50 THE WEST AMEEIOAN SCIENTIST. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The *Asa Gray Botanical Club' was organized in Utica, N. Y., on Mch. 5. 



Petroleum has been rediscovered in Egypt in large quantities. — Union, May 1&. 



A shark recently received at the Smithsonian had two sword fish swords in his 

 head. 



' Tidings from Nature ' has been sold to the publisher of the * Hoosier Nat- 

 uralist. ' 



A queen bee is the only live thing allowed by the U. S. postal authorities in 

 the mails. Horned toads are frequently smuggled through, however. 



The air of different places seems to vary lictle in its proportion of oxygen and 

 nitrogen, air lately brought from Cape Horn being about like tliat of France. 



Wm. Ireland, jr., has been commissioned by Gov, Stoneman as state mineral- 

 ogist for four years, vice Henry G. Hanks, whose resignation took effect on 

 May 31st. 



The captain of an Australian schooner, Mr. T. H. Griffiths, reports the setting 

 fire of his vessel by a meteorite on Dec. 12th, while in latitude 23 degrees 53 minutes 

 north and longitude 143 degrees 26 minutes west. No shock was felt, but two or 

 more hot metallic pieces as large as a man's hand were picked up. 



The botanic gardens of the world, most of them scientific in character, are re- 

 ported to number 197, of which Germany has 34, Italy 23, France 20, Great Britain 

 and Ireland 12, West Indies 6, and the United States 5. More than half are sup- 

 ported by government, and only five per cent by private enterprise. 



The ornamental Pisonia grandis of Australia has seeds like an elongated barley 

 corn, whic'i are covered with a very sticky gum. This adheres to the legs and 

 feathers of winged creatures coming in contact with it, and makes the plant a nat- 

 ural bird-catcher, no less than a hundred birds having been known to be captured 

 by one trea in Victoria. 



The precipitation method of treating sewage is to be adoptel in London on a 

 large scale. The sewage is left ia tanks and the separation ( f the solid portion is 

 hastened by the addition of lime and protosulphate of iron. The liquid becomes as 

 clear as fresh water, and may be drained into the Thames; while the solid matter is 

 to be pressed into blocks for transportation to the sea. The process has been tried 

 experimentally for some months, but is now to be applied to 9,000,000 gallons of 

 sewage daily. 



A writer in China claims to have discovered a record of the existence of a speak- 

 ing phonograph in that country as far back as the seventeenth century. The in- 

 strument is mentioned as the ' thousanddi speaker,' and the description is as f of lows: 

 ' It was a bamboo tube covered with a disk of glass and opened by a key. After 

 speaking into it several thousand words, it was closed and carried to a distance not 

 exceeding a thousand li. On opening it and applying the ear, a voice was still dis- 

 tinctly heard. If carried a greater distance the voice became in listinct'. Dr. Mac- 

 gowan suggests that indistinctness might result from injury sustained by the appar- 

 atus in a long trip over the rough roads. 



