Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1873-11-15
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Gleanings (, ON e. e w rid of Discovery
and Invention.

HlSnt, mas Deen demonstrated by recent {
experiments of Prof. Kedzie of the
Michigan agricultural college To make
as conclusive test as possible, instead
of taking the air from room contain
ing few plants only, the professor
gathered it from the college green
hodse, where more than 5000 plants
We're growing. The room had been
closed for more than twelve hours and
ii the plants exhaled carbonic acid to an
injurious extent, the analysis of air
from such room would certainly dis
close this fact Three spec mems of
this imprisoned air were gathered
shortly before sunrise, from different
parts of the room, the analysis of which
gave AL, 400, 400 parts of carbonlc
acid in 10000 of air, or an average OF
4.O3 in 10000 while the outdoor air
continued parts in 10000, thus prov
ing that the air in the greenhouse was
better than "pure country air.
THE BEES AS ARCHITECTS. Man Is
obliged to use all sorts of engines for |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, rifles, plumb
lines-to produce his buildings and to
guide his hand the bee executes her
work Immediately from her mind, with
out instruments or tools of any kind.
"She has successfully solved a problem
in higher mathematics, which the dis
covery of the differential calculus, a
century and a half ago, alone enables us
to solve at all without the greatest diff
Guilty" "The inclination of the planes
of the cells is always Just, so that, if
the surfaces on which she works are I'M
equal, still the axis running through 1t
is in the true direction, and the junction
of the two axes forms the angle of 60
degrees as accurately as if there were
none" The manner in which she
adapts her work to the requirements of
the moment and the place is marvellous.
In order to test their ingenuity, Huber
glazed the interior of hive, with the
exception of certain bits of wood fas-
tened on the sides. The bees cannot
make their work adhere to glass, and
they began to build horizontally from
side to side he interpOsed other plates
of glass in different directions, and they
curved their combs in the strangest
shapes. in order to make them reach the
wooden supports. He says that this
proceediny denoted more than an in
stinct, as glass was not a substance
against which bees could be warned by
nature. and that they changed the di-
rection of the work before reaching the
glass. ut the distance precisely suitable
for making the necessary turns-enlarg-
ing the cells on the outter side greatly,
and on the inner side diminishing the
rroportionately. As the different in
sects were working on the different
sides. there must have been some means
of communicating the proportion Ia lac
observed; while tine DO tom being com
mon to both sets of cells, the difficulty
of thus regularly varying their dimen-
sions must have been great indeed.
Scientific american.
The FECUNDATION OF Flowers BY
INsECrs.-Among the numerous dis
coveries with which vegetable physio
logy has of late been enriched, none i.
more interesting or more clrious thar
the part taken by insects in the develop
ment of flowers. Some flowers seem tt
appeal to the insect o enter their pei
leaves by exhibiting the brightest colors
and most beautiful and varied forms
beside secreting quantities of the nectar
upon which their visitor subsists. No
thing can be more wonderful tuan the
thousands of different shapes of coroll;
of stamens, and of pistils; and yet al
are arranged as not only to cover til,
insect, in spite of himself, with pollen
but, at the same time, to separate com
pletely the pollen and stigma of til,
same flower Often the mechanical dis
position of the various parts OF tn
blossom and their play at the momen
of the entrance of the intruder is ex
tremely complicated, as Darwin has de
monstrated in the case of many of tn
orchidacee but there are other flow
ers of which the construction is easil
understood and which are equally in
genious and surprising. The insec
alights upon the lower lip of the rolla
and, to reach the hidden nectar, tries
penetrate the tub But this 1t cannO
do without pushing before it the shor
branches of the two levers formed b
tho connectives. At the same time tn
arched upper parts advance and en-
brace the body of the bee, applying tn
open anthers to its abdomen so that tn
insect energies covered with the fin
pollen. As long as it seeks the necta
of flowers of the same age as that jus
left, of which the styles are still yer
short, the stigmas can receive but littl
pollen but when the bee attempts
enter an older blossom the elongate
stigma grazes along its back, rubs o
the pollen, and thus becomes fecundi
ted. Since the pollen of the SALIVA
deposited on the back of the insect,
is evident that little can be given to
flower of another species, the constru
ton OF which requires the placing {
the substance upon the head or trunl
While, whatever may be the fiOwel
which the bee visits before enterir
another saliva, the pollen with whic
it is charged is not rubbed off or wastet
as it remains intact until proper bio
som is Observation-Disclosures america
The potato rot, that mysterious di
ease which bothers the farmer 50 fro
year to year, results from a parasi
which infests the foliage. The folia,
is the point of attack, and the tube
are influenced, secondarily, from &
vines. If this is a settled point, the
quiry arises, How do the parasit
reach the tubers, buried up in t
ground as they are? The spores,
germs of disease, must be very nnmt
GUS, and they must pervade the vine
every part; and, also, they probat
fall upon the ground in copious sho
ers. Now there are two ways by viii
they may reach and infect the tubers
they may descend through the tissu
oe III oko1ly or xbov NAV no IA rri