362 THE YOUNG 
bird-lime is made by the _young natur- 
alists of England, who, being desirous of 
obtaining the birds of their country in 
Fig. 1.— ENGLISH MISTLETOE. 
their most perfect plumage, make use of 
the bird-lime in preference to shooting 
them, which often destroys valuable 
specimens. 
Fig. 2.— AMERICAN MISTLETOE. 
One of our most common of Christmas 
greens, and which is used mostly for the 
making up of " roping," is the **ground- 
SCIENTIST. 
pine." This beautiful evergreen belongs 
to the family of club mosses or Xiycopo- 
diums of the botanists, and by the florists 
called " bouquet greens," as large quanti- 
ties of it is used by them during the win- 
ter months for making up bouquets when 
other green material is scarce. When 
the flowers of the ground-pine are ripe, 
they are collected and dried, after which 
they are shaken and sifted to obtain a 
powder of a sulphur-yellow color which 
is the spores of the plant. This curious 
powder is sold by all druggists, by the 
name of Lypopodium. When in a mass, 
it is very mobile and smooth to the touch. 
Druggists use this powder when making 
pills to prevent them frohi sticking tO' 
gether ; and also in cases where a per- 
son's skin has been badly rubbed off 
through some accident, this curious pow- 
der is dusted over the wounded part to 
which it adheres, and forms an artificial 
skin. There are other curious qualities 
possessed by this powder, as for instance, ' 
if the surface of a bowl of water is dusted 
over with it, and also some of it be rubbesd 
over the hand, a piece of money or other 
object when placed in the water, can be 
removed from the bottom of the bowl 
without whetting the skin, the powder 
seeming to possess a negative or repellant 
quality to that of water somewhat like 
oil or other greasy substances. Another 
interesting quality possessed by this 
powder, can be illustrated by placing a 
small quantity of it in a quill or paper 
tube, or what is still better! in a syringe. 
Then if the powder be discharged against 
a candle or gas light, it will produce an 
instantaneous flash like that of light- 
ning. 
The gjTQund-pine sells readily to florists 
at thr^e dollars a barrel, who generally 
make up their own. Christmas roping. 
Common roping can be purchased as low 
as two cents a , yard, but .it is very, thin 
and apt to fray out in a short time. The 
best roping sells for five cents per yard. 
Thousands a-nd thousands of yards of 
this material are used every Christmas 
for home, church, ancj Sunday-school 
decoration. The larger part of it comes 
from New Jersey, packed in barrels, 
which, when kept in a cool and damp 
