Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., MAY 18, 1895. 



No. 16 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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 Science News, please hand or for- 

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Our new half-tone heading is 

 not a success. An engraving will, 

 however, be made of the same in a 

 few weeks which we trust will be 

 equal to the original design and to 

 our satisfaction. 



Forestry at the Southern Exhi- 

 bition. 



It. is promised that the exhibit 

 of the timber and timber trees of 

 the North will be very complete 

 at the Atlanta Exhibition. 



The forest resources will be 

 shown, aside from maps and 

 charts, and other graphic illustra- 

 tions, as to their amount and dis- 

 tribution, by a series of twenty 

 monographic displays, showing 

 each one of the economically im- 

 portant tree species which form 

 the bulk of the timber production 

 of the South. Here will be seen, 

 in monster frames made of the 

 trees themselves, a full descript- 

 ion of the tree, in its foliage and 

 fruit, its timber, its range of dis- 

 tribution, and all information de- 

 sirable regarding the nature of the 

 wood and its application in the 

 arts. 



^ To further illustrate the forest 

 botany of the Southern States, 

 sections of wood, with botanical 

 specimens, and descriptive labels 

 of more than ioo different kinds 



of Southern trees, will be display- 

 ed, not counting some ioo Florida 

 and Texas species, which are of a 

 semi-tropical character, so that 

 the student of the flora of the 

 South will find a rare chance for 

 getting acquainted with its differ- 

 ent arborescent features. 



One of the main features of the 

 exhibit will be the timber-test 

 work, which the Division has car- 

 ried on during the last three years. 

 It is expected that a testing 

 machine will be kept in operation, 

 so that the manner of carrying on 

 the work can be practically dem- 

 onstrated. As most of the test- 

 ing has been hitherto performed 

 on Southern timbers, especially 

 the Southern pines, the display of 

 broken material, with the weights 

 which broke it recorded, all com- 

 bined into an artistic structure, 

 will be both instructive to South- 

 ern men, who furnish, and to 

 Northern men who mostly use this 

 timber. 



Chemical Fern Fronds. — A neat 

 experiment to please the young may 

 be performed in the following way: 

 Saturate some strips of thin car- 

 tridge paper with an alcoholic sol- 

 ution of gum benzoin, and, when 

 dry, apply an aqueous solution of 

 bichromate of ammonia. Crimp or 

 fold these slips backward and for- 

 ward so that when opened out they 

 will stand upright in a zig-zag form. 

 Place one of these slips upon a plate 

 and ignite it in two or three places 

 along the upper edge, but without 

 allowing it to blaze. It will burn 

 slowly down with a red glow, dif- 

 fusing an agreeable perfume, 

 while the ash of the paper will 

 assume the most fantastic arbore- 

 scent shapes, together with a 

 green color which, to a lively 

 imagination, may be suggestive of 

 the growth of ferns or lichens, — 

 Sci. Am. 



Field Columbian Museum Ac- 

 commodates a World's Fair 

 Crowd. 



Field Columbians Museum had 

 a spring opening yesterday and 

 more than 5,000 visitors passed 

 through the turnstiles. From 10 

 o'clock in the morning there was a 

 World's Fair flow of humanity to- 

 ward the big white building. and at 

 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when 

 the crowd was largest, there was 



over 3,000 persons in the galleries. 



The crowd was a reminder of 

 the World's Fair as much as the 

 contents of the museum. ' People 

 were there from all parts of the 

 country and they were of all ages 

 and conditions. The mechauic, 

 the smiling maiden, the man who 

 carried a silk hat, the girl in 

 bloomers with her bicycle at the 

 door strolled among the statuary 

 and relics. 



The skeleton megatherium and 

 the reconstructed mammoth held a 

 levee, for the crowd lingered long- 

 est in the department wherein their 

 bones are preserved. 



The small boy was ubiquitous, but 

 was most noisy in the Chinese an- 

 thropological room. Here he held 

 animated discussions about the 

 shortness of John Chinaman's foot 

 and the length of his cue. 



When the young women entered 

 the Indian room they lingered and 

 lingered. They were not studying 

 dead Indians, but gazing on a live 

 one — the handsome Antonio Apach, 

 an attache of the Indian depart- 

 ment. 



The crowd of women around the 

 cases of jewels looked like that 

 around a bargain counter. "Isn't 

 that perfectly lovely?" was re- 

 peated over and over. Similiar 

 crowds stood before the tapestries 

 in the texile room, and some of the 

 women, true to the shopping in- 

 stinct, could not resist running 

 their hands over a white Irish lin- 

 en tablecloth, although on its 

 frame was the sign in big letters, 

 "Please do not touch." The 

 guards in this room was kept busy 

 telling the girls who gave the spin- 

 ning wheels a turn that they were 

 for instruction and not amusement. 



The transportation department 

 looked as if an excursion had just 

 arrived there. It was crowded with 

 men talking about the speed of the 

 engines and the strength of the 

 boats. 



Director F. J. V. Skiff was seen 

 circulating through the crowd, 

 smiling over the large attendance. 

 Among the visitors in the afiernoon 

 were Congressman Boutelle of 

 Maine and Mrs. Hannibal Hamlin, 

 the widow of one of ths United 

 States vice-presidents. 



When the visitors began to go 

 out of the doors at 4 o'clock, the 

 time for closing, it looked like the 

 outflow from the World's Fair 

 gates in the evening time. — Chicago 

 Record, April 29th . 



