4 : 74 , 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[December, 
the Black Alder, or Winterberry, which is own brother to 
the Holly, are very brilliant. Holly berries, the capsules 
of Climbing Bitter-sweet, or Wax-work, and other bright 
fruits, may be used. If flowers are employed, they will 
naturally be those of the everlastings, such as Helichry- 
snms, and imported Immortelles. Scarlet and crimson 
colors are to be preferred ; yellow, if used at all, should 
be introduced very sparingly, as it gives a garish effect, 
out of place at this season. Some choice design may 
occupy a conspicuous position on the mantel-piece, and 
for this, if there is a greenhouse, some nice bits of 
foliage may be spared, such as leaves of the Auenba 
(Gold-dust Plant), Laurustinus, Bay Laurel, or whatever 
broad-leaved evergreen can part with a few leaves with¬ 
out detriment, not forgetting Ardisia, which has both 
leaves and berries. In such a design the leaves 
and berries of the Creeping Partridge-Berry ( MU - 
cheUa ) and Checkerberry, with bright colored lichens, 
may be worked in. A very pretty effect may be pro¬ 
duced by “ frosting ” some parts of the decoration. What 
is sold at the paint and drug shops as “ frosting,” is glass 
in the thinnest possible scales; this is to be broken into 
small fragments and sprinkled upon leaves that have 
been touched with gum water; it glistens like frost. 
TOYS 4b ©UHLS’ TOOTMMSo 
ing forms over each of these tiny green masses, and they 
really become young plants, just like the original, except 
in size. In time the wall of 
the mother cell breaks away 
and lets out these little 
ones ; they soon grow to the 
full size, and go through with 
the same changes again; thus 
these minute plants increase 
very fast. It is only a small 
number of the Alg® that are 
so small and simple as this. 
Many, like the Brook-silk, 
described in April last, con¬ 
sist of many long cells placed 
end to end, to form a thread 
(fig. 4). In others the cells 
are not only placed end to 
end, but side by side, to 
make a thin sheet or plate. 
Those who live near the sea¬ 
shore can find a great many 
forms of Alg®, from the 
delicate kinds called “ Sea 
Mosses,” up to the coarse Rock-weed, and still larger 
Sea-weed called Kelp. That which is sold in the shops as 
“IRISH moss” 
Fig. 4.—BROOK SILK. 
The Young’ Microscopist’s Club. 
It is rather too late in the year to talk about plants to 
most of you, but as I began to tell you a little about what 
are called the lower plants, and there is but one family 
left to be noticed, I will say something about that to com¬ 
plete the list. I have only tried to show you enough 
about these plants to allow you, especially 
with the help of your Microscope, to know 
a moss from a fern, a lichen from a moss, 
and so on. We now come to the Alga— 
the plural for Alga, the Latin word for sea¬ 
weed. As we have no good common 
name for these plants, yon must use the 
scientific one, and when you pronounce it, recollect that 
the g is hard in Alga&mi. soft in Alga (as if written Algah 
and Aljee). “Sea-weeds” will hardly do as a common 
name for these plants, for while all true sea-weeds are 
Alga , all Alga are not sea-weeds, a great number be¬ 
longing to fresh water. You will remember that I told 
you that all these plants, the club-mosses, the ferns, the 
mosses, the fungi, etc., were called Jlowerless plants, as 
they have no real flowers and seeds; the Alga are also 
flowerless. Among them we find the most minute and 
simplest of vegetable forms. As a general thing, 
Fig. 1. 
ALGiE ARE WATER PLANTS. 
The few that do not live in the water are found in moist 
places. They inhabit both salt and fresh water, and 
like the other flowerless plants, have minute bodies called 
spores to answer for seeds. We 
find here a wonderful range in 
size, some being so small that you 
could hardly see them with your 
Microscope, up to some giant sea¬ 
weeds, the tallest—or longest—of 
all plants, over 700 feet in length. 
Being surronnded by water from 
which they absorb nourishment, 
they have no need of roots to 
take up their food, and while some have what appears 
like a root, it is only to anchor them, while many float 
free in the water. I have already told you that all plants 
were made up of cells , and pointed out in a former talk 
how, by making a tbin slice of corn-stalk, and of a young 
twig of maple, you could see these cells—sometimes 
globular or egg-shaped, sometimes longer and thread-like, 
but always, in every plant and every part of a plant, 
the Microscope shows nothing but cells of some kind, and 
their contents. Some of the Alg® are so small that they 
Fig. 2. 
