May 21, 1885.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



327 



FROM CHOLERA TO COLORADO. 



MANY of your readers have doubtless before now be- 

 come alarmed at ravages of cholera in 1he various 

 European cities during the past year, and many feel certain 

 of its reaching the American seaport towns at the beginning 

 of warm weather. To sucli as well as sportsmen tourists I 

 wish to point out a paradise full of all the essentials that go 

 to make up pleasure and contribute to robust health. 



Come West; visit the Rockies; not to "grow up," but to 

 grow fat and robust by basking in their sunshine and climb- 

 ing high peaks, through deep gorges, and lure the artful 

 trout from his shaded nook or perchance send a bullet after 

 a leaping deer or growling grizzly. Millions of people in 

 the East have no conception of the greatness of America. 

 They have lived in the East; and when recreation or travel 

 has become a necessity, they have gone to Europe because 

 it was fashionable, neglecting their own country. Now that 

 cholera has invaded Europe, every mail brings hundreds of 

 letters to Colorado making inquiries about the great West. 

 All contain the same query, "Where and how can we spend 

 the heated term in the West?'' Having received many such 

 letters myself, I will try to give an answer to all. 



Leave the East Junel. Come West to Kansas City over 

 any of the numerous trunk lines. Long before you reach 

 Kansas City you will be astonished at the great expanse of 

 fine and fully developed farming country. But your aston 

 ishment will be increased when you are told that the great 

 West begins at Kansas City. Here you take the Atchison, 

 Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, destined for Silver City, 

 New Mexico. Here you will find good hotel accommo- 

 dation, and living can be made as comfortable as in your 

 own home. Here we have the very best mountain cliinate 

 in the world. Within easy reach one may find elk, deer 

 and wild turkeys in plenty, while the mountain streams 

 abound in large trout, many of them weighing as high as 

 throe pounds. By going far into the mountains you can 

 find bear, "provided you" have lost any." You can camp 

 out or live at hotels, and travel nearly in all directions from 

 the various railroad stations by_ stage lines, nearly all of 

 which have very comfortable vehicles. 



After you have had your fill of game and trout, take in the 

 various wonders of this ancient territory. Vast, boldly out- 

 lined, filled with strange sights and peculiar people, it ap- 

 peals strongly to the imagination. There are signs of gradual 

 development. The long neglected fields are being tilled. 

 American houses stand beside the old adobe. The tame 

 Indians mingle with the white strangers, who have come to 

 enlighten their country. The old is not yet swept away, but 

 remains at various places to leud enchautment to the new 

 processes. Visit the city of Santa Fe, also the various 

 Pueblos, Zuni and Navajo Indian villages. Here you will 

 find curiosities such as cannot be equaled in all Europe, If 

 you have any ailment, try the various hot springs along the 

 road, and be certain to make a stop at the Las Vegas Springs. 

 In this way you have spent the month of June and part of 

 July. Return to La Junta and come to the Rockies in 

 Colorado. Visit the city of Denver, the wonder of the plains, 

 a city of 80, 000 people, with its fine business blocks, fine 

 hotels, and a grand opera house, not equalled in America. 

 By this time the fashionable season will be at its height at 

 Mauitou, the Saratoga of the West, Tarry ouly a few days 

 and take the Denver" & Rio Grande Railroad, through the 

 Royal Gorge, to Salida, where j r ou will rind a good hotel, 

 balmy air, cold nights, streams filled with small trout. Con- 

 tinue over Marshall Pass on rail 10,500 feet high. Soon 

 after you come to the Gunnison River, when you can stop at 

 any station and find fair accommodation or good camping 

 grounds, and all the large trout you wish to catch, with 

 game of all kinds. You can camp at any altitude that you 

 may wish, have heavy frost every night in July and August, 

 or not, and not move more than a mile. Cimmaron Station, 

 at the west end of the famous Black Canon, is probably the 

 best station on the road for comfort, trout, game of all kinds 

 and Wild scenery. Montrose and Delta, towns still further 

 west, offer all necessary inducements to the lover of rod and 

 gun. Several fine lakes situated near these towns, reached 

 by stage, contain more trout than the writer dare tell. Here 

 you will find where the wild geese and ducks hatch and 

 rear their young. If you like, go on to Salt Lake City, which 

 contains many strange sights. Take a bath iu the Great 

 Salt Lake. Return to Colorado by Oct. 1, and take a month's 

 hunting trip into one of the parks. Follow this advice and 

 cholera cannot catch you this season. 



