The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-20
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

IcEBERas are reported to have been
met with in the Bay of Biscay during
very rough Weather by the Mongolia,
which arrived at Southampton lately.
Icebergs have been met with as far south,
but generally we'll out in the Atlantic
Ocean.
Colon IN FLowERs.-The following
is current as a d" curious fact :" can
English writer says that the three pri-
mary colors.-red, blue and yellow-are
not found pure in any species of flower
Thus we have red and blue in the fuch-
sis, but no yellow; yellow and red in
the rose, but no blue blue and yellow
in the pansy, but no red, and so on
Florists have the art of changing the
colors of many flowers at will, thereby
producing an endless variety of shades,
as in the tulip and dahlia. But those
flowers which have yellow for their type
can never be changed to blue, SIS, again,
the tulip and dahlia, which in their ma
tive state are yellow. A blue tulip,
blue dahlia, and blue rose have not
yet been reckoned among the florists
triumphs. Nor can those flowers which
have blue for their type be changed to
yellow, as. for instance, the gerAnium.
RECENTLY the English government
paid $50, 900 for the destructive inven-
ton known as the "fish" torpedo. It
was manufactured at Woolwich, where
visitors in their passage through the
work were not permitted to see it. In
fact, the fish" torpedo was tabooed
subject, and only the few persons en-
gagged in manufacturing this engine of
wholesale destruction and slaugh liter
knew anything of its principle. 1t now
appears that Germany possesses the
same secret, having paid large price
for the diabolical machine to an Eng
lishman, who claims to be its inventor,
A test of the torpedo was made the other
day at KEEL, before the Emperor Will
liam, and the results were more than
satisfactory. The Germans have in
trusted the secret to one officer only,
and to the chief of the engineering de-
partment; but this secrecy, probably,
will not prevent the same fellow who
stole it from Woolwich from selling it
to France, Russia ard Austria, and SO
make it an even thing all around.
Big TREEs.-The largest and biggest
trees in the world are the Baobabs of
Africa and Australia. There are two
species-the A dansonia gregorie, which
is peculiar to Australia, and the ADAM
sonia digitdta, which abounds in the
west and South Africa. The trees do
not rise to an excessive height, but
attain an enormous circumference
Several have been measured which had
girth of from 70 to II feet. A few
feet from the ground the main trunk
gives off immense branches, which
extend horizontally from so to 100
feet. The entire tree has the appear.
ance of a perfect hemisphere-some
times 100 feet in height and $50 in cir
conference. A group of these trees
browning its headlands, gives name to
the Cape de Verde Islands-"G Green
Cape" The Baobab does not attain
its full growth until it is 800 years old.
AdaaSon, the botanist, sitter whom the
genus was named by Linmus, calcu-
lated the age of the trees by an inscrip-
ton which he discovered in the bark of
one on the Cape de Verde Islands. The
inscription was cut in the fifteenth GEN.
fury, and three hundred layers of wood
had grown over it. Comparing the
thickness of these with that of the
trees whose age was kno xn, he arrived
at an approximate knowledge of the
age OF different specimens. "He has
found, says Humboldt, "for diam
e.er of about thirty feet, an age OF
500 years. According to this, Their g
are Baobabs from 5000 to 5000 years
old-hoary patriarchs which vera in
their vigorous and lusty prime when
the pyramids were building. The
woolly leaves of the Baobab have from
three to seven leaflets radi ating from q
common center. They drop from the
tree during the hot and dry summers
OF the tropical regions where they grow,
hut put forth again in the rainy season,
which lasts from December to June.
The flowers of the Baobab are white
and very large, somewhat resembling
the mallows, and droop on stems a
yard in length. The honey which
the trees make from them is greatly es-
teemed by the Abyssinians for its per.
fume and flavor. The fruit of the Afri-
can Baobab is of the size of citron, and
is often called monkey bread" The
shell passes in ripening from green to
yellow and brown. The interior is
filed with a spongy, juicy substance,
of pale chocolate color. It is slightly
acid and pleasant to the taste. The
expressed juice mixed with sugar is
highly valued as beverage. being very
refreshing and effectual in quenohing
thirst, aud possessing medicinal quail
lies which render it a specific in putrid
and pestilential fevers. The Baobab is
emolient and muoilsginous in all its
parts. The Africans dry and reduce
the leaves to powder, which they
sprinkle upon their daily food, for the
purpose OF diminishing the excessive
perspiration to which they are subject
in torrid climate. Europeans also
find this powder useful in cases of
diarrhea, fever and other maladies. In
Egypt, the dried pulp OF the fruit is
mixed with water and used in dysentety.
Tne Africans regard tie Biobab with
superstitious vereration ; and we'll they
may revere a tree which century after
century supplies them with food and
drink, and medicine. The hollow
trunks of the trees are used as places
of sepulture, of encampment and as
magazines. Some of them are SO large
as to admit two hundred and forty men