portions of it, when examined under a high 

 magnifying power, show the silicious skele- 

 tons or shells very distinctlj'. 



Now, many strata in the earth are formed 

 entirely of the remains of infusoria, and a 

 very familiar example is the Tripoli powder, 

 from the polishing slate of Bilin, iu Bohe, 

 mia. A single grain of 'I'ripoli powder con- 

 tains no fewer than or.e hundred and eighty- 

 seven millions of the trar.sparent, flinty 

 sl<eletons of dead animaleulus; yet the lay- 

 ers of earth whicli are made up of them at 

 Bilin extended for mile.s. 



In the harb n- of Wismar, in the Baltic they 

 increase and multiply at a great rate ; for sev- 

 enteen thousand cubic feet of mud are 

 formed every year there, and every grain of 

 it contains one billion of the beautiful sil'- 

 cious remains of the infusoria. Iu the island 



of Barbadoes there is a thick mass of the 

 most beautiful flinty sea animalcules, and 

 they are in such numbers that it must be 

 supposed the dead minute things were con- 

 stantly falling in shows from the sea to the 

 bottom. — Engineering Magazine. 



Stages of Insecls. — All insects pass 

 through three well-marked stages, called th- 

 larva or maggot, grub, caterpillar; the pupa 

 or chrysalis, and the imago, when the insect 

 ha3 reached adult life and can propagate its 

 species. The house-fly lays several hundrid 

 eggs, from which the larva; are hatched 

 probably within a few hours after they are 

 laid, as the fresh fly lays its egg witli the 

 embrj'os so far advanced that they hatch 

 b:'f )re they are expelled from the body of 

 the parent fly. These eggs are dropped by 

 the house fly in the ordure of stables, prob- 

 ably in the early part of summer. The 

 maggots require several days— we do not 

 ki:ovv just how many — to acquire their full 

 size. At this time they are cylindrical, 

 ;m)Oth and shining fljshy worms, and four 

 I njs in length. The head is small, partly 

 concealed within the body, and armed with 

 two horny hooks, witli whieli they seize 

 their food, which undcmbtedly consists of 

 decaying animal and vegetable matter. 



jecdlantous. 



How Foreign Raisins are Made. 



The Muscatel is the finest kind of raisin 

 imported. The preparation of drying, upon 

 which the value of the fruit to a great extent 



depends, is in its case conducted differently 

 from that of the most common kinds. Usu- 

 ally the grapes are g.ithered in bunches 

 when fully ripe, and hung and spread out to 

 dry. These arc aft( rwanls placed in vessels 

 full of holes, and dipped in a lye made of 

 wood ashes and vanilla, with tlie addition of 

 a little salt and oil. 'I'his brings the sac clia- 

 rine juice to the surface, and causes the dark 

 brown color as well as the crystalization of 

 sugar, which is so characteristic in the cheap- 

 er fruit. The best varieties are simply dried 

 iu the sun before removal from the tree. 



The fruit is carefully watched, and when 

 at the proper stage of ripeness, the stalks of 

 the bunches are ]iartlj' cut through and al- 

 lowed to hang till dry, the fruit by this 

 means retaining its bloom, and being a light 

 color when dr^-. Among the manj- varieties 

 of raisins known in commerce, are Vahn- 

 cias, Denias and Lexiasfrom Spain, and Mal- 

 agas and Malaga iu Grenada. All these va- 

 rieties of fruit are imported into this country 

 in boxes and half boxes. ~0/mo Farmer. 



The Persimmon. — According to a writer 

 in a JSorth Carolina pa]ier, the persimmon 

 is one of the most valuable of trees. Rum, 

 wine, and beer, says this writer, can be made 

 from the fruit, and a bushel of persimmons 

 will yield a gallon of rum. To make wine 

 the fruit is peeled and stoned. Further, this 

 writer says : The bark is a fine astringent, 

 styptic, tonic, and antiseptic, used in sore 

 throat, fevers, chills, and dysentery. Its 

 a itiseptic qualities have been considered full 

 etiual to tile Cliinc ma. It is more astringent 

 than eoruiue (dog-wood bark) or quini,.e. — 

 The ripe fruit will expel worms from cbild- 

 rem. The wood is liard and fine-grained 

 suitable for tools, and many domestic arti- 

 cles, and when large enough may be em- 

 ployed as a substitute for Guayac wood. It 

 is certainly one of the most useful trees in 

 our country. 