CONSIST OP A SINGLE CELL ; 
a mere hag without opening, and so minute that your 
Microscope would but just allow you to see it. I give 
some engravings to show how a plant of this kind looks 
with a very powerfnl glass. The green scum found in 
damp places is often at. 1 Iga of this kind. When largely 
magnified it is found to be made up 
of bodies like fig. 1. A tiny trans¬ 
parent bag, filled with greenish mat¬ 
ter. A little thing—but to me one 
of the most wonderful things in the 
world 1 For here you have a whole 
plant , which can do all that any 
plant can—.'. it can live, grow, 
and multiply. It has no root., stem, 
Fig. 3. lea t , or flowers, and yet is as much 
of a plant (in one sense) as those hav¬ 
ing all these parts. When one of these plants gets its 
full size—ii we can conceive of so minute a thing having 
size—the green matter within slowly divides, as in fig. 2, 
and these halves divide again, as seen in fig. 3. A cover¬ 
is a good example of one of the medium-sized sea-weeds, 
and by soaking out a bit of this you can see its real shape. 
The larger sea-weeds have fruit-dots, or places to hold 
their spores... You see what a wonderful variety plant 
life presents—from the minute Alga just described, up to 
the towering oak and pine; the Alga is but one simple 
rounded cell—the tree is only a mass of cells, some round, 
some long, and of different sizes, but all so minute as to 
require a microscope if we would see them... Among 
other queries, one boy wishes to know if our Microscope 
WILL SHOW THE CRYSTALS IN SNOW. 
I understand what he means; he has read of snow 
crystals and would like to see them. He can do so if he 
is patient and watches his chance, as all snow does 
not show them. The large flakes are confused masses, 
and do not show the crystalline form. It is only when 
the snow comes down so fine that it hardly makes any 
show in the air, but sifts down dry and almost dustlike, 
that yon will find crystals. If you find snow on your 
coat sleeve as very minute dry 6pangles, you can see, 
without a glass, that it has a regular form, and if you use 
the glass you may see some of the forms shown in fig. 5, 
or others much like them, for there is a great variety 
among them. Sometimes the snow will be all mere six- 
sided plates, as shown at the left-hand in the middle 
row. I have seen them much like that at the right-hand of 
the middle row, and like the one under it with the spaces 
between the arms not so deep. The more beautiful crys¬ 
tals in the engraving are from drawings made in the 
Arctic regions. You must recollect that you can not take 
the snow crystals to yonr Microscope in a warm room 
and examine them at your leisure, but yon must take your 
Microscope to your crystals. The glasses must be re¬ 
moved from the stand and used as a hand glass. Catch 
the snow on a piece of dark woollen cloth, and when you 
examine the crystals, try to keep your breath away from 
the glasses, else it will collect on them as frost and pre¬ 
vent yon from seeing anything, and also melt the snow. 
Our Piizzlc.lSox. 
CROSS-WORD. 
My first is in blossom but not in fruit, 
My next is in wardrobe but not. in suit, 
My third is in larder but not in food, 
My fourth is in lovely but, not in good, 
My fifth is in linger but not in wait. 
My sixth is in happy but not in great, 
My seventh is in ocean but not. in lake, 
My eighth is in oven but not in cake. 
My ninth is in barter but not. in buy, 
My tenth is in heaven but. not in sky : 
The letters, if placed aright, will show 
One of our measures, which p’r’aps you know. 
BIBLICAL DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
1. A son of Jacob and Rachel. 
2. A battle-field of Joshua. 
3. A district of Canaan. 
4. A scriptural image of slavery. 
5. Fifty-five. 
6. A tree and its fruit. 
7. A village of Palestine. 
The primals and finals give the name of two celebrated 
ancient cities. Isola. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMAS. 
1. I am composed of 19 letters : 
My 5, 16, 17, is a tree. 
My 2, 3, 15, 9, is an animal. 
My 7. 8, 12, 16, we have been advised to let alone. 
My 17, 5, 13, 1. 9, is a kind of fruit. 
My 14, 1, 6, 19, 11, is an animal. 
My 10, 11. 9, 4, 18, 6, is a city in Colorado. 
My 18, 6, 3, 11, is a city in Pennsylvania. 
My 14, 3, 9, 10, 15, 1, is one of a certain race of men. 
My whole is an American poet. K. P. N\ 
2. I am composed of 13 letters; 
My 1, 5, 12, 11, 13, is a species of heron, and a name for 
rice not divested of the husk. 
My 8, 9, 7, 3. is a drink used by the peasants of Rnssia. 
My 6, 10,1, is a household article not as much used ae 
formerly. 
