ern France and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 It is cultivated in various temperate 

 and subtropical countries. 



The quince must not be confounded 

 with the Indian "bael" fruit which is 

 known in India as the Bengal quince. 

 The Chinese quince is a species of pear. 

 The Japanese quince is also a species of 

 pear resembling the Chinese quince. It 

 is a great garden favorite on account of 

 its large scarlet or crimson flowers. The 

 fruit, which is not edible in the raw 



state, resembles a small apple and is 

 sometimes used for making a jelly. 

 The Portugal quince differs from the 

 ordinary variety by its more delicate 

 coloring. It is, however, less produc- 

 tive than the common varieties. 



Description of Plate. — A, flowering 

 twig; B, fruit; i, stipules; 2, flower in 

 section; 3, stamen; 4, pollen; 5, style; 

 6, stigma; 7 and 8, fruit in sections; 9 

 and 10, seeds of one cell of the ovary; 

 II, seeds; 12, seed in sections. 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



DIAMONDS AND GOLD. 



CECIL RHODES says: "So long 

 as women are vain and men 

 foolish there will be no diminu- 

 tion in the demand for dia- 

 monds." He ought to know, for he is 

 called the "Diamond King." 



Thirty years ago John O'Reilly found 

 some children at a farm house in South 

 Africa playing in the evening with 

 some beautiful stones that had peculiar 

 forms and brilliancy. He took the 

 finest to town with him and found it 

 was worth S500. 



People swarmed into the country 

 where little children had rough dia- 

 monds for playthings, and over $400,- 

 000,000 worth of these crystals has been 

 taken from Africa. 



While the diamond excitement was 

 still raging the people were inflamed at 

 finding there was gold about them in 

 great quantities. The diamond hunt- 

 ers in many instances became gold 

 diggers, because there was even more 

 money to be made in gold digging than 

 in hunting for diamonds. 



Last year nearly $75,000,000 worth 

 of gold was produced in that country. 

 That is more than we produced in the 

 great gold fields of the United States 

 ail taken together. We crushed from 

 the rocks and dug out of the dirt about 

 $65,000,000 in gold. The famous gold 

 fields of Australia yielded about the 

 same amount as our own country. 



So much wealth in Africa has em- 

 bittered the people. The Dutch farm- 

 ers, called boers, occupy the heart of 

 the best country. They are not pro- 

 gressive, the English say. Perhaps 

 they mean that the boers do not move 

 away fast enough to suit the English. 

 They have made trek after trek to get 

 out of the way of the English. Trek 

 means journey. But when they real- 

 ized how much wealth there was about 

 them in the country which they had 

 thought was so poor, they decided not 

 to make any more treks to let the 

 British in. 



These Dutch farmers withstood the 

 English at Majuba Hill, Jan. 28, 1881, 

 and killed off nearly all the British 

 forces sent against them. In this fight 

 they lost but fourteen men in killed 

 and wounded, while wiping out their 

 enemies. They celebrate this day as 

 we do the Fourth of July. It is their 

 day of independence, and they do not 

 wish to give up the advantage it gave 

 them. Sixty years ago less than five 

 hundred boers under Andries Pretorius 

 defeated twelve thousand Zulus, kilhng 

 three thousand of them. 



As the Dutch have such a good rea- 

 son for trusting to their weapons there 

 is little wonder that the gold and the 

 diamonds of the country brought them 

 into a war with England. 



