Scientific and Useful

Western Star, Issue 930, 14 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

Scientific and Useful

VEGETABLES INTELLIGENT. Mr A Tylor read a paper before the Linncean Society on December 4 “ On the Growth of Trees and Protop’asmic Continuity,” his chief object being to show the principles that underlie the individuality of plants, and to prove that plants have a dim sort of-inte'li-gence, and are not merely an aggregation of tissues responsive to the direct influence of light. Not only this, but that the tree ns a whole knows more than its branches, just as the species knows more than the individual, and the community than the unit. The result of Mr Tylor’s experiments, which have extended over many years, has been to show that many plants and trees can adapt themselves to unfamiliar circumstances, such as avoiding obstacles artificially placed in their way, by bending aside before touching, or by altering the leaf arrangement; so that at least as much voluntary power must bo accorded to such plants as to certain lowly organised animals. EISE OF THE SWEDISH COAST. An examination of a series of water-marks set in 1750 all round the Swedish coasts, from tho mouth of the Tornea to the Naze, in order to settle a dispute between the Swedish astronomer Celsius aud some Germans as to whether the level of the Baltic sea has been rising or sinking, shows that both p vties were right. The gauges were removed in 1851, and again this year, and inspected regularly at short intervals, the observations being carefully recorded. It appears that the Swedish coast has been steadily rising, while that on the southern fringe of tho Baltic has been as steadily falling. The dividing line, along which no change is perceptible, passes from Sweden to the Schleswig-Holstein coast, over Bornholm and Lapland. The re suits have lately been published by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; and it appears from them that while during this period of 134 years the northern part of Sweden has risen about seven feet, the rate of elevation gradually declines as we go southwards, being only about one foot at the Naze, and nothing at Bornholm, which remains at the same level as in the middle of the last century. The general average result would be that the Swedish coast lias risen about 56 inches during the last 134 years. — Nature. A SHEET OF LETTEE PAPBB MAT MOVE A TON ONE MILE. The modern cargo steamer has now become a wonderfully economical freight carrier, especially as regards consumption of fuel. A freight train run under the most favourable conditions seems wasteful in comparison. The Burgos, a modern steamer especially built to carry c.rgo cheaply at a slow speed, lately left England fer China with a cargo weighing 3,600,000 pounds. During the first part of the voyage, from Plymouth to Alexandr a, (he consumption of coal was 282,240 pounds, the distance being 3380 miles. The consumption per mile was therefore only 83.5 p uuds, and the consumption per ton of cargo per mile o'o2B pound. In other words, half an ounce of coal propelled one ton of cargo one mile. Assuming that paper is as efficient a fuel as coal, we have, says the Bailroad Oaz ette, only to burn a letter on board this steamer to generate and utilise enough energy to transport one ton of freight one mile. It is difficult to realise that such a trifling act as burning a letter involves such a waste of useful energy, or can have any reference to the energy sufficient to perform a feat which, under less favourable circumstances, requires two horses and a teamster for about half an hour. ANIMALS AS BAEOMETEES. Says a writer in the Cincinnati Enquirer i —1 do not know of any surer way of predicting the changes in the weather than by observing the habits of the snail. They do not drink, but imbibe moisture during a rain and exude it afterward. This animal is never seen abroad exoept before rain, when you will see it climbing the bark of trees, and getting on the leaves. The tree snail, as it is called, two days before a rain will climb up the stems of plants, and if the rain is going to be a hard and long one, then they get on the sheltered side of a leaf, but if a short rain on the outside. Then there are other species that before a rain are yellow; after it, blue. Others indicate rain by holes and protuberances, which before a ruin rise as large tubercles. These will begin to show themselves ten days before a rain. At the end of each tubercle is a pore, which opens when the rain comes, to absorb and draw in the moisture. In other snails deep indentations, beginning at the head between the horn?, and ending with the jointure of the tail, appear a few days before a storm. Every farmer knows when swallows fly low that rain is coming j sailors, when the seagulls fly toward the land—when the stormy petrel appears, or Mother Carey’s chickens, as they are called, predict foul weather. Take the ants; have you never noticed the activity they display before a storm - hurry, scurry, rushing hither and thither, as if they were letter carriers making six trips a day, or expressmen behind time ? Dogs grow sleepy and dull, and like to lie before a fire as rain approaches; chickens pick up pebbles, fowls roll in the dust, flit s sing and bite more viciously, frogs croak more c’amoronsly, gnats assemble under trees, and horses display restlessness. PRIMITIVE MAN. It is highly probable that the larger mammals arrived on the British area before man. He is not likely to have pushed northwards in a country destitute of ample means of subsistence. But it is evident that be lived at the same time, and preyed extensively on the herbivorous quadrupeds, and no doubt played a o msiderable part in exterminating the larger species. In Brixham Cave,Devonshire, flint implements of the chase, comprising arrow and spearheads, axes, and knives, have been found among broken bones of the bear, lion, Iris, elk, reindeer, horse, elephant, and rhinoceros. In Kent’s Cavern similar conditions were observed; and also in the Gower an I othi r caverns in the Mcndip HilL of Somersetshire, and elsewhere. In Scotland and Ireland similar weapons have been found, but not in conjunction with the bones of their lost, mammils. The ruder-fashioned of these implements have been ascribed to an earlier and more savage race than the finely-polished and often artistically chipped arrow-poiuts and other tools, aud it is believed that they bear tho impresses of a gradual transition f.-om (he one to the other, the more highlypolished being comparable to the tools now used by the savage races of the Oceanic Islands, and lately by the Red Indians of North America.

Many of the lakes of Norway are excavated far below the level of the sea. In this respect they resemble the Italian lakes. Two Nor wegian lakes have their lowest depths moi e than a thousand feet below the sea level. Dr. Hooker, the botanist, stated at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association that brightly-coloured flowers are much more numerous in the eastern than the western — which are the cloudier and rainier—districts o I Great Britain. He also said that the coloration of island flowers is generally less conspicuous the farther off the islands are from the griftt continents,