I 12 



Marvels of the Universe 



tropical plants grown in a hot-house, will not allow us to put them under the intiuence of their natural 

 dry season ; we therefore find that some individuals change their habit and become e\-ergreens. 

 This has been the case with the Lace-Bark plants." 



The flowers closely resemble those of the lily-of-the-valley. 



Sir W. J. Hooker's description of the tree may be of interest to the botanist : 

 " A tree from twenty to thirty feet high, with branches too straggling and foliage (though of 



good size and glossy) too 

 sparse to form a striking 

 object, though really hand- 

 some when in flower. 



" Leaves alternate, on 

 rather short stalks, which 

 are jointed on the branch ; 

 hence the leaves readily 

 fall off in drying. 



" Flowers pure white, 

 or, in bud, greenish white, 

 arranged in spikes which 

 are solitary and terminal 

 on a main branch, or on 



short side branches 



The fruit is a smooth oval 

 drupe." 



In the museum of 

 economic botany in Kew 

 Gardens, the following 

 articles made of lace-bark 

 are exhibited : An early 

 Victorian bonnet, a long 

 purse, two smedl purses, a 

 lady's collar mounted on 

 satin, a pair of slippers, a 



NATURAL LACE. P'^^^^'^'^ '^^P' ^"<^ ^ ^^^P ^^ 



used in the days of negro 



represents, on a smaller scale and taken sideways, the same natural 



cluster of lace as shown on the previous page. SlS-Very. 



Thi. 



phot< 



THE LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA 



BY F. T. BULLEN, F.R.G.S. 



While on the land we have such feeble light-bearers as glow-worms and fire-flies, which bear about 

 with them their own illumination, and are only decorative in their effect, the conditions of life in 

 the ocean are so very different that another scheme of lighting is essential, and this is entirely depen- 

 dent upon the light-giving power of living organisms. Even the tremendous power of the tropicEil 

 sun-rays can penetrate the ocean only to the depth of a mere skin of water, never exceeding three 

 or four hundred feet, and very feeble then — a sort of dense twilight. Yet we know now that the 

 remotest depths of ocean have light, as efficient and as full as the surface of the sea at night with 

 the appearance of which so many of us are familiar. 



Yet although there is undoubtedly this universal system of lighting by many different organisms 



