The record-union., 1891-06-13
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

To make one pound of honey the bees
must visit from $4,000 to 100000 flowers
1t takes about three seconds for a mes
sage to go from one end of the Atlantic
cable to the other.
DR.. Dowd OF New York has found that
each cubic inch of soil contains from Co.
600 to 2,25O,OO0 minute organisms.
Scientists say that the orange was
originally berry, and it's evolution has
been going on for more than LOCO years.
A grain of sand would cover 100 of the
minute scales of the human skin, and vet
each of these scales in turn covers from
800 to 500 pores.
The saltiest piece of water upon earth is
Lake Urumia. Persia, moro than 1000
feet above the sea level. 1t is very shall
low, and no living thing can exist in it.
The earth is gradually growing larger
from the fall OF meteoric matter. An as
tronomer estimates that the globe is an
nually pelted with lac, 100000 projectiles
The first known weather record was
kept by Walter Merle for the years 1887
TO l344. a few Photographic copies of the
original Latin manuscript, now in the
Bodleian Library, have just been made
1t has been reckoned that if the whole
ocean were dried up, all the water pass =
ing away as vapor, the amount of salt re-
manning would be enough to cover 5,O0O,-
600 square miles with a layer one inch
thick.
When the Mosque of st. Sophia. in
COnstantinople, was built, more than
1000 years ago, the stones and brick were
laid in mortar mixed with a solution Of
musk, and the building has been fragrant
with the odor ever since.
The depth at which some of the Bel
gian coal mines are worked is something
prodigious. In pit at Flenu the work
is now done at 200 feet; in pit at FIRE.
mer1n at 500 feet, and in the st. Andre
pit at Montignysur-Sambr at 5000.
According to Herr Japing, the hourly
lO0,OOO,OO0 tons, representing 10000, 600
horsepower, and the total daily produc-
ton of coal in the world would lust about
suffice to pump the water back again.
Divers in the clear waters of the trop-
ical seas find that fish of different colors.
when frightened do not all dart in the
same direction, but that each different
kind takes shelter in that portion of the
submarine growt b nearest in color to that
of the fish.
During the past winter the earth of the
village of Kirnu jarwi, near Paia, lap
land, became suddenly very hot the ice
and snow melting Immediately, and the
application of ones hand to the earth was
liable to result In an uncomfortably
warm sensation.
Oxygen is the most abundant of all the
! elements; it composes at least one-third
of the earth, one-fifth of the atmosphere
and eight-ninths by weight of ali the
water on the globe; it is also a very inn
! portant constituent of all minerals, ami
mails and vegetables.
The laughing plant'of Arabia produces
black, bean-like seeds, small doses OF
which, when dried and powdered, intoxi-
cate like laughing gas. The victim
dances, shouts and laughs like a mad
man for about an hour, when he becomes
exhausted and falls asleep, to awake after
several hours with no recollection of his
wild antics.
The flora OF Europe embraces about
| 10000 species. India has about 1900
! The British possessions in North Amer
lea, though with an area nearly as large
as Europe, have only about 5000. One OF
the richest flOras is that of Cape of Good
Hope and Natal, which figures up about
| 10000 species. Australia also is rich in
species, about 10000 being now known.