NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



159 



An Odd Spermophile. 



I have just received a — to me — 

 curiosity, a color freak in squir- 

 rels. It is a young Oregon Ground 

 Squirrel, in the local vernacular, 

 a "digger." 



It is a.' ^Spermophile, the body 

 including the head, is 8 inches 

 long; tail, 6% inches; hairs extend 

 If! inches further; tail flattened, 

 somewhat bushy; thumb rudament- 

 ary, no claw; soles naked; whis- 

 kies well developed, long as the 

 head, r dark at the roots, becom- 

 ming light to silvery white at the 

 tips; ears conspicuous, $/% inch 

 long, inside fuzzy, outside hair 

 long as hair on neck, similar and 

 extending beyond tips of ears but 

 not tufted; back, head, ears, sides 

 and tail a dull, but very distinct 

 yellow color, not dark, and very 

 slightly hoary;a lighter plumbeous, 

 indistinct not well defined, stripe 

 along the sides; whole under parts, 

 including throat and under jaw, a 

 bright buff yellow; the line of de- 

 markation with upper parts well 

 defined, similar to "Oregon Chick- 

 aree," Seiurus Douglassii\ tip of 

 nose bare, flesh color; hair on tip 

 above passing into nearly white, 

 silvery; eyes, yellowish iris, black 

 pupil. (The eye of the Spermo- 

 pliilus Douglass ii — ' 'Oregon Digger' ' 

 — is black.) It is about half to 

 two thirds grown, and exactly re- 

 sembles a young Spermophilus Don- 

 glassii except color. 



I regard it a sport in color; pos- 

 sibly a cross with Oregon Chicka- 

 ree, if such a thing is possible, 

 which I doubt. It was killed some 

 five miles east of here, but I know 

 nothing of its history other than 

 that. 



I have been in Oregon 42 years. 

 The Spermophilus Douglass ii is very 

 plentiful here. I have seen a white 

 "silver-grey" squirrel, a white coon, 

 a very nearly white mink, a white 

 robin, { T. migralorius ) and a nat- 

 ural colored robin spotted all over 

 with round white spots the size of 

 peas. I have a stuffed white Sper- 

 mophilus Clarkii from eastern W ash- 

 ington, and I had a black sparrow 

 hawk. But yellow is new to me. 



But Oregon is a queer country, 

 and there need be no surprise at 

 anything it may produce. There 

 are plenty of "green" people here, 

 and many persons who look "blue" 

 (and feel so) because of the 

 "times," and it is alleged that old 

 Oregonians are web-footed, still a 

 yellow squirrel is a novelty. 



F. S. Matteson, 



Turner, Ore. 



Blue-prints. 



It may not be generally known 

 that blue-printing can be done suc- 

 cessfully with ferns and the prints 

 used in many ways. In making 

 blue-prints of ferns the two essen- 

 tials are the pressed ferns and 

 blue-print paper. This paper can 

 be bought from any dealer in pho- 

 tographic or artists' materials, and 

 can often be procured of architects. 

 When it is exposed to direct sun- 

 light it turns dark, and an insolu- 

 ble blue compound (Prussian- 

 Blue is formed on the paper. If 

 any part is shielded from the sun- 

 light this action does not take 

 place there, and when the paper is 

 thoroughly washed in a stream of 

 water we have a blue ground with 

 a white object on it, where it was 

 shielded from the light. So that 

 if a fern or leaf be laid on the pa- 

 per before exposing it we shall 

 have a very accurate impression of 

 it. In one of my prints of Adian- 

 tum even the veins show. After 

 washing the print until the cover- 

 ed part becomes white the color is 

 permanent and the paper is then 

 to be dried. In practice I place a 

 couple of folded newspapers on a 

 large book. On this is the sheet 

 of prepared paper, then the fern 

 and finally a pane of glass. The 

 glass and newspapers are to hold 

 the fern as closely as possible 

 against the blue paper to avoid 

 blurred edges in the prints. Hold 

 this in bright sunlight three or 

 four minutes (here is where exper- 

 ience comes in) and then wash the 

 paper thoroughly to fix the print. 

 It is often convenient to paste a 

 strip of paper on the glass plate so 

 that it will cover the lower edge of 

 the blue paper, thus leaving a con- 

 venient space for writing a label. 

 If we wet stiff paper with a saturat- 

 ed solution of bichromate of potash 

 in water and dry it, we can in a 

 similar manner have white impres- 

 sions on a more or less brownish 

 background, but they are not as 

 clear as blue-prints. — C. E. Wat- 

 ers, Baltimore, Md., in Linneean 

 Fern Bulletin. 



A Snow Flower. 



The space of Meehans' Monthly 

 is so limited, that room can scarc- 

 ly be afforded for newspaper 

 "fakes," but the enclosed from St. 

 Louis Demoerat is to good to be 

 lost. The "Professor" should 

 next try his pen in the manufac- 

 ture of a "Fire plant." The seeds 



could doubtless be transported by 

 means of an ingenious contrivance 

 for keeping kept red hot by a spir- 

 it lamp: 



"One of the greatest curiosities 

 I ever met with in my travels," 

 said Prof. Philip L. Newman, of 

 Cincinnati, "is the sunflower that 

 blooms in the northern portion of 

 Siberia, where the earth is contin- 

 ually covered with a coating of 

 snow and frost. This wonderful 

 plant shoots forth from the frozen 

 soil on the first day of the year and 

 reaches the height of about three 

 feet; it blooms on the third day, 

 remains open twenty-four hours, 

 and then returns to its original ele- 

 ments. It shines for a single 

 day, then the stem, leaves and 

 flower are converted into snow. The 

 leaves are three in number. The 

 flower is star-shaped, its petals 

 about as long as the leaves and 

 about half an inch wide. On the 

 third day the extremities of the 

 leaves show little glistening specks, 

 like diamonds, about the size of 

 the head of a pin. These are the 

 seeds of this queer flower. I was 

 told that on one occasion, some of 

 these seeds - were gathered and 

 hastily transported to St. Peters- 

 burg. They were there placed in 

 a bed of snow, where they were 

 kept until the first of the follow- 

 ing year, when the sunflower burst 

 forth and was greatly admired and 

 wondered at by all who saw it." — 

 Meehans' Monthly for October. 



Indian Rubber Plants. 



A large number of plants in gar- 

 dens known as "rubber plants" 

 are not among those which furnish 

 the chief amount of rubber used in 

 the arts, and the Indian Rubber, — 

 so called, — and so common in gar- 

 dens, furnishes but a very small 

 part, if any, for the rubber com- 

 merce. There are quite a large num- 

 ber of plants which furnish this gum. 

 In Africa they have discovered that 

 plants of the genus Landolphia fur- 

 nish immense quantities of rubber 

 equal to any in the market, and 

 that it can be collected at a com- 

 paratively low cost. Africans are, 

 however, not disposed to be indus- 

 trious, and only six hundred pounds 

 were collected last year, although 

 Europeans have offered strong in- 

 ducements to the natives to collect. 

 It is believed, however, that in a 

 few years rubber from the Landol- 

 phias will play no mean part in 

 commerce. — Median's Mont lily for 

 September. 