Q. Van Htjmmell, M.D. 



Denver. Ool. 



tu\%l Wi$t° r 8* 



HYDROIDS. 



"Involved in sea-wrack, here we find a race 

 Which science, doubting, knows not where to place; 

 On shell or rock is dropped the embryo seed, 

 And quickly vegetates a vital breed." 



SO wrote (he poet Crabbe, a hundred years ago, referring 

 to that curious race of beings which the naturalists of 

 his time, not knowing whether they were plants or animals, 

 and findiug in them the characters of both, ingeniously called 

 zoophytes, a word which means animal-plants. But they 

 are now well known to belong exclusively to the animal 

 kingdom and so, while the strains of Crabbe are undoubtedly 

 poetic, they are far from being scientifically accurate, for the 

 "vital breed" of which he speaks does not "vegetate" but 

 grows and lives according to the laws of animal nature. 

 However, the error into which he fell is very commonly 

 made nowadays. Visitors at the seaside, to whom these 

 animals are among the most common objects of interest, 

 almost invariably look upon them as a kind of seaweed. 

 The names by which they are commonly known, sea mosses 

 and sea firs, testify to the mistaken view generally taken of 

 them. In the nomenclature of science they are called 

 hydroid zoophytes or simply hydroids. They are very 

 abundant everywhere on the sea shore, being attached, near 

 low tide mark, to common seaweed, rocks, the timber of 

 wharves, the bottoms of boats, floating driftwood, etc. 



These little creatures are among the most wondertul forms 

 of all living things, and well repay a brief study from any 

 one. Their symmetry of form and delicacy of structure 

 enlist the interest of the most casual observer, and when Iheir 

 habits are studied and some knowledge of their wonderful 

 life history gained, they can hardly fail to awaken the 

 deepest interest, even in the most unenthusiastic. Let us 

 take for a brief examination one of the most common forms, 

 a camptnularian hydroid. It looks very much indeed like a 

 plant. There is a central stem or trunk which gives off 



branches at regular intervals and which is immovably 

 attached at its base to a rock or seaweed just as a plaut is 

 rooted to the ground. The ends of the branches are ex- 

 panded into forms not at all unlike buds and (lowers. A 

 little closer examination, however, will disclose some features 

 that make it apparent that the object of study, if a plant, has 

 some very marked peculiarities. If, for example, the vessel 

 in whichdt is contained (it has to be examined in sea water) 

 be given a slight jar, what appear like the petals of the 

 flowers will be quickly drawn in, just as if the flower had 

 suddenly transformed itself into a bud. In a short time, if 

 left perfectly quiet, it will assume its former shape. 



Looking at a hydroid with a hand magnifying glass, one 

 can readDy make out that the central stem and its branches 

 are hollow, and thai their cavities are continuous. At the 

 ends of the branches these cavities are open, and these open- 

 ings form the mouths of the animal. Each mouth is sur- 

 rounded by iv crown of tentacles, and each crown of tenta- 

 cles provided with a cup formed by an expansion of the 



outer layer of the branch, into which the tentacles can be 

 drawn. The cup, with its expauded tentacles, forms what 

 we have compared to a flower. Now, as these tentacles are 

 capable of beinsr extended to a considerable length, and of 

 moving about freely in the water, and as the mouth of the 

 animal is situated at their base, it is quite evident what the 

 function of this flower-like organ is, viz,, to capture food 

 for the animal and receive it into its body. Hence, to each 

 of thrse organs the name nutritive zooid has been given, and 

 as we have seen that their cavities are continuous with that 

 of the main stem, it is plaiu that what is food for one zooid 

 is food for the whole community. Under the microscope it 

 can be seen that the cavities are filled with a tldckish fluid, 

 and that by the action ol vibrating cilia the fluid is in con 

 slant motion. In this way nutritive matter is conveyed to 

 all parts of the body. 



If a hydroid be examined in summer, very likely there will 

 be found near the base of the tentacles a new set of buds, 

 somewhat spherical in shape and uuprovided with a mouth 

 and tentacles. The office of these new buds is to reproduce 

 the species, and they are therefore called reproductive zooids. 

 The changes through which they pass iu their development 

 are among the most remarkable exhibited hy living tbiugs. 

