380 
THP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[November i, 1890. 
NOTES ON POPULAE SCIENCE. 
By Pr. J. E Taylor, f.l.s . f.g.s . &c., 
EorTOB OF “ Science Gossip.” 
In a fpw ye^i'S the world will be one botanical 
pprigh. The di«tributinu of pta' ts, and their lorahsa. 
tion hnve and there, is one of the most gno-jrpgtive of 
scientific p:enei’a’isation. How did special plants sret 
to special places? None even of the in^eniou.s authors 
of the over-estimated “ Lux Mundi ” endeavour to 
explain it. But steam and increasing population are 
giving the finishing stroke to the phenomenon. Plants 
characteristic of different countries are getting dread- 
fully mixed up. Certain “ hush ” seeds rench us from 
Australia, the Cape, the Argentine, &o., brought in 
the uncleaned fleeces of wool. The latter are washed 
and combed in Gloucestershire and Yorkshire, and 
the seeds are stranded on Ihe river hanks, or distri- 
buted by the agency of birds, so that they are spread- 
ing over the couniry. or they are brought in ships’ 
ballast, and afterwards disseminated. In the north 
of England farme''S are in the habit of putting the 
screenings of foreign wheat on the land, and a host 
of foreign weeds has sprung up in consequence. 
Now that unknown Africa is becoming known, and 
a new and vast field for colonisation is hkely to be 
opened out bv the recently-founded East African Com- 
pany, it is well lo learn what science has to say upon 
that pest of the Dark Continent — the African fever. 
This is the unseen demon which haunts the European 
traveller in tropical and equatorial Africa by night 
and day. Once the system has been thorouglilv steeped 
in it, it becomes chronic. He may have left Africa 
for ever, but the African or malarial fever will not 
leave him. Dr Crumbie Brown, of Edinburgh, has 
just issued a brochure on the subject, which he has 
addressed to the secretarirs of all British and Ameri- 
can m’ssions in hot countries. One of the newly- 
acquired territories of the above companv has been 
very properlv named “ Livingstonia.” after great tra- 
veller. Professor Drummond, in his delightful work 
on Tropical Africa, says of this place;- — “It is one of 
the loveliest spots in the world, and it was hard to 
believe, sitting under the tamarind trees bv the quite 
lake shores, that the pestilence which vasteth at mid. 
night had made this beautiful spot its home.” Dr. 
Brown is of opinion that tbe Australian blue-gum 
tree is the antidote to malarial fever. There is no 
worse place for malaria, even in Afr’ca, than the 
Oanipagna at Rome. Few visitors to Ii'aly dare bide 
there in the summer months. But the hlue-gum tree 
was planted in tlie Roman marshes a few years ago, 
and the results have been remarkablv suece='sful. 
Thto microbe of malarial fever and the gum tree do 
no get on well together. The Tranp'St monastery 
in the Campagna had to be aha>-doned on account 
of the tever in 1868, but s'nce the gnm tree woods 
have been planted it has been reinhabited, although 
the place had pr viou=ly gone bv the name of “ The 
Tomia.” The Trappist brotherhood, aided bv the 
Italian Government, a'e extending the cultivation of 
gum trees in the Campagna. When we have got real 
possession of tropical Africa, our first dutv will be 
to plant forests of gum trees there. — Australasian. 
