40 



NATUEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



safe in saying, it will offer many 

 new life forms, dredged from the 

 "unknown depths." 



As the favoring breeze swelled 

 our sails homeward bound and the 

 foam curled, a silvery plume be- 

 hind our prow, studded at night 

 with glowing phosphorescence, 

 our little group sat silent on the 

 deck, awed, subdued by the splen- 

 dor of the tropic sunset, the swift- 

 following night, or the indescrib- 

 able beauty of the moonlight on 

 the sea. 



As we sat dumb, in trying to 

 comprehend the infinite expanse 

 of ever-restless water around, the 

 infinite expanse of burnished sky 

 above, the infinite silence over all, 

 and as memory wandered back 

 over the revelations of the summer, 

 one and all were humbled with the 

 consciousness of the insignificance 

 of man and the goodness of the In- 

 comprehensible in granting us 

 these glimpses of this wonderful 

 glory!— B. M. Wilson A. M. in Sci- 

 entific American. 



State University of Iowa, April, '94. 



Origin of the Columbine's Bo- 

 tanical Name. 



There are but few persons who 

 are not interested in knowing how 

 plants come by their names, and 

 there has been much speculation 

 in relation to the botanical names 

 Aquilegia, given to these plants. 

 Most investigators have concluded, 

 as Dr. Asa Gray expresses it, that 

 "the name is derived from aquila, 

 an eagle, from some fancied re- 

 semblance of the spurs to talons;" 

 but that it is a very far-fetched 

 fancy is apparent from a glance at 

 the nectaries or spurs in our plate. 

 There is, however, a little more 

 scope for the fancy in the curved 

 nectaries of some of the European 

 species, though very little even 

 there. 



But even this does not account 

 for the latter portion of the names, 

 and so some have sought a better 

 explanation in Aquilegium, which 

 means a gathering or collection of 

 rain-water, and suppose it was 

 given to this plant because the 

 nectaries are so formed that they 

 might gather or collect rain. But 

 that this conjecture is unsound we 

 may gather from the pronuncia- 

 tion which even from the oldest 

 period that we can trace has been 

 Aqitile-gia, while the water-gather- 

 ing supposition would demand 

 Aquileg-ia. It seems more than 

 probable that the name is derived 



from the old story of Ganymedes. 

 Most persons are familiar with the 

 story of the beautiful boy, Jupiter's 

 cup-bearer, who is represented on 

 the back of an eagle flying through 

 the air. Jupiter had a daughter, 

 named Aquilegia, who was famed 

 for great beauty, and among her 

 most ardent admirers was the 

 handsome servant of Jupiter, who 

 paid her frequent visits on his ce- 

 lestial bird. It so happened, how- 

 ever, that the maiden was more 

 smitten with the eagle than with 

 its rider, and she gave her heart to 

 the bird. When Ganymedes at 

 length understood the situation, he 

 endeavored to repair matters by 

 hiding the eagle when he came to 

 court the maiden. But this only 

 made matters worse. She pined 

 for that eagle, broke her heart at 

 its continued absence, and died. 

 As was usual in these catastrophes, 

 according to the Grecian stories, 

 Jupiter, grieving for the loss of his 

 favorite daughter, turned her dead 

 body into a flower, and gave it this 

 name after her death, — which 

 means literally that her life was 

 given or bequeathed to the eagle. 

 If this explanation of the origin of 

 the name be correct, it may ex- 

 plain many of the poetical allu- 

 sions we often meet with in con- 

 nection with Aquilegia. — Median's 

 Monthly for April. 



How Camphor is Made. 



One of the principal products of 

 Formosa which has come under 

 Japanese administration as a result 

 of the war with China is camphor. 



Small shanties are scattered 

 over the hills where the camphor 

 trees grow, and in all directions 

 the clearing of the woods is going 

 on at a rapid rate. On the hill- 

 sides are built distilleries, consist- 

 ing of oblong-shaped structures 

 principally of mud bricks, and 

 about ten or twelve feet long, six 

 feet broad and four feet high. 



On each side there are five to 

 ten fire holes about a foot apart 

 and the same distance above the 

 ground. On each fire hole is plac- 

 ed an earthen pot full of water, and 

 above it a cylindrical tube, about a 

 foot in diameter and two feet high, 

 passes up through the structure 

 and appears above it. 



The tube is capped by a large 

 inverted jar, with a packing of 

 damp hemp between the jar and 

 the cylinder to prevent the escape 

 of steam. The cylinder is filled 

 with chips of wood about the size 

 of the little finger, which rests on 



a perforated lid covering the jar of 

 water, so that when the steam rises 

 it passes up to the inverted jar or 

 condenser, absorbing certain resin- 

 ous matter from the wood on its 

 way. 



While distillation is going on an 

 essential oil is produced and is 

 found mixed with the water onCthe 

 inside of the jar. When the jar is 

 removed, the beady drops solidify, 

 crystalization commences and 

 camphor in a crude form, looking 

 like newly-formed snow, is detach- 

 ed by the hands, placed in baskets 

 lined with plantain leaves and hur- 

 ried off to the nearest border town 

 for sale. 



With regard to camphor, as in 

 other commercial matters, the Chi- 

 nese government has acted very 

 foolishly. For over 30 years there 

 has been a constant demand for 

 camphor, and yet the administra- 

 tion has done nothing to prevent 

 the reckless waste of the forests 

 and taken no steps to provide for 

 the reafforestation of uninhabited 

 tracts useless for cultivation. — 

 Scottish Geographical Magazine. 



The Marvels of an Ostrich's 

 Stomach. 



The post mortem examination of 

 one of the flock of ostriches owned 

 by Barnum & Bailey, which has 

 been on exhibition at the Central 

 Park menagerie, New York City, 

 gave the spectators a wonderful 

 object lesson of the digestive ca- 

 pabilities of an ostrich. The os- 

 trich was dissected by a taxiderm- 

 ist. He found the following ar- 

 ticles in the bird's stomach: One 

 wooden clothes pin; the bottoms of 

 two beer bottles; a mouth harmon- 

 ica, five inches long and two in- 

 ches wide; a ferrule of an umbrella 

 with a piece of the stick in it about 

 four inches long; a metal skate 

 key; a brass door key, five inches 

 long; a woman's black horn comb; 

 two pieces of coal; a woman's silk 

 handkerchief; three stones about 

 an inch thick, together with some 

 cabbage, grass, lettuce, celery and 

 considerable dirt. Strange to say, 

 the ostrich did not die of indiges- 

 tion, but from tuberculosis. The 

 bird will be mounted in the muse- 

 um and it would be interesting to 

 preserve alongside the collection 

 of objects which was found in its 

 stom ach. — Scientific A me r lean. 