 For, after a time, an embryo hydroid is set free, and strange 

 to say, i3 a creature altogether different from the parent 

 which produced it. It is, in fact, nothing less than what is 

 familiarly known to seaside visitors as a jelly fish. These 

 curious umbrella shaped animals are known to many by their 

 power of stinging pretty severely when taken hold of by the 

 hand. They may be seen most abundautly on a quiet" eve- 

 ning, gaily swimming about on the surface of the water, pro- 

 pelling tuemselves along by alternately opening and shutting 

 their umbrella-like bodies. After these jelly fishes, or medu- 

 sa, as they are called, have thus led an "independent and 

 locomotive existence" for a longer or shorter period, they 

 themselves produce embryos. They, too, are free swimming 

 bodies at first, but after enjoying their independence for a 

 time, they fix themselves to some rock or weed and develop 

 into the plant-like hydroids from which the medusa? were 

 derived. We have in these changes an example of a princi- 

 ple which operates in many of the lower forms of life, both 

 plaut and animal, and which is called "alternation of gener- 

 ations." 



We have thus seen that a hydroid may be made up of 

 two kinds of zooids, nutritive and reproductive. In some 

 species there is yet a third kind called protective zooids. 

 They consist of a single unbranched trunk which is usually 

 in the form of a spiral. They have no mouth and no ten- 

 tacles, but their free ends have a ring of knobdike projec- 

 tions which are loaded with "lasso cells." These lasso or 

 thread cells have in them coiled, barbed filaments, and the 

 animal has the power of suddenly throwing them out for 

 the destruction of the enemies of the community, and prob- 

 ably also for the capture of its prey. It is by the use of 

 the same organs that jelly fishes sting. Beingthus provided 

 with instruments of defense and offense, it is readily seen 

 why the protective zooids were so called. Unlike the nutri- 

 tive, the protective zooids are not attached to the trunk of 

 the main "person" of the community. There is, however, 

 vital communication between the two by means of the sub- 

 stance to which the bases of their trunks are attached, this 

 substance being an excretion made by the animal itself. 

 And so it is seen that the three kinds of zooids constitute 

 together but a single individual. 



One of the most interesting species of hydroids is that 

 called Hydraetiivia, It consists of a single, rather short, un- 

 branched trunk, bearing on its free end a mouth and crown 

 of tentacles. Cimously enough the little creature always 

 selects as its place of attachment a shell tenanted by a hermit 



crab. The latter animal, as is well known, appropriates for 

 its use the cast-off shell of some mollusk, carrying it about 

 just as its original possessor did when alive, and drawing 

 itself completely within it when danger threatens. Now, 

 just as if the shell had not already been of sufficient useful- 



ness in serving as a place of refuge for two different orders 

 of animals, it is taken possession of by yet a third, the Jly- 

 draciinia. No reason has ever been suggested for the crea- 

 tures selecting this curious place of abode, except that it is 

 thus afforded, by the movements of the crab, better oppor- 

 tunities for capturing food. 



One of the most beautiful species of hydroids is the 

 Coryomorpha. It lives at the bottom of the sea and only 

 where the water is of considerable depth. It is therefore 

 rarely seen by ordinary observers, but can easily be obtained 

 by dredging, the animals attachiug themselves in large num- 

 bers to the meshes of the net. It is one of the largest species, 

 being about four inches in length. It consists of a single 

 unbranched stalk, white below and striped with pink above, 

 and ending in a pear-shaped head furnished with two sets of 

 tentacles, the shorter of which form a circle immediately 

 around the mouth. Attached by thread-like roots at the 

 bottom of the sea, it spends its life swaying about in the 

 water on its long flexible trunk, and thrusting its arms to 

 and fro in its endless search for food, 



There are very many other species of those animals, but 

 those we have described are among the most interesting, and 

 are fail ly representative of the whole group. No visitor at 

 the seaside should fail to examine for himself these wonderful 

 little creatures. They are found on all shores; most of the 

 forms are easily obtained, and they are sufficiently large to 

 be studied very weil with a hand magnifying glass. 



As it was for a long time a matter of doubt and dispute as 

 to which of the two kingdoms, plants or animals, the 

 hydroids belonged, it is interesting to consider on what 

 grounds they were finally relegated to a place among the 

 animals. The chief characters by which their true nature 

 was determined were the possession of a body-cavity, in 

 which their food was digested, and which therefore performs 

 the office of a stomach, and the nature of the food itself. It 

 was found that they lived altogether upon organic compounds, 

 and as this is the most marked characteristic of animal 

 uature it went very far toward settling the much disputed 

 question. After all, their resemblance to plants is hardly 

 more than a superficial one. The mere facts that they are 

 plant-like in form, and that, like them, they are fixed im- 

 movably to one place, are of comparatively little concern 

 when the more fundamental characters mentioned above 

 are considered. 8. 



