Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-07-15
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

In the realms beyond the sky.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
GCompiled for the SPECTATOR.
CULTIVATED PLANTs.-Of some 10000
known species of plants, De Candolle finds
that only about $50 species-certainly less
than 300-are cultivated. The American
Continent has yielded about one-ffth of
this cultivated plants, Patagonia and the
Cape Of Good Hope have furnished none,
and Australia and New Zealand have con-
tributed two less important ones only. The
original homes of the remainder were very
unequally distributed. From temperate
Europe have come cabbages, turnips, car
rots, hops, oats, raspberries, etc.; from
warmer Europe and Western Asia, cher
ries, plums, and apples; and from the Med
iterranean district, grapes, almonds, and
peoples. The apricot peach, sugar-cane,
and sweet orange originated in China Tea
was furnished by China, Assam, and Man.
churia; and coffee was given us by Africa.
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 West
ern Asia. The misnamed Jerusalem arti-
choke came from North America The to-
,nato was given us by Peru; the potato, by
Peru and Chill; and quinine, by Peru and
Bolivia. Tobacco came from Ecuador; the
pineapple from Central America; arrow
root from tropical parts of America.
EFFECTS OF CoLD-In the experiments
of Coleman and McKendrick, as reported
to the Glasgow Philosophical Society, a
live rabbit survived an hours exposure to
temperature of 100 degrees below zero
1t was not frozen, its body heat being re-
duced only to 43 degrees. Live frogs be-
came quite solid in half an hour at 20 to 80
degrees below zero, and in two instances
recovered from the freezing. Intense cold
for many hours failed to destroy microscop-
ic organisms, whose vitality was simply az
rested by freezing, and was resumed when
Il suitable temperature was restored.
The researches of. Fol, a French anato-
mist, have satisfied him that during the
fifth and sixth weeks Of it's development the
human embryo is furnished with genuine
tail.
PROLIFIC PLANTs.-An English botanist,
Mr.. w. 3. Hemsley, refers to the astonish-
lug yl6lu VI SCCuo ny OlCuluS- DdI VIII Cdl-
culated that single capsule of orchiS mac
alata contained 5000 Seeds and single
plant 1856, 300; SO that after deducting ~, 900
as bad there would remain sufficient to COW
er an acre of ground, six inches apart By
the same computation, the next generation
would cover space larger than the isle of
Anglessa; and the fourth generation would
yield sufficient seeds TO carpet the entire
land surface of the globe. And yet the
seeds of some orchids are much more nu-
merous, those in a single capsule of one
species being estimated at l, 7s6, 440.
A New FRUIT DISQUALIFICATION has
been called to a hitherto unknown fruit
tree which has been found in the southeast
ern part of the island of New Guinea. 1t
grows to height of sixty feet, and bears
large globose fruit, wholesome and palat
able, with flavor resembling that of the
pear. Baron Won Mueller, the Australian
botanist, has named the tree Bassia Frs
kineana, and the fruit is known to the ma
tives as Posl-Posi.
In recent experiments in Paris it was
shown that a human body Of average size
could be entirely burned in a common stove
in forty hours, without disagreeable smell.
This is taken as an argument in favor Of
cremation, as it shows that the process need
not be expensive.
1t appears that climate is regarded as
having so much effect upon hearing that
English physicians sometimes seek to les
sen the deafness of patients by sending
them to the dry parts of New Zealand.
Europeans find the heat of Algeria
great obstacle to agricultural work, and, to
avoid much of it, they propose making har-
vests at night by aid of electric light.
Every Spring the cells of certain French
lakes cross several miles of land to reach
the Seine and the Marine.
STELLAR MoTIoN.-The 'tfxed' stars
are not at rest, but their proper motion is
only revealed by accurate and repeated OBJ
servatiOns. In some cases, remarks the
Astronomer Royal for Ireland, the star
hardly appears to move in the course of
centuries, although in other cases the mo-
ton is sufficiently rapid to be detected with
the meridian circle in year or even less
Even the most rapidly moving star, which
hurries along with the stupendous speed of
200 miles second, is SO far off that it only
changes its apparent position about seven
seconds of arc in twelvemonth. Nine
years would be necessary for this star to
pass across an arc equal to single minute.
while about $50 years must elapse before it
would traverse distance equal to that
subtended by the apparent 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 advent of the spec
troscope it was conceived that the dark
lines of stellar spectrum should be shifted
more or less to one side or the other of the
place Of the corresponding lines Of the solar
spectrum, according to the stars motion to
Or from the earth; and that the amount of
the displacement, considered with reference
to the wave theory of light, should show
the speed OF advance or retreat. The the
DRY has proven to be correct. Its applica-
ton has shown that Sirius was receding
from our system before 1875 about twenty
miles a second, while in 1881 the retreat
was only two miles a second, and the star
has since commenced to approach us.
A microscopic, Mr.. Spencer Moore, has
shown that the bacteria which produce or
accompany ''sweating of the feet' are iden-
teal with those producing chemical action
in the soil. In the latter situation they re-
duce the sulphates to sulphite and the
phosphates to phosphites, and in both stu
ations are instrumental in setting free am
monia.
The grasses of the United States accord
ing to DR.. Massey, number 1870 genera, en-
bracing 675 species.
"What is an epistle?' asked Sunday
school teacher Of her class. ''The wife of
an apostle, " replied the young hopeful.