Perhaps no other country can vie with Great Britain in the vast number of edible species of fungi that may be gathered during all seasons of the year, from one end of the land to the other. The pastures and woodlands literally teem with them; they are, however (sad to say), little known, sadly neglected, or looked upon with unmerited suspicion. The literature, too, of the subject is so small, and the scientific part of the study so extremely difficult to begin, that few persons dare venture to test the qualities of any fungus except the meadow mushroom, and instances are common enough where even this species is rejected. It is apparent that no one can be a sure guide to others who is not himself a “regular fungus eater ,” and that no descriptions can be of value, or drawings of use, unless they are taken with the greatest...
One recognizes a plant by the presence of structural features peculiar to itself, and not found on any other kind of plant. In such a book as this, these characters are given one or a few at a time, and contrasted with the characters which other sorts of plants possess. Such a presentation is called a Key, and by its proper use the name may be learned of any plant considered in it. This process is called Identification. Keys are constructed in several different ways, although the principle of all is the same. In this book, the user will begin with lines 1a and 1b on the page headed Key to the Groups. Each of these lines includes some descriptive matter, but only one of them can apply to the plant being identified. For example, if the plant to be identified is an Oak, line 1a will apply perfectly, and...
The tiny white petals of the barren strawberry open under the April sunshine which, as yet unchecked by crowded foliage above, can reach the moist banks under the trees. It is then that the first stroll of the year should be taken in Claygate Lane. The slender runners of the strawberries trail over the mounds among the moss, some of the flowers but just above the black and brown leaves of last year which fill the shallow ditch. These will presently be hidden under the grass which is pushing up long blades, and bending over like a plume. Crimson stalks and leaves of herb Robert stretch across the little cavities of the mound; lower, and rising almost from the water of the ditch, the wild parsnip spreads its broad fan. Slanting among the underwood, against which it leans, the dry white "gix" (cow-parsnip) of last year has rotted from its...
In this book of instruction, I have introduced for practice the easiest braids first—which are chain braids. The first pattern, found on page 9 , is a very easy and handsome one, and should be practiced to perfection before trying any other, as it will enable the beginner to execute all others after the first is perfected. A new beginner should be particular to place the strands correctly upon the table, and mark the cover with precision, after the manner shown in the diagram. I have, by the introduction of plates, diagrams and explanatory remarks, made comprehensive and simple the execution of all the braids herein contained. The novice should first give special attention to preparing the hair for braiding, the adjustment of it to the bobbins, weights, molds, &c., of which plates, and full explanations are to be found elsewhere in this book. I wish to impress upon the...
Charles Darwin was a great man, and he accomplished a great work. The Newton of biology, he found the science of life a chaotic maze; he left it an orderly system, with a definite plan and a recognisable meaning. Great men are not accidents; great works are not accomplished in a single day. Both are the product of adequate causes. The great man springs from an ancestry competent to produce him; he is the final flower and ultimate outcome of converging hereditary forces, that culminate at last in the full production of his splendid and exceptional personality. The great work which it is his mission to perform in the world is never wholly of his own inception. It also is the last effect of antecedent conditions, the slow result of tendencies and ideas long working unseen or but little noticed beneath the surface of opinion, yet all gradually conspiring together...
“Ah!” said he. “A Saxicola’s egg! Where did you get it?” I told him the whole story. “I shall go back for the others,” I said, “when the young birds have got their quill-feathers.” “Oh, but you mustn’t do that!” cried the priest. “You mustn’t be so cruel as to rob the poor mother of all her little birds. Be a good boy, now, and promise not to touch the nest.” [ 4 ] From this conversation I learnt two things: first, that robbing birds’ nests is cruel and, secondly, that birds and beasts have names just like ourselves. “What are the names of all my friends in the woods and meadows?” I asked myself. “And what does Saxicola mean?” Years later I learnt that Saxicola means an inhabitant of the rocks. My bird with the blue eggs was a Stone-chat. Below our village there ran a little brook, and...
