Notes and Netvs 8r 



be converted into tata-albunien, it thereby becomino doubled in 

 bulk and glassy in appearance. It is eight or ten times more di- 

 gestible, more stable, and allows the addition of any spice. 



"The Land of the Midnight Sua" must indeed bean interesting 

 portion of the earth's surface to visit if we may judge from the ex- 

 tremely interesting and beautifully illustrated article about that 

 region that appeus in Dcmorcsfs Montlily Magazine for July. 



The sound of the axe and the hammer, not only on the assem- 

 bly grounds, but all around the lake is responded to by the people 

 near and far in notes of preparation for the season's great annual 

 festival at Chautauqua. Fifteen years have passed since the 

 opening of this summer school in the woods. Chautuaqua has 

 ever refused to do any but thorough work, its power has become 

 international, and it his bound friends by the thousand to itself. 

 All the year round, through its literary circles and otherwise, its 

 influence is felt not only in every state in the union but beyond 

 the sea and the great gatherings of the summer are but the logi- 

 cal results of this vital under current. 



The botanist of our U. S. Department of Agriculture is referred 

 to by an English contemporary as Sir George Vasey. His de- 

 scriptions of grasses adapted to arid districts are widely copied. 



Lentils and tares are receiving considerable attention in South 

 Australia, where they are cultivated for fodder. 



Rabbits, sparrows, kangaroos, paddymelens, hares, foxes and 

 kangaroo rats seem to be the more troublesome of the animals in 

 Australia, on which the Government offers bounties, 



A thick shower of small frogs is reported in the "Western dis- 

 trict" by the Victorian Farmers' Gazette, of April 29th. 



The rabbit diseases commission of New South Wales has re- 

 ported unfavorably on M. Pasteur's proposal to extirpate rabbits 

 by means of chicken cholera. The commission finds that the use 

 of the microbes in the food dees not cause the disease to spread 

 rapidly from infected to healthy rabbits. 



The latest maritime curiosity in British waters is a torpedo 

 boat burning petroleum or tar refuse in place of coal- The ves- 

 sel has made nineteen knots an hour without permitting any per- 

 ceptible smoke, and is said to move quite noiselessly. She is 

 137 ft. in length and her crew numbers only seven men. 



The wax-scale of Florida, (Ceroplastes floridensis) has been 

 discovered in California, on trees imported this season from Flor- 

 ida, according to a note in Insect Life. It is not noted as a pest 

 in Florida, but occasionally it will increase upon an individual 

 tree so as to arouse apprehension. 



Samuel Lowell Elliot died February 12, aged forty-five years. 

 He was a careful student of the habits of insects and very sue- 



