492 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[.N 0 VEllBEB, 
BDYS 4 mWsL'S 9 W3LOTM 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
Not long ago I said that during the summer sea¬ 
son the inquiries from my young friends were al¬ 
most entirely about insects, but I now have two 
which have reference to animals as unlike insects 
as can well be imagined. Here comes 
A Note front the Sea Shore. 
“ C.M.N.” found 
upon the beach 
at “ Sea Side 
Park,” N. J., a 
specimen “which 
none of the ‘ old 
salts ’ seemed to 
know. When 
found it was a 
globular mass of 
the size of a base 
ball, but has col¬ 
lapsed by the 
pressure of my 
hands to the 
present small 
size.” When 
the “specimen” 
reached me it 
was a dried, 
shapeless mass, 
yet having seen 
others in similar 
Fig. 1.— a jelly fish. condition, I rec¬ 
ognized the object that was sent to me as the 
Iteuiaius of a Jelly Fish, 
and very curious creatures these Jelly-fishes are. 
In the works on Natural History they are described 
as Acalephs, which is from the Greek word for a 
nettle, in reference to the stinging powers of some 
of them, and for the same reason they are often 
called “ Sea Nettles.” That this is an appropriate 
name I recollect to have had direct evidence. I 
took a bath in the Gulf of Mexico, many years ago, 
where the Jelly-fishes were so abundant that they 
were carried by every roll of the surf in contact 
with my bare back ; they greatly interfered with 
the pleasure of my bath. The Jelly-fishes are 
divided into several groups, but we will hei'e con¬ 
sider them as a whole. They have jelly-like bodies, 
and are without any solid parts, like bones or shell. 
They vary greatly in size, some being so small as 
to be scarcely visible, and it is some of these minute 
Jelly-fishes that make the sea phosphorescent at 
night. In our northern waters, bright sparks are 
often seen in the wake of a steamer, but in far 
southern waters they are often so abundant as to 
make the sea as brilliant as if it were liquid fire. 
From these microscopic forms we have others of 
larger size all the way up to what may be regarded 
As Monsters of the Sea, 
as some have been measured that were seven feet 
across, and the “tentacles,” or arms, more than 
100 feet in length- The engraving (figure 1) shows 
the general form of the Jelly-fishes. There is a 
« i 
Figs. 2 and 3. —slug in motion and at rest. 
hemispherical body, which is nearly transparent; 
from this hang numerous long threads or “ tenta¬ 
cles” as they are called. It is by these that they 
seize their prey, which is conveyed to the stomach 
at the center of the lower part of the body. There 
is much that is curious about the early condition 
of some of these animals, as they begin life as 
very different creatures from the form they assume 
when full grown. The Jelly-fishes are often of 
beautiful colors, and this, with their graceful move¬ 
ments, make them objects of interest, especially in 
tropical seas. What is known as the “Portugese 
Man of War,” often seen floating on the Gulf of 
Mexico, is a community of these animals, a com¬ 
pound animal, as it were, in which different parts 
have different duties. My friend’s specimen is so 
shrunken, that I cannot give the 
name of the particular Jelly-fish. 
.... A letter and a specimen came, 
not from a youngster, but from a 
lady, but I have written her that 
she will find a reply in the Boys’ 
and Girls’ Column, and I give it 
here as something quite as likely 
to interest young people as older 
ones. The specimen sent- by Mrs. 
“C. H.,” though quite dead and 
dry, was plainly the remains of 
A Very lmrge Garden Slug. 
She writes that she has found 
them six inches in length, and has 
caught as many as thirty in one 
evening. She says that they get 
into her cellar, where they feed 
upon any fruit or vegetable that 
they may find. She says, that last 
summer so many got into the well, TICK ' 
that it, was necessary to have it 
cleaned, when quantities, dead and alive, were 
found. A slug may be described as a snail without 
a coiled shell. No doubt that many of you have 
found iu the woods some of our native snails, 
which have a large coiled shell within which the 
animal can withdraw its body and be completely 
covered and out of sight. When moving, these 
snails show a long portion, or foot, by meaus of 
which they push themselves slowly along, and at 
the opposite side they project the head, with its 
horns, which are always in motion, being pushed 
out and drawn in constantly ; the eyes of the land 
snail are at the ends of these horns or tentacles, as 
they are called. There are usually four of these, 
but two of them are not at all prominent. Slugs are 
like snails, but have no-conspicuous shell. There 
are native slugs, but very small. The one sent is 
Tlie Common Slug of Europe, 
which was long ago brought to this country and is 
quite too common in the gardens of the older 
States. It has a body and “horns ” like the snails, 
5.— A SINGLE JOINT. 0. —HOUND'S TONGUE BUR. 
numbers of so called “ Beggar’s Ticks ” and “ Beg¬ 
gar’s Lice. These not very elegant names are given 
to seeds, or more properly one-seeded fruits of 
several different plants, which, by means of numer¬ 
ous minute hooks, cling to the clothing. Some of 
these stick so closely that they can not be brushed 
off, but to get rid of them they must be picked off. 
