The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-08-29
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
CEREAL GROWTH,

CEREAL GROWTH.
From careful researches in Russia, Kowalewski
has found that cereals grow faster in the north
than in the south. For instance, oats and spring
wheat take 1913 days and barley Ito days to ripen
about the southern province of Kherson, and only
SO, S8 and SO days at Arkhangelski in the north.
The intermediate regions show intermediate differ
ences. The cause is the greater length of the
daily exposure to sunlight in the high latitudes,
which more than compensatcs for the difference in
temperature in favor of the southern regions. In
each latitude the growth of cereals is more rapid
in the eastern parts of Russia than in the western
the land near the coast having less sunshine than
that in the continents interior.
VEGETABLE SHEEP.
On Mount Torlesse, in New Zealand, grows q
singular plant, specimens of which are known as
vegetable sheep" The plant belongs to the
Cudweed tribe, and is described by recent botan-
ical explorer growing on loose debris at an al
titude of 1900 to 5000 feet and forming round or
kidney shaped patches, some of them as much as
eight feet across and three feet high. They re-
semble immense cushions, in one species snow
white and in the other silvery gray, and in both
are formed of q dense mass of leafy branches, so
closely packed together that a chisel cannot bo
easily thrust into the mass. The flowers are so
small that their parts can be seen distinctly only
under the microscope. The peculiar shape and
appearance of these plants led to their being &C.
casionaly mistaken for sheep by early settlers,
and hence the name.
A MINERAL LUNG.
BY remarkable process, now being exhibited
in London, the Brin brothers, French chemists,
claim to be able to cheaply obtain oxygen from
the atmosphere in unlimited quantities The air
is first freed from its moisture and carbonic acid
by quick-lime, reducing it to mixture of oxygen
and nitrogen. These gases are then passed
through an artificial lung of anhydrous oxide of
In~., &c
serbs the oxygen, while the nitrogen is drawn off
to gasometer for conversion into ammonia, etc.
This use of baryta is not new, but the salt is for
the first time made indestructible and capable of
performing its work for an indefinite period. It is
claimed that this cheapened method of obtaining
oxygen, and the secondary heterogeneous products,
must effect an absolute revolution in chemistry.
MISCELLANEOUS
The extent to which animals appreciate color is
an interesting but unsolved problem. 1t is being
Investigated by j. GRADER, who has experimental
upon five mammals, seven birds, two reptiles three
amphibians, two fishes, three mollusca, twenty
seven insects, two spiders and two worms. He
has found that the sense Of color, as we'll as the
power of perceiving light, is mucn more widely
distributed among animals than has been sup
posed, although the variations in the sense of
color and brightness in animals are great.
Chinese Viceroy has propounded new earth
quake theory In memorial to the throne this
high official attributes earthquake of last jan
uary to the mildness of the winter, which caused
an excess of "yang," or male element of nature ;
although the shock was in measure due to local
officials who neglected their duties, and thus failed
to gain the harmonizing influence of heaven
Lyel estimated that the gorge of Niagara river
cut out in about 30, 600 years, but surveys to
determine the present rate of recession of the falls
indicate that the work may have been done in
10000 years. During forty one years the average
annual wear of the rock was 23 feet.
Since 1877 Delaunay, of Paris, has made several
predictions of earthquake seasons and his prophe-
sizes have unfortunately all come true. He now
predicts very severe volcanic disturbances for
1885, to occur at time when the attractive inhu-
ence of the other members of the solar system is
most strongly felt upon planet, or, rather,
when that influence is most unevenly distributed
during near approach of the great attractive
bodies.
According to Prof. J. G.. Gale, five comets were
known to make their perihelion passage in 1880,
eight in 1881, three in 1882, two in 1888, and
three in 1884.
The electric light has been applied to the firing
of guns at night. Trouve has described to the
Paris Academy of Sciences button Illuminated
by minute battery, by which the gunner is en-
abed to take aim while another little apparatus
an incandescent lamp with suitable reflector
throws beam of light upon the object to be
fired at.
A prize has been offered by the Anti-Tobscco
Society of France for the best essay the liabl-
ity non liability of smokers to contract cholera.
Bones have been proven to quickly dissolve in
sea-water. They are consequently seldom obtain
ed during ocean dredgings, although teeth, which
resist the action of the water indefinitely, are
often brought up.
A colossal poplar in the Botanical Gardens at
Dion measures 1870 feet in height, 46 feet in cir
conference near the earth, and 81 feet in circum-
ference at 16 feet above the earth. DIR. Lavele
finds reason for believing that it is at least 500
years old.
Continued investigation confirms the belief that
the English sparrow destroys vegetation instead OF
protecting it from insects. One observer has re-
ported to Miss E. A. Ormerod, the English ento-
moogt that the srSps Of IN fy killed
Among the animals eaten by different nations
which are not used as food in civilized countries,
Mr.. P. L. Simmonds mentions monkeys, lemurs,
bats, skunks, foxes, lions, porcupines, crocodiles,
salamandera, snakes, caterpillara and ants.