The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-15
Complied for THE ARKANsAw TRAvELEK.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
 In 1888 Ray found that there were 78 varieties of apples. h I866 the collection of the Royal Horticultural society embraced I,5oo varieties, many of them not worth cult. vation.
 Sir J.. B Lawcs finds that, although nitrogen is the most abundant constituent of the atmosphere, plants derive their supply nearly if not exclusively from the soil, whil. the carbon of plants is taken from the air
 A new process for removing grease spots from paper, or any fabric, seems to be in favor in Germany. Calcined magnesia is saturated with benzol, and the powder $ rubbed ever the spots. O.d stains may re- quire second application.
 Admiral de Jonquieres, of the French navy, has called attention to a remarkable phenomenon which may be witnessed a, Papeete, in the Society islands. At this pom, there is but one tide day instead of the two which occur at other places the sea.
 A kind of beer made from bananas is | equatorial lake region of Africa, to have proven an effective prophy tactic az ,ins malarial levers, its use having kept them in excellent health in most deadly climate.
 According 10 Newcomb, late observa. tons of the planet Jupiter appear to show that the period of rotation at its equator is more than five minutes less than in the lati- tude of the great red spot. This interesting result tends to confirm the suspected re. semblance of the greatest world of our sys- tenn to the sun itself.
 English tests of the durability of small 1 squares of various woods buried one inch under the surface of the ground have given these results: Birch and aspen decayed in three years; willow and horse-chesn nut, in four years maple and red beach, in i've years; elm, ash, hornbeam and Lombardy poplar, in seven years; oak, Scotch fir and Weymouth pine, partially in seven years while larch, juniper and arbor vite were sound at the end of seven years.
 Universal Color Blindness. - Color blindness, as usually understood, is a blind ness to red, to green, to blue or violet; and about one male in every twenty five appears to be unable to, discriminate between the principal colors of the spectrum. In stricter sense, all persons are color blind, tor, a | though Chevreul is said to have been able to distinguish II 42o tones of color, it has been proven that the human eye is totally ncap- able of receiving all the vibrations of color which must exist in the spectrum.
 Flower Plgments.-Hansen, a German physicist, finds that the colors of fruits and flowers are furnished by a very small number of pigments, which he classifes into three groups: first reds; second, yellows and third, blues and violets. He omits chloro- phyll green, because it is comparatively rare in flowers. Orange is produced by a thick ening of deposit Of the fundamental yellow pigment, the coioring matter being the same in the rind of an orange and in yellow but tercup, Roses and carnations show the characteristic red pigment in which vara- tions are produced by the presence of acids.
 Storm Notes.-ln his latest meteoro- i logical paper, Prof. E. Loomis observes that north of thirty degrees of latitude storm tracks in all longitudes almost invariably fol- low easterly course, but generally have an inclination north of east. In the tropics how ever, the tendency of storm tracks is westerly or toward the northwest. An interesting fact connected with tropical cyclones is that they are unknown in the Pacific ocean except near the Asiatc coast. The average velocity of storms in the United states for the entir. year is found to be 2S 5 miles per hour, but in February they travel twice as rapidly as in August. An Unreliable Prophet.-Mr. H. H. Clayton has made a careful investigation of the camphor barometer or "storm glass which is supposed by many to give genuine barometric indications of the weather of the immediate future. He finds that the neigh; of the precipitate in the glass-whch gives the forecast of " fair, ,"" change" or storm docs not depend upon atmospheric pres. sure or moisture. but upon temperature, and that the instrument is therefore rude ther- mometer only. As the approach of storm is often heralded by a sudden fall of temper ature causing rise of the preciPitate to the division of the scale marked storm" the predictions are sometimes correct, but as the ! same change of temperature occurs during continued clear weather the instrum ents | warnings are quite as likely to be fa,se alarms. During steady or slowly changing temperature the precipitate is settled com pactly at the bottom of the glass, which s l. marked E. fair," although in the cold of winte' it may rise to the center of the glass, and coz tinue pretty constantly in the divisis1 marked change" Storms unattended y sudden cold pass without affecting the in dications :" of the camphor solution.