These not only cling to our clothiug, but to 
The Coats of Animals also, 
and in this manner both domestic and wild animals 
aid iu carrying seeds to agreat distance. You may 
sometimes have annoying illustrations of this, 
when your horse or the cows at pasture, find a 
patch of the Clot-bur or Cocklebur ; a plant with 
an oval bur, half an inch or more long, that holds 
the seeds and is so covered with small hooks that 
it clings with a firmness that has no doubt tried 
your patience, if you have had to remove them. I 
once saw a flock, or rather several flocks, contain¬ 
ing 20,000 sheep that were being driven from Mexi¬ 
co to California; each one of these had its tail, 
legs, etc., loaded with clotburs, thus making a 
complete invasion of weeds into the new State. So 
generally are seeds transported in wool, that it is 
very common to find strange plants near woollen 
factories. One weed which is over-running a part 
of Georgia is traced to a factory where Australian 
wool had been worked. Among our wild plants are 
The Tick-Trefoils (or Desmodlum), 
of which we have about 20 different kinds. These 
belong to the Pea Family, and have small pea-like 
pods ; in some of these the pod has deep notches 
between the seeds as in figure 4. When ripe, or 
nearly so, the pods readily break up at these 
notches, into joints, one of which is shown in figure 
5 ; these being clothed with fine hooked hairs, cling 
closely to the clothing, and are amoug the most 
common of the “Ticks.” In some parts of the 
country the Hound’s Tongues (Cynoglossum), are 
not rare; the fruit in these is four little nutlets ; 
each of these, as shown iu figure 6, contains a 
single seed, and is covered with little prickles, each 
of which has a barb, that enables it to hold fast. 
Our Puzzle Iiux. 
CROSS WORD. 
My first is in land but not in sea, 
My next is in latch but not in key, 
My third is in Paris but not in France, 
My fourth is in arrow but not in lance. 
My fifth is in lake but not in pond, 
My sixth is in deed but not in bond, 
My seventh is iu road but not in path, 
My eighth is in anger but not in wrath, 
My whole was a tyrant well known to fame, 
Study the letters and tell his name. 
Miinnie B. B. 
and though I said it was “ like a snail without a 
coiled shell,” it has an apology for a shell. The 
body of the animal is about three to six inches 
long, and it has on its back, as seen in figure 2, a 
scale which answers for a shell. It draws itself to¬ 
gether and makes this scale answer as a cover as far 
as it will go. Figure 2, shows the slug when in 
motion, and figure 3, the creature while at rest. 
The slug crawls, like the snail, by means of its 
“ foot,” and has at b an opening through which it 
breathes. These slugs are exceedingly destructive 
in the garden, making sad work with cabbages and 
other plants. You will wonder how such a soft 
and slimy creature can do damage. But the slug, 
soft-bodied though it is, like the snail, has very hard 
and sharp affairs which answer the purpose of 
teeth, and c-au tear and grind up the leaves of plants 
in a most destructive manner. These teeth, or 
“plates,” as they are called, make very pretty ob¬ 
jects for the microscope. It is not difficult to 
prevent slugs from doing mischief in the garden, 
as a slight sprinkling of lime around the plants 
forms a barrier which their soft bodies cannot 
cross.I have not said all that I intended to say 
About the Distribution of Seeds. 
I have shown you various methods by which 
seeds are scattered, but not all. Scarcely a boy 
who lives in the country but finds at this season of 
the year, if he goes through the fields or the edges 
of the woods, his trowsers legs ornamented by 
ANAGRAMS. 
1. I did feast, Sis. 
2. Tom’s dice. 
3. C. scores us. 
4. Tint seen. 
5. An A to begin. 
6. Carted a pipe. 
7. Unite,—fall in. 
8. See in loss. 
9. O race, Poet. 
10. Teach, girl. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
1. I am composed of 46 letters : 
My 33, 9, 16, 22, 13, is a number. 
My 2, 38, 41, 39, is what serpents do. 
My 6, 30, 34, 5, is a measure. 
My 17, 42, 43, 8, 36, is what you are looking at. 
My 1, 34, 46, is a little cradle or bed. 
My 31, 40, 1, 7, is an article of food. 
My 12, 11, is a personal pronoun. 
My 23, 14, 3, 19, is to stain. 
My 37, 28, is a pronoun. 
My 35, 15, 4, 20, is au instrument for measuring. 
My 2, 18, 25, 32, is a part of a watch. 
My 10, 19, 18, 21, 1, 27, is to ramify. 
My 10, 24, 44, 45, 26, is a bend in a sea-coast. 
My whole is a command in the Bible. Emma. 
diagonal. 
Take the names of three men and three women, 
place them one above another, so that a seventh 
name may be read diagonally downward, from 
upper left-hand corner to lower right-hand corner. 
A. L. S. 
HIDDEN VERBS. 
1. ft. grieves me to see a teamster lash his horse. 
2. I was in Germany in 1880. 
3. Never seek shelter under a tree in a thunder¬ 
storm. 
4. The poor boy was dirty and ragged. 
5. I had to wait at the station for half an hour. 
6. The pony will reach the stable at 4 o’clock. 
