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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 435 



SCIENCE: 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 



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PLAYING CARDS FROM JAPAN. 



The history of playing cards, their introduction into Europe 

 from the East by the gypsies or by the home-retiiruing Crusaders, 

 the change and development they underwent while being adapted 

 from the cards of the Orient and altered into those that are famil- 

 iar to our eyes, have been dwelt upon by numbers of writers; but 

 the cards used in Japan bave not been mentioned in any of the 

 best known histories, although they are more distinctly original 

 than any others, and they show no marks of the common origin 

 which the Italian, Spanish, German, French, Hindu, and Chinese 

 cards display. 



The Japanese cards, we learn from a paper by Mrs J. King van 

 Rensselaer, in the " Proceedings of the National Museum " (Vol. 

 XIII, No. 836), are oblong, and are made of pasteboard. The 

 backs are painted black, with none of the checkered dotted marks 

 which usually decorate European cards. The designs seem to be 

 stencilled, and are brightly and appropriately colored, and then 

 covered with an enamel or varnish, which makes them quite as 

 slippery as our own. They are very much smaller than our cards, 

 being a little more than two inches long by one broad. 



Forty nine in number, they are divided into twelve suits of four 

 cards in each suit. One card is a trifle smaller than the rest of the 

 pack, and has a plain white face not embellished with any dis- 

 tinctive emblem, and this one is used as a " joker." The other 

 cards are covered with designs that represent twelve flowers or 

 other things appropriate to the weeks of the year. Each card is 

 distinct and different from its fellows, even if bearing the same 

 emblem, and they can be easily distinguished and classified, not 

 only by the symbolic flowers they bear, but also by a character or 

 letter that marks nearly every card, and which seems to denote the 

 vegetable that i-epresents the month. The only month that has no 

 floral emblem is August, and that suit is marked by mountains 

 and warm-looking skies. 



January is represenled by pine trees, which, on two of the 

 cards, are shown against a lurid sky ; the third one has a grayish 

 background, that throws the trees into strong relief, and the fourth 

 has a setting sun flecked with light clouds, the pines barely indi- 

 cated in front of it, and the greater part of the card covered with 

 the figure of a huge white-bodied, red-eyed stork. 



February displays as its emblem a plum blossom, the four 

 cards devoted to this month bearing its flower in various posi- 

 tions. 



March has a red cherry blossom, and April the hanging ten- 

 drils of the wistaria vine. On one of the cards of this suit is a 

 wee yellow-bird, which is flying across its surface under a crimson 

 cloud. 



For May there are beautiful blue iris springing from long spiky 

 leaves. One card shows in one of its corners part of a dock or 

 pier, and also the water, out of which the flower is lifting its 

 lovely head. 



June is represented by blood-red peonies, over one of which two 

 yellow butterflies are hovering. 



On July's cards star-shaped leaves, some yellow, some red, and 

 some black, are scattered over their surfaces. These leaves re- 

 semble those of our gum or liquid amber trees, but they bear the 

 Japanese name of Mgi. On one of the cards belonging to this 

 suit a deer is represented standing under the branches of this 

 strangely-hued tree. This is the only figure which recalls in any 

 way the emblems used on cards belonging to other nations, as on 

 one of the Chinese cards is found either a deer or else Chinese 

 characters which have been translated to mean " This is a deer." 



August is represented by four pictures of grass-covered moun- 

 tains, in three of which they are sharply defined against a clouded 

 blue sky, and in the fourth the sun, looking hot and sultry, beams 

 down on a treeless hill. Three birds fly across the sky on one of 

 these cards. 



September bears the Mikado's flower, a yellow and red chrysan- 

 themum; October, a maple tree with i-ed or yellow leaves; and 

 on one card is a yellow boar trotting off towards the symbolic 

 tree. 



November shows on one of its cards a willow sharply outlined 

 against a leaden sky. The willows on a fellow-card look wind- 

 tossed, and a long-tailed bird skims across the sky. A third card 

 is covered witli inky clouds, torrents of rain, and strange zigzags 

 resembling forked lightning. The fourth card of this suit bears a 

 quaint figure of a man rushing through the storm under the wil- 

 low trees and di'opping his sandals in his haste, his head covered 

 with a huge yellow umbrella. Streaks of lightning suri'ound the 

 little figure, and the storm of rain is well depicted in the picture. 



December bears the imperial Japanese plant kiri, and over one 

 of these flowers hovers a beautiful red-crested silver-winged 

 pheasant. 



An infinite variety of games are played with these cards, as 

 there is a shade of difference in each one of each set, and in some 

 games each has a separate value. Tbs favorite game in Japan at 

 present is very like cassino, in which any card of a set may take 

 any other, but all have their own values in the final count. 



HEMP CQLTIVATION IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



The Manila hemp plant, which is very similar to the banana 

 or plantain, thrives best in soil composed of decayed vegetable 

 matter, the principal districts in the Phflippine Islands in> which 

 it is cultivated being reclaimed forest land. The yield, according 

 to Mr. Gollan, British consul at Manila, is more abundant on hilly 

 land than on low- lying flat ground, and the volcanic nature of the 

 soil of the islands seems to be particularly adapted to the growth 

 of the plant. The production is chiefly in the southern districts, 

 where the rainfall is greater than in the vicinity of Manila. The 

 trees suffer severely from excessive heat and drought. The cus- 

 tom in the Philippines is, after clearing the land, to plant small 

 plants of about three feet high, leaving a space of from two to 

 three yards between, the young shoots which spring up later 

 around the parent stems filling up the intervening space. The 

 ground is carefully cleaned and weeded at least twice a year. 



As a rule it takes about three years to produce a full crop, but 

 in a favorable soil a crop of about one-third the full production 

 would be available in two years after planting, the second crop 

 the following year would yield about two-thirds, and by the 

 fourth year a full crop would be obtained. The trees are ready 

 for cutting when the first shoots begin to be thrown out. When 

 the trees have matured and are ready for cutting, they are cut 

 down about a foot from the ground, and layers are stripped oflf 

 the trunk. These layers are then cut into strips about three inches 

 in width. The strips are then drawn between a blunt knife and 

 a board, to remove the vegetable matter from the fibre, which 

 latter is placed in the sun to dry. As soon as it is thoroughly 

 dried it is ready for the market. 



