The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-18
Compiled for THK ARKANsAw TRAvKLKR.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

lakes cross several miles of land to reach the
 Seine and the Marne.
 The grasses of the United States, ac-
 cording to pr. Vasey, number 1ao genera.
 embracing 675 species
 Europeans find the heat of Algeria
 great obstacle 10 agricultural work. and, to
 avoid much of it, they propose making har-
 vests at night by aid Of electric light
 The researches of Fol, a French anat.
 omist. have satisfied him that during the fifth
 and sixth weeks of it's development, the hu.
 man embryo is furnished with genuine tail.
 It appears that climate is regarded as
 having so much effect upon the hearing tha,
 English physicians sometimes seek to lessen the deafness of patients by sending them to
 the dry parts of New Zealand.
 In recent experiments in Paris it was
 shown that human body of average size could be entirely burned in a common stove
 in forty hours without disa !reeable smell.
 This is taken as an argument in favor of ere nation, as it shows that the process need not be expensive.
 A microscopist, Mir. Spencer Moore, has shown that the bacteria which produce or accompany "sweating of the feet !" are
 identical with those producing chemical ac- tion in the soil In the latter situation they reduce the sulphates to suiphites and the osphates to phosphites, and in both situa- tions are instrumental in setting free ammo nia.
 A New Fruit rree-Attention has been called 10 a hitherto unknown fruit tree which has been found in the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea. It grows to a height of sixty feet, and bears a large globose fruit, wholesome and palatable, with a flavor resembling that of the pear. Baron Vsn Mueller, the Australian bot4nist, has named the tree Basi! ErssiHeanG, and the fruit is known 10 the natives as Posi-Posi.
 Prolific Plants An Enghsh botanist, MT. w. B. Hen,sley, refers to the astonishing yield oi seeds by orchids. Darwin calculated that single capsule of 0ycAi5 n:4eHIat1 con- tained 200 seeds, and single plant I86 300; SO that alter deducting I2.ooo as bad there would remain sufficient to cover an acre of ground, six inches apart. By the same com putation, the next generation would cover a space larger than the isles of Anglesea; and the fourth generation would yield sufficient seeds 10 carpet the entire land surface ot the globe. And yet the seeds of some orchids are much more numerous, those in a single capsule of one species being estimated at I.7564+o.
 Cultivated Pllnts.-Ot some I3o 900 known species of plants, De Candolle finds that only about 25o species certainly less than 3oo-are cultivated. The American con tinent has yielded about one filth of these cultivated plants, Patagonia and tie Cape of Good Hope have furnished none, and Aus tralia and New Zealand have contributed two less important ones only. The or ginal homes of the remainder were very une equally dis- tributed. From temperate Europe have come cabbages, turnips, carrots, hops, oats, rasp- berries, etc.; from warmer Europe and west ern Asia, cherries, plums and apples and from the Mediterranean district grapes, al. monds and peoples. The apricot, peach, sugar-cane, sweet orange originated in Ohina. Tea was furnished by China, Assam and Manchuria; and coffee was given us by Af- rica. The olive is native of Syria. India has yielded the citron the lemon. the mango, the cucumber, a kidney bean, rice, cotton and black pepper. Wheat is a product of the Euphrates region and barley, of western Asia. The misnamed Jerusalem artichoke came from North America. The tomato was given us 6y Peru; the potato, by Peru and Chi; and quinine, by Peru and Bolivia. To- bacco came from Ecuador; the pineapple, from Central America arrowroot, from trop- ical parts of America.
 Stellar Motion.-The fixed stars are not at rest, but their proper motion is only revealed by accurate and repeated observa- tions. In some cases, remarks the Astrono- mer Royal for Ireland, the stars hardly ap pear to move in the course of centuries, al- though in other cases the motion is sufficient ly rapid to be detected with the meridian cir cle in year or even less. Even the most rapidly moving star, which harries along with the stupenduous speed of 200 miles second, is so far of that it only changes it's apparent position about seven seconds of arc in twelvemonth. Nine years would be nee essary for ths star to pass across an arc equal to a single minute, while about a5o years must elapse before it would traverse distance equal to that subtended by the aP parent diameter of the moon. One of the greatest discoveries of modern astronomy is that of means of studying the movements of the stars in the line of sight. With the E advent of the spectroscope 1t was conceived that the dark lines of stellar spectrum shsuld be shifted more or less to one side or the other of the place of the corresponding liHe; of the olar spectrum, according to the stars motion to or from the earth; and that the amount of the displacement, considered with reference to tue wave theory of light, should show the speed of advance or retreat. the, theory has proven to be correct. Its applicas ton has shown that Sirius was recedng from our system before 1873 about twenty miles second, while ia 1881 the retreat was only