MICRO-LAND 
19 
petiole two inches in diameter at the 
base and about two feet tall. At the 
top three branches divided and sub- 
divided until the top was about four 
feet in diameter, well covered with 
leaflets and an ornament to the garden. 
Late in the following winter a bud 
started to grow from the dry conn and 
rapidly developed into the mammoth 
blossom that excelled the calla in size 
if not in beauty and perfume. When 
full-grown it lacked but an inch of be- 
ing four feet from the top of the corm 
to the summit of the dark purple 
spadix. The spathe was nearly eighteen 
inches in height and nine inches in 
diameter at the top. The stem was mot- 
tled much like the petiole of the leaf. Its 
appearance was attractive but not so 
much can be said of its odor. Its rela- 
tionship to the skunk cabbage was un- 
mistakable. Two other cousins belong- 
ing to the same genus are known to 
the hothouse world. The A. simlcnsc 
is a smaller plant with all the odor of 
the larger condensed into a small space. 
The A. titanum produces the largest 
flower known with a spathe six feet in 
depth and nearly three feet in diameter. 
Micro-Land. 
BY THEODORE II. COOPER, BATAVIA, X. Y. 
Any one wishing to travel in little 
known parts of the world and see rare 
sights, unusual forms of animal and 
plant life, weird things which he has 
never dreamed existed, may do so at 
very little cost. It may be well to men- 
tion that this land has never been fully 
explored, so it is possible that you will 
see something new. 
You will need some equipment to 
make this excursion but the equipment 
will be the only expense as you will 
not have far to travel. The necessary 
equipment may be bought from the 
Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, 
Rochester, New York. It consists of a 
microscope and some slides and cover 
glasses. If you are able to get a polar- 
izer and analyzer, microtome and dis- 
secting instruments so much the better, 
but before buying these it will be well 
to procure a book or two on microscopy 
and learn how they are used. 
On the fifth of July last year my 
brother and I took a walk in the coun- 
try after supper and I brought home, 
among other things, some tiger lilies. 
I put them in some water in a beaker 
in my laboratory and after about a 
week put a drop of this water under 
my microscope. I found three different 
kinds of animal life in it. One kind was 
very plentiful. It would stretch out its 
long “tail” and then suddenly contract 
as quickly as a piece of rubber band. 
A friend of mine, Donald Mayled, 
called upon me one night and I asked 
him if his knife was sharp. He assured 
me that it was, but when we looked at 
it through the microscope it looked like 
a crosscut saw. 
It is not my purpose here to write a 
discourse on the methods of microscopy 
but perhaps one or two points are so 
important to the beginner that it would 
not be advisable to omit them. In the 
first place a compound microscope is an 
instrument which requires a reasonable 
amount of care in handling and should 
not be left in a place where dust may 
collect on it or an inexperienced person 
try to use it and run a chance of ruin- 
ing the objective. Never try nor allow 
any one else to try to take apart the 
system of lenses in the objectives. 
When not in use keep the instrument 
in its case or under a bell jar. 
I do not expect that all who read 
this article will purchase microscopes, 
but I hope a few at least will be in- 
clined to learn more about micro-land 
and trust they will not consider their 
time and money lost which they spend 
to visit it. 
The Green, Green Grass. 
Who will sing the green, green grass 
Upspringing everywhere? 
Changing the brown and barren land 
Into a garden fair. 
Carpeting the valleys wide, 
Covering the hills, 
Bordering with luscious growth 
Little purling rills; 
Freshening the orchard slopes, 
Beautifying lawns, 
Making old earth shine like new, 
In sunsets and in dawns; 
Turning fields to verdant slopes, 
Meadows to fairy floors, 
Creeping, creep'ng slowly up 
To our very doors. 
The while its beauty, spread afar, 
Joy to all doth bring, 
The brilliant emerald warp it forms 
For the pattern of the Spring. 
— Emma Peirce. 
