48 



NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



the study of the curious and beau- 

 tiful flowers, there is the additional 

 one of testing the remarkable fact 

 that orchids generally cannot fer- 

 tilize themselves. The central 

 portion of the orchid flower, which 

 is technically known as the col- 

 umn, is a combined mass of stam- 

 ens and pistils, with the anthers so 

 placed that the pollen — which is 

 arranged in solid club-shaped mass- 

 es — cannot reach the apex or stig- 

 ma without external assistance. 

 One can easily find these pollen- 

 masses. When placed on the 

 stigma in tbis species, seed ves- 

 sels follow in almost ever}' case. 

 The raising of the seed is a more 

 difficult matter, — but to actually 

 produce the seed is alone a pleas- 

 urable feat to the window-plant 

 grower. — Medians' Monthly for 

 March. 



Curious Forms of Money. 



The cured skins of wild animals 

 constitute one of the earliest forms 

 of currency known, and while em- 

 ployed in the most ancient times, 

 are not yet disused in some parts 

 of the world. Such a medium 

 seems appropriate among those 

 who subsist by the chase, as all 

 primeval peoples must in some de- 

 gree, and it is not, therefore, sur- 

 prising to find that, in the transac- 

 tions of the Hudson Bay Company 

 with the Indians, the unit of value 

 by which the price of other articles 

 is reckoned is the beaver skin. At- 

 tempts at a bidermatic currency, 

 which should also include the skins 

 of otters, may have been made a- 

 mong these conservative aborig- 

 ines, but if so, they have always 

 failed. Other skins, it is true, as 

 well as those of the marten, the 

 Arctic fox, and many others, pass 

 readily in that northern commerce, 

 but their ratio of value is conscien- 

 tiously determined by the beaver 

 skin, 



In the Portuguese possessions 

 of Angola, before the year 1694, 

 the circulating medium consisted 

 of small mats woven from a spe- 

 cies of straw, and which the natives 

 called libongos, Each libongo re- 

 presented a value of five reis. The 

 substitution of copper coin for this 

 curious straw money came near 

 bringing about a revolution, and 

 was the cause of the death of 

 many. 



The shells of certain mollusks 

 have long been used as money a- 

 mong some peoples, and among 

 such shells may be mentioned the 

 cowry, which constitutes the mon- 



ey of the natives of English India, 

 the Soudan, the coast of Africa, 

 etc. 



The American Indians of the At- 

 lantic coast made their money, or 

 wampum, from the shells of the 

 round clam and the columella of a 

 species of Buccinum. The use of this 

 money extended at an early period 

 to the far West, and the people of 

 this part of the country received it 

 in exchange for the products pe- 

 culiar to their region. 



Upon the Pacific coast the mon- 

 ey was often formed of a mollusk 

 that is very abundant upon the 

 coast of the Vancouver Islands, the 

 Dentalium cntalis. The shells, 

 which are naturally perforated, 

 were strong, and used as an orna- 

 ment as well as for commercial ex- 

 change. The monetary unit was 

 the fathom, which was calculated 

 from the length of the arms stretch- 

 ed out on each side of the body. 



The Indians of Bear River use, 

 as money, disks cut from the very 

 thick shell of a species of Saxidom- 

 11s. These disks are perforated and 

 strong, and the money thus manu- 

 factured is called ha-wok. 



Among the islanders of Santa 

 Barbara, the shells of Olivella M- 

 plicata are employed as money un- 

 der the name of kol-kol. A good 

 horse may be purchased for a 

 string of these shells. 



As a medium of trade among the 

 aborigines of California, sea-ears 

 or abalones (Holiotidcs) have been 

 highly esteemed both for their 

 beauty and their importance when 

 used as shell money, the shells in 

 the latter case being cut into strips 

 of from one to two inches in length 

 according to the curvature of the 

 shell, and about one-third as wide 

 as long. These were strung on a 

 string and used both as money and 

 ornaments. The string bore the 

 name of uhl-o or aulone. As an 

 illustration of the purchasing pow- 

 er of an abalone. it may be stated 

 that in New Mexico a horse has 

 been traded for a single shell. 



From the reign of Henry I. 

 down to the period of the establish- 

 ment of the Bank of England, the 

 legal tender money of England was 

 fabricated out of wood. This in- 

 strument was called an exchange 

 tally, and, by virture of it, the 

 holder was entitled to receive from 

 the Crown the value prescribed 

 thereon. It really consisted of 

 one-half of a four-sided rod or 

 staff, on which, when in its entire 

 state, the sum it purported to re- 

 present was carved in transverse 

 notches, var}'ing in width for thou- 

 sands, hundreds, scores, pounds, 



shillings, and pence. These signs 

 were for the unlearned. For the 

 advantage of those who could 

 read, the sum was written in ink 

 on two opposite sides of the staff, 

 and, finally, with a knife and mal- 

 let the staff itself was split in two, 

 longitudinally. One-half called the 

 tally or check, was given to the 

 person for whose service it was in- 

 tended; the other half, called the 

 counter tally, was laid up for safe 

 keeping until its correpsonding 

 tally should be brought 'in by the 

 person who had last given value 

 for it* Its intrinsic value was, of 

 course, only that of the wood of 

 which it was composed, but, by 

 representation, it denoted large 

 sums. It was the current token of 

 real money, and served actually to 

 distribute it from man to man by 

 this exchange. 



From this primitive tally was 

 derived the Exchequer bill, first in- 

 troduced in 1696, by Mr. Monta- 

 gue, the Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer. The word "bill," too, was 

 no doubt derived from the old 

 French "bille," which means a 

 staff. Bank post bills and bills of 

 exchange in our own day come 

 from the same wooden base, and 

 soldiers in England are still said 

 to be ''billeted," because formerly 

 they tendered wooden "billes" or 

 tallies to the victualers upon whom 

 they were quartered. In olden 

 times, officers of the army who 

 were taken into fhe king's own pay 

 were said to be put on the staff, 

 that is, they were paid with ex- 

 chequer tallies, or wooden money. 

 — Scientific Americau. 



Women in Botanical Honors. — 

 The highest graduate in botany in 

 the recent biological examination 

 at the University of Pennyslvania, 

 was a woman with an average of 

 100. The next, averaging 99, was 

 also a woman. A man also receiv- 

 ed 99, the next in honors, — 95, 

 was a man. — Medians' Monthly for 

 March. 



Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the 

 publishers of the Atlantic Month- 

 lv, make an important announce- 

 ment in regard to four papers upon 

 Mars, by Percival Lowell, which 

 are to appear in that periodical. 

 Mr. Lowell made exhaustive ob- 

 servations at Flagstaff, Arizona, 

 and these papers give the most re- 

 cent information in regard to this 

 remarkable planet. The first ar- 

 ticle is to appear in the May issue 

 of the Atlantic, and is entitled 

 The Atmosphere of Mars. 