My 4, 2. 6, is a boy’s nickname. 
My whole is a bay on the coast of one of the United 
States. C. W. Shelmire. 
3. I am composed of 18 letters; 
My 11, 13. 5, 17, 14. 15. is a fruit. 
My 2, 18. 6, 3, 7,14,1, 8, may be seen on the face. 
My 11, 10, 9, 2, 17, is a beverage. 
My 4, 16, 12, 13, 15, is a fabric. 
My whole is often consulted. L. N. J. 
PUZZLE. 
From what word can you take “six’’and transpose 
the remaining letters into the fruit of an evergreen ? 
charade. 
When yon come in from walking 
My first doth meet your view ; 
Mind do not miss my second 
Whatever else you do: 
For, in this frosty weather, 
With care my second take. 
As, if yon stumble on my whole, 
You might produce an ache. Jos. H. Bird 
ANSWER TO JOE LIVINGSTON’S PROBLEM. 
1 woman at 50c. 50 
6 children at 25c. $1.50 
5 me n at $2. 10.00 
12 persons.$12.00 
SOLUTION TO THE PEDESTRIAN PROBLEM. 
A takes 5 steps while B takes 4 ; A, therefore, takes 5 /< 
as many as B. 3 of A’s steps are equal to 2 of B’s ; A, 
therefore, steps a /a as far as B.—Multiply °/ 4 X s / 3 =ut/ 1 „, 
which represents the value of A’s effort as compared with 
B’s, and makes if plain that A goes 10 miles while Bgoes 
12 miles. Now by simple proportion, if A goes 10 miles 
while B goes 12 miles, then A will go 25 miles while B 
goes 30 miles. At 30 miles from the start they are to¬ 
gether, and while B was walking that. 30 miles, A walked 
only 25; hence A must have been 5 miles on the road 
when B started. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE OCTOBER NUMBER. 
Numerical Enigma.—Do unto others as you would have 
others do unto you. 
Anagrammatical Square 
Word. 
SNOW 
NONE 
ONUS 
WEST 
Substitutions.— 1. Walter, 
waiter. 2. Milk, silk. 8. Brass, 
grass. 4. Take, lake. 5. True, 
tree. 6. Mare, mire. (M. A. 
answers No. 6 with "fool, 
pool.’ - ) 
Concealed Names.— 1. Amy. 2. Bertha. 3. Ellen. 4. Ada, 
5. Delia. 6. Eve. 7. Esther. 8. Emma. 9. Dora,—Seth. 
10. Frances. 
Pi.—Hasty resolntions seldom speed well. 
Concealed Magazines and Papers.— 1. Post. 2. Herald. 
3. Times. 4. Press. 5. Sun. 
C ross-word.— M erclian t 
Scientific Acrostic. 
N— itr —E 
I— nfusoria —I, 
T—onrmalin—E 
R— hodiu —M 
O— r —E 
G— nomo —N 
E— rgo —T 
N— itride —S 
6. Harper, 
f Venice. 
Rhomboid Puzzle. 
Amen 
Even 
Ewes 
Stop 
Abbreviations.— 1. Black, 
lac. 2. Coney, one. 3. Crate, 
rat. 4. Elegy, leg. 5. Grape, 
rap. 
Anagrams.— 1. Triumphantly. 2. Floundering. 3. Im¬ 
prisonment. 4. Energetically. 5. Promiscuous. 6. Goose¬ 
berries. 7. Disconsolate. 8. Wearisome. 9. Ejaculates. 10. 
Disobedience. 
Puzzles, answers, and such matters as were formerly 
directed to “Aunt Sue,” may hereafter be sent to “The 
Doctor,” No. 245 Broadway, New York. 
Some Items About Sugar. 
On an average, every man, woman, and child in the 
United States consumes each year about 30 pounds of cane 
sugar, and nearly 2 gallons of molasses, besides maple 
sngar, honey, and other sweets —19 lbs. of pure cane 
sugar is actually made up of, and can be changed into 
8 lbs. of charcoal and 11 lbs. of water 1 Pure white starch 
is made up of 8 lbs. of charcoal (carbon) and 10 lbs. of 
water. Any boy can demonstrate this roughly by putting 
a small quantity of sugar on a piece of thin iron over a hot 
lamp or coals, and hold over it a glass jar bottom up. 
The sugar will change to pure charcoal, while the water 
will rise np and condense on the inside of the jar, if it 
he kept cool, and he will get nothing from the sugar hut 
coal and water. The chemist can easily take the 19 lbs. 
