PERPLEXITIES. 
With Some Easy Puzzles for Beginners. By Henry E. Dudeney. 
150. — A PLANTATION PUZZLE. 
A man had a 
square plantation 
of 49 trees, but, as 
will be seen by the 
omissions in the 
illustration, four 
trees were blown 
down andremoved. 
He now wants to 
cut down all the 
remainder except 
ten trees, which 
are to be so left 
that they shall form 
five straight rows 
with four trees in 
every row. Which are the ten trees that he must leave ? 
1 51. — A FAMILY PARTY. 
A certain family party consisted of 1 grandfather, 
1 grandmother, 2 fathers, 2 mothers, 4 children, 
3 grandchildren, 1 brother, 2 sisters, 2 sons, 2 daughters, 
1 father-in-law, 1 mother-in-law, and 1 daughter-in- 
law. Twenty-three people, you will say. No ; there 
were only seven persons present. Can you show how 
this might be ? 
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152.— THE EIGHTEEN DOMINOES. 
The illustration shows eighteen dominoes arranged 
in the form of a square so that the pips in every one 
of the six columns, 
six rows, and two 
long diagonals add 
up 13. This is the 
smallest summa- 
tion possible with 
any selection of 
dominoes from an 
ordinary box of 
twenty-eight. The 
greatest possible 
summation is 23, 
and a solution for 
this number may 
be easily obtained 
by substituting for 
every number its complement to 6. Thus for every 
blank substitute a 6, for every 1 a 5, for every 2 a 
4, for 3 a 3, for 4 a 2, for 5 a 1, and for 6 a blank. 
But the puzzle is to make a selection of eighteen 
dominoes and arrange them (in exactly the form 
shown) so that the summations shall be rS in all the 
fourteen directions mentioned. 
153.— A CHARITABLE BEQUEST. 
A man left instructions to his executors to distribute 
once a year exactly fifty-live shillings among the poor 
of his parish, but they were only to continue the gift 
so long as they could make it in different ways, always 
giving eighteenpence each to a number of women and 
half a crown each to men. During how many years 
could the charity be administered ? Of course, by 
“ different ways ” is meant a different number of men 
and women every time. 
T54.— A WORD SQUARE. 
He sat upon the first The month was hot ; 
But hoping to be fourth he’d sought the spot. 
A maid passed by — he needs must third her face, 
For he would second her with every grace. 
Yet now he neither fifths nor feels his pain, 
And Hymen, in his bonds, hath bound the twain. 
Solutions to Last Month s Puzzles. 
146.— WATER, GAS, AND ELECTRICITY. 
According to the conditions, in the strict sense in 
which one at first 
understands them, 
there is no pos- 
sible solution to 
this puzzle. In 
such a dilemma 
one always has to 
look for some 
verbal quibble or 
trick. If the owner 
of house A will 
allow the water 
company to run 
their pipe for house C through his property (and we 
are not bound to assume that he would object), then 
the difficulty is got over, as shown in our illustration. 
It will be seen that the dotted line from W to C passes 
through house A, but no pipe ever crosses another pipe. 
147.— AN OLD THREE-LINE PUZZLE. 
Here again we are driven back, in each case, on a 
trick or quibble. (1) If you fold a piece of paper and 
insert the point of your pencil in the fold, you can draw 
the two lines C D 
and E F in one r F 
stroke. Then you 
can draw the line 
A to B in the 
second stroke, and 
G II in the third 
stroke. (2) With 
a single finger rub 
out A to B in one n 
stroke, G H in the 
second rub, and C D and E F, with two fingers at once, 
in the third rub. Without tricks of the kind shown, 
four strokes or rubs are absolutely necessary. 
148.— CURTAILMENT. 
H— EARS— E 
149.— FIND ADA’S SURNAME. 
Every purchase must represent a square number of 
farthings. We have therefore to find those five pairs 
of squares that have a common difference of 405 (the 
number of farthings in 8s. 5fd.), and these pairs will 
each give the expenditure of a mother and daughter. 
The other facts stated enable us to adjust these sums 
to fit the individuals, so that when we find Annie must 
be the daughter of Mrs. Brown, we learn Annie’s sur- 
name, and so with the others. The girls’ names were 
Ada Smith, Annie Brown, Emily Jones, Mary Robinson, 
and Bessie Evans. 