The Camphor Tree Sumatra. 



Among the most luxuriant and valuable 

 trees of the island of Sumatra the fir.st place 

 belongs to the JDryohalanopa camphora. The 

 tree is straight, extraordinarily tall, and has 

 a gigantic crown, which often overtops the 

 other woody giants, by one hundred feet or 

 so. The stem is sometimes twenty feet thick. 

 According to the natives there are three 

 kinds of camphor tree, which they name 

 " mailanguan," " marbin tungan," and " mar 

 biu targan," from the outward color of the 

 bark, which is sometimes yellow, sometimes 

 black, and often red. The bark is rougli 

 and grooved, and is overgrown with moss. 

 The leaves are of a dark green, cblong oval 

 in shape, and pointed; they smell of cam- 

 ph(U', and are besides hard and tougli. The 

 outward form of the fruit is very like that 

 of the acorn, but it has around it five petals; 

 these are placed somewliat apart from each 

 otliiT, and the whole in form much resembles 

 a lily. The fruit is also impregnated with 

 camphor and is eaten by the natives when it 

 is well ripened and fre>h. 



The amazing hight of the tree binders the 

 regular gathering, but when the tree yields 

 its fruit, which takes place in March, April, 

 and May, the populaticui go out to collect it, 

 which they speedily ellect, as, if the fruit be 

 allowc-d to remain fi>ur days on the groui:d, 

 it sends forth a root about the length of a 

 finger, and becomes unfit to be eaten. 

 Amongst other things, this fruit, prepared 

 with sugar, furnishes a tasty comfit or article 

 of confLCtionary. It is said that it is very 

 unhealthy to remain near the camphor tree 

 during the flowering season, because of the 

 extraurdinary hot exlialations from it during 

 that period. The greater the age of llie 

 tree the more camphor it contains. Usually 

 the order of the rejah is given for number 

 of men, say thirtj', to gather cunphor in the 

 bush, belonging to territory which he claims. 

 The men appointed seek for a place where 

 many trees grow together ; there they con- 

 struct rude huts. 



Tlie tree is cut down just above the roots, 

 after which it is divided into small pieces, 

 aid these are afterwards split, upon which 

 the camphor, which is found in hollows or 

 cri'viees in the body of the tree, and above 

 e.ll, in the knots and swellings of branches 

 from the trunk, becomes visible in the form 

 of granules nr grains. The quantity of 

 camphor yielded by a single tree seldom 

 amounts to more than half a pound, and if 

 we take into account the great and long-con- 

 tinued labor requisite in gathering it, we 

 have the material reply to tlie question why 

 it fetches so hinh a price. At tlie .same time 

 that the camphor is gathered— that is, during 

 the cutting down of the tree — the oil, which 

 then drips from the cuttings, is caught in 

 considerable quantity. It is seldom brought 

 to market, because probably the price and 

 the trouble of carriages are not sufficiently 

 remunerative. 



Whenever the oil is offered for s:ile at 

 Baros, the usual price is one guilder for an 

 ordinary quart w.ine-bottleful. The pro- 

 duction of Baros camphor lessens yearly; 

 and the profitable operation of former times, 

 say in the year 175:J, when fully 1,350 lbs. 

 were sent from Padang to Bavavia, will 

 never return. Since time out of mind the 

 beautiful clumps and clusters of camphor 

 trees have been destroyed in a ruthless 

 manner; 3'oung and old have beeu felled, 

 and as no planting or means of renewal has 

 taken (ilace, but the growth of the trees has 

 been left to nature, it is not improbable that 

 this noble species will ere long wholly dis- 

 appear from Sumatra. — Journal of Applied 

 Science. 