Union College. 



FLOWERING TREES IN CENTRAL PARK. 



WITH gradual advances, the season of flowers has be- 

 come definitely established. The various species of 

 trees flowering early in Central Park uuite in attesting that 

 a prolonged slumber among their kind is not detrimental to 

 an awakening in high strength and vigor. 



It is understood by experienced horticulturists that the 

 Magnolia conspicua is subject to be cut off in youth and dur- 

 iug its first year after transplanting through cold and variable 

 winter seasons; but th it this admired varh ty is hardy in our 

 locality, after becoming firmly established, is evidenced by 

 the present condition of our park specimens of this beautiful 

 Chinese magnolia, known in its native soil as the yulan. 

 This indeed has seemed "in haste to tdoora," as one of its 

 faithful admirers has represented. It is unfortunate for ob- 

 servers that it hastens equally to cease to bloom. One of its 

 finest examples with us, a pyramid of large, snow-white, fra- 

 grant flowers, appearing in the Ramble before a green leaf 

 gave hint of arrival, began to drop feather-veined petals to 

 the earth, almost as soon as the solitary terminal flowers had 

 been unfolded at the tips of its twigs in all directions. This 

 multitude of great white cup-shaped flowers of the yulan, or 

 lily magnolia, forms a charming as well as conspicuous her- 

 ald of the fluwering season. 



Near the specimen mjntioued and within sight of it is a 

 single representative of the Magnolia soulangeana, a variety 

 much esteemed by arboriculturists. This is a hardy and 

 vigorous tree, distinguished by a purplish tinge within the 

 cup of the flower and on the. outward base of the petals. It 

 is somewhat later than the M. conspicua, coming into full 

 flower when the beauty of the other commences to wane. 

 An attractive specimen of the kind is also seen off the lake 

 road on the west side, nearly on a parallel with the Museum 

 of Natural History. 



These two Chinese varieties which have been successfully 

 introduced into the park are followed closely by the Amer- 

 ican magnolias, more numerously represented,' and which 

 are commencing to open their buds in the vicinity of upper 

 and lower lakes, on the Terrace, and in other piaces. 



Among other early flowering species is the Oercis cana- 

 densis, or Judas tree, the latter name having followed from 

 the modern opinion that this, instead of the elder tree as long 

 believed, was the kind on which Judas hanged himself. 

 This is a species hardly less distinct and striking in its floral 

 display thau that of the magnolia. A fine specimen is seen 

 near Bridge No. 3, a short distance westward from the 

 menagerie; others appear singly near the western wall not 

 far from 100th street and elsewhere, while a rich mass of 

 color is formed by a group of these trees in the horse shoe 

 plot between the Terrace and Webster monument near the 

 center drive, at about the range of Seveuty -second street, A 

 large magnolia is about flowering in the same locality, in 

 showy contrast with the purple Judas tree. The latter'also 

 is without a visible green leaf. It is readily distinguished at 

 a great distance by the pinkish purple color of its sessile, 

 thickly clustered flowers. The species is native in North 

 America, being found from Canada to the Southern Slates. 

 Its most abundant growth is witnessed near the river mar- 

 gins, and it is stated that in the South the courses of streams 

 may sometimes be traced by it when iu flower. The species 

 is familiar in English gardens, and in France it has been 

 largely cultivated. Its buds are used forpiekling, and other- 

 wise for culinary purposes. 



A species flowering in soft yellow all over Central Park is 

 the N orway maple, of which the foliage, appearing at the 

 same time, is similarly colored. The tree will be again of a 

 fine yellow in decay. Its cordate leaves are smooth, their 

 fine lobes being acuminated with a few coarse acute teeth ; 

 the flowers issuing in loose pannicles are hardly brighter 

 than the tender early foliage, The whole mass is suggestive 

 of a body of sunshiue, the idea being aided by the profuse 

 and even distribution of specimens. This variety parts less 

 quickly with its flowers than the red maple {Acer rubrum) 

 which a few days since was more highly conspicuous. The 

 latter— called also soft maple, swamp maple and scarlet 

 maple— recently in its bright crimson or scarlet flowers 

 crowded in whorls on the purplish branches, is already past 

 the height of its maguificence. The leaves succeeding the 

 flowers are three to five-lobed with sinuses acute and varying 

 greatly in form, being irregularly serrate and notched, with 

 the middle one usually longest. From the leaves being 



