•j6 The West American Scientist- 



an excellent preserve or jelly and may be dried and used like 

 preserved apples. 



In waterless localities the fleshy roots of the needle or pin-bush 

 Hakea leucoptera, yield good drinking water tothose who under- 

 stand how to get it. 



The Rumquat or desert melon, Atlantia glanca, may be made 

 into a fair preserve. 



An infusion from the fragrant bark of the sassafras, (Athero- 

 sperma moschata) is used in the form of a beer and has a pleas- 

 ant taste when taken wiih plenty of milk. 



The natives of New South Wales and Queensland prepare a 

 cake which resembles a coarse ship biscuit from a bean tree 

 known as htalic or Bo^nm. 



In cases of severe thirst much relief may be obtained by chew- 

 ing the leaves of the shingle oak ( Casnarina stricta. ) Being of an 

 acid nature the chewing of the leaves produces a flow of saliva. 



The native currant (Coprosura Billardieri), the Moor of the 

 natives of Coranderrk station was formerly used by the settlers in 

 making puddings. 



BRIEFER ARTICLES. 



Preserving the Colors of Flowers. — A process of preserv- 

 ing the colors of flowers in dried specimens, as used in Berlin, 

 consists of steeping the plants in a solution of sulphurous acid con- 

 taining one-fourth of its volume of methylated spirit. Delicate 

 flowers require an imersion of but five or ten minutes, and thick 

 leaves as much as twenty-four hours. They are then removed, 

 the fluid is allowed to evaporate, and the plants are dried between 

 paper in the usual way. Sa*. American. 



A Petrified Bird's Nest.— Harlan H. Ballard, President of 

 the Agassiz A.ssociation, describes in St. Nicholas for June, his 

 experience with a petrified bird's nest containing three eggs. It 

 is a useful article and a timely warning against being "taken in" 

 by any apparently wonderful production of nature. These nests 

 it seems, are prepared in Italy by immersing in water impregnat- 

 ed with mineral salts, thus producing an artificial petrifaction. 

 It may be well to note the distinction between the words, petri- 

 faction, and fossil, which are too often used as synomyns: a 

 petrifaction may be defined as anything "turned to stone," or en- 

 crusted by a mineral substance, and may be either natural or art- 

 ificial; a fossil is "a substance dug from the earth," or plant or 

 animal remains (petrified or otherwise), from the strata compos- 

 ing the surface of the earth. It would not be strange if the nest 

 described by Prof. Ballard had been a natural petrifaction as he 

 supposes it may be but for the presence oi three eggs. It would 

 be possible for a bird in our western country to build and hatch 

 its young in such a situation as he describes, where the nest at a 

 different season might be subject to the overflow of a non-peren- 