4 
SACRED TREES OF THE WORLD, 
The palm, the oak, and the ash are the three trees 
which since times immemorial, were he'd to he sacred 
trees. 'J'he first .among them, which figures among 
IhciM, which figures on the oldest monuments and 
p'chirea of the Egyptians and Assyrians, is the 
date-palm tTli<i'nix ilaciislifa'a), which was the symbol 
of llie world and f'l' cn-ation, and the fruit of which 
filled the faithful with divine strength, and prepared | 
them f"- the pleasures of iminort ilitv. “Honour,” j 
Haul 'I'lliammed. “ thy jiatenial aunt, the date-palm. [ 
for ill I’ar.adisi- it was ereated out of the same dust 
of the groiiiid.” Another Mohammedan l.rad'tion of | 
a later jieriod says that when Adam loft Paradise 
he war. allowed to take with him three tliiuga— a : 
myrtle, because it w.an the'inoit I vcly and Uie most 
scented flower ef the earth t a wheat -ear, because it 
had most nourishment : and a date, because it i» the 
most glo-ious fruit of the earth. This date from 
Paradise was, in some marvellous way, brought to the 
Hej-iz; from D have come all the date-palms in the 
world, and A’lab destined it to be the food to all 
the true believers, who shall conquer every country 
where the date palm grows. The Jews and ihe Arabs, 
again, looked upon the same tree as a mystical 
allegory of human beings, for, like them, it dies when 
its head (the .summit) is out oflf, and when a limb 
(branch) is once cut off it does not grow again. Those 
who know can understand the mysterious language 
of the branches on days when there is no wind, 
when whispers of present and future everts are com- 
municated by the tree. Abraham of old. so the rabbis 
say, understood the language of the palm. The oak 
was always considered a “ holy ” tree by our own 
ancestors, and. above all by the nations of the North 
of Europe. When Winifred of Devonshire (680-754 a.p.I 
went forth on his wanderings through Germany to 
preach the Gospel, one of h's first actions was to cut 
down the giant oak in Saxony, which was dedicated 
to Thor and worshippea by the people from far and 
near. But when he had nearly fePed the o&V. and 
while the people were cursing and threatening the 
saint, a supernatural storm swept over it, seized the 
summit, broke every branch, and dashed it, “quasi 
superni motiis solatio,” with a trerrendous crash to 
the ground. The heathens acknowledged the marvel, 
and many of them were converted there and then. 
But the saint built, a chapel of the w od of this very 
oak. and dedicated it to St. Peter. 
The sacred oaks, it must be admitted, do net seem 
to have always done their duty. Thus, for instance, 
a famous oak in Ireland was dedicated to the Irisn 
Saint Columhan, one of the peculiarities of the free 
being that whoever carried a piece of its wood in his 
mouth would never be hanged. After a time, how- 
ever, the holy oak of Kenmare was destroyed in a 
stnrm. Nobody dared gather the wood, except " gar- 
dener, who tanned some shoe leather with the bark ; 
but when he worn the shoes made of this leather for 
the first time he became a leper, and was never cured. 
In the abbey of Vetrou, in Brittany, stood an old oak 
tree which had grown out of the staff of St 
Martin, the first abbot of the monastery, and in the 
shade of which the princes of Brittany prayed when- 
ever they went into the Abbey. Nobody dared to 
nick even a leaf from this tree, and not even the 
birds dared to peck at it. Not so the Norman pirates, 
two of wlmm climbed the tree of St. Martin to cut 
wood for their bows. Poth of them fell down "iid broke 
their necks. The Celts and Germans and Scandi- 
naviaus, again, worshipped the mountain ash (Traxi- 
nus), and it is especially in the religious myth.s of 
the latter tiiat the “ Askr Yggdras'l ” plays a promi- 
nent part. To them it was the holiest among trees, 
the “world tree” which, eternally young and dewy' 
represented heaven, earth, and hell. According to the 
Edda, the ash yggdrrasil was an evergreen tree. A 
specimen of it (fays Adam of Bremen) grew at Up- 
sala ill front of the great temple, and another in 
Dithmarschen, carefully guarded by a railing, for it 
was. in a my«tica1 way, connected with the fate of the 
country. When Dithmarschen lost its liberty the tree 
withered, but a magpie, one of the best prophesying 
birds of the north, came and built its nest on the 
withered tree and hatched five little ones, all perfectly 
white, as a sign that at some future time *he country 
would regain its former liberty.— Deutsche Ruvdsekan in 
Public Opinion. 
OOMESTIO USES FOR AMMONIA. 
A little ammonia in tepid water will soften and 
cleanse Gie skin. 
Spirits of ammonia will often relieve a severe 
hoDilache. 
Door plates should be cleansed by nibbing with 
a cdo'h wet in ammonia and water. 
If tho color has been taken out of silhs by frnit 
stains, ammonia will usually restore the color. 
