The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-06-16
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The simplest way in which to measur,
the rate of plant growth is to mark lines
with jet black India ink on roots growing
on wet filter paper. There will be founc
to be marked variations of growth, ever
when all necessary conditions are seem
ingly the same. Perhaps these depend
on inheritance.
Mahogany and other rare valuable
woods are dug up from muck beds on
the estate of Captain J. G. Patterson, at
Pensacola, Fla, Prof. Won Filkenhasser, Of
Norway, who has examined this wood
mine, states that the woods referred to
ore suitable for furniture, and the speci.
mems examined are fully 5000 years old,
The ornamental Pisonia grandis OIL
Australia has seeds like an elongated bar,
ley corn, which are covered with a very
sticky gum. This adheres to the legs
and feathers of winged creatures coming
in contact with it, and makes the plant a
natural bird catcher, no less than hun
dred birds having been known to be cap
tured by one tree in Victoria.
The quantity of poison conveyed in
the fangs of venomous snakes appears to
be very small, but of very powerful quail
ity. DR.. Vincent Richards, of Bengal,
mentions kraft which quickly killed
three men and seriously poisoned q
fourth, by bites given in rapid success
sion. He estimated that the reptile car
ried eight grains of liquid venom in its
poison glands, which are smaller than
those of the cobra.
Every living, active part of plant
contains o certain amount of water.
From many juicy parts ninety per cent.
of water can be expelled by drying
many green leaves hold from seventy
five to eighty, while from seeds which
we call dry" it is sometimes possible
to drive off about ten per cent. Part of
this water is so intimately combined with
the plant structure, that, if it is once
expelled, it cannot be again taken up in
such manner as to restore the plant to
its former condition.
While malaria has its ordinary habitat
in low-lying regions, it may under favor
able conditions exist at great elevations.
On the Tuscan Apprentices it is found at a
height of LOO feet above the sea; on
the Pyrenees and Mexican Cordilleras,
5000 feet; on the Himalayas, 6,4O0 feet;
on the island of Ceylon, 6, 500 feet; and
on the Andes, II, 900 feet. At present,
the elevation of entire security has been
thus approximated for various places: In
Italy, 400 to 500 feet; in California, l.
900 feet; along the Appalachian chain of
the United States, 800 feet; in the West
Indies, /, 400 to 1, 800 feet. In any of these
regions, however, malaria may drift
up ravines to an indefinite height.
A most remarkable instance of the
extension of the geographical distribu-
ton of species is found by Mr.. j. j.
Walker, of the British navy, in GER
tain beautiful butterfly. Starting from
its original home on the American con-
tinent, where it is common from the
Hudson's Bay territory to the estuary of
the Rio de la Plata, this butterfly has
been spreading, under our observation,
into very remote regions. Crossing
1850 miles of ocean to to the Sandwich
Islands, it rapidly and steadily contin-
ued its course over the whole breadth
of the Pacific and far into the Malay
archipelago. Southwark and westward
it has appeared in New Zealand and
Australia. Eastward it has reached the
West Indies, the Azores. and within the
last ten years has even made its advent
in the British Isles