The San Gabriel Mountains are approximately sixty-six miles long, and average twenty miles wide. The main axis of the range trends nearly east and west, and extends from longitude 117°25' to longitude 118°30'. The widest part of the range is bounded by latitude 34°7' and latitude 34°30'. The San Gabriel Mountains connect the Sierra Nevada with the Peninsular Ranges of southern California and Baja California. On the west the San Gabriels are bordered by the Tehachapi Mountains, which stretch northeastward to meet the southern Sierra Nevada; to the east, beyond Cajon Pass, the San Bernardino Mountains extend eastward and then curve southward to the broad San Gorgonio Pass, from which the San Jacinto Range stretches southeastward to merge with the Peninsular Ranges. The rocks comprising the major part of the San Gabriel Mountains probably were intruded in Late Jurassic times, with severe metamorphic activity taking place concurrently. A long period...
Fieldwork was carried on by the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology during 1917 in the Inyo region of eastern California. In going over the collection of birds obtained, the attention of the writer was arrested by certain peculiarities evident in the Mountain Chickadees. Comparison with series from the Sierras showed the Inyo birds to be paler colored and longer tailed; and in order to appraise these differences in taxonomic terms it became necessary to assemble material representative of the entire range of the species, in so far as possible. The results of the study thus undertaken are presented herewith. The material involved in the inquiry has amounted to 464 skins of the Mountain Chickadee, derived from the following sources other than the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology: United States National Museum, through Dr. Charles W. Richmond; United States Biological Survey, through Mr. Edward W. Nelson; and the private collections of Messrs....
See pages 70 and 71 for Index of Scientific Names WHITE PINE Two-thirds natural size. T HE white pine is found along the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan in Lake and Cook counties and is also scattered along river bluffs in Jo Daviess, Carroll, Ogle and LaSalle counties. The only grove of this beautiful tree in Illinois is in the White Pines Forest State Park near Oregon, Ogle County, where there are trees over 100 years old that have attained a height of 90 feet with a diameter of 30 inches. This tree formerly formed the most valuable forests in the northeastern United States, stretching from Maine through New York to Minnesota. The straight stem, regular pyramidal shape and soft gray-green foliage made it universally appreciated as an ornamental tree and it has been freely planted throughout the State. The leaves , or needles, are 3 to 5 inches in length,...
The hooded skunk, Mephitis macroura Lichtenstein, can be distinguished from the only other species in the genus, Mephitis mephitis Schreber, by the larger tympanic bullae, in the white-backed color phase by having some black hairs mixed with the white hairs of the back, and in the black-backed phase by having the two white stripes widely separated and on the sides of the animal instead of narrowly separated and on the back of the animal. The starting point for taxonomic work with Mephitis is A. H. Howell's "Revision of the skunks of the genus Chincha (N. Amer. Fauna, 20, 1901)." Of the species Mephitis macroura , Howell ( op. cit. ) recognized three subspecies: M. m. macroura , M. m. milleri , and M. m. vittata . The species M. macroura is restricted to the arid region made up mostly of the Mexican Plateau. Also, wherever the species occurs beyond this...
In the past several years the United States National Museum has received a large number of mammals from central and southern Korea through the auspices of the Commission on Hemorrhagic Fever of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. Among these Korean collections are more than a hundred specimens of a murine rodent originally described as " Micromys speciosus peninsulae " by Oldfield Thomas but currently placed in the genus Apodemus . In attempting to ascertain the specific relationships of this mouse I have examined, through the generosity of Dr. David H. Johnson, Acting Curator of Mammals, most of the other Oriental specimens of the subgenus Sylvaemus in the U. S. National Museum and it is on this combined material that the following comments and description are based. Three general groups of the genus Apodemus are presently known to occur on the mainland of northeast Asia. One is the distinctive Apodemus agrarius...
Bill rather large and strong, with the ridge of the upper mandible curved gradually from the base to the point—ridge of the lower mandible curved upwards. Nostrils at the base of the bill, in rather a large membrane, and partially concealed by projecting feathers. Wings moderate, rather rounded, fourth, fifth and sixth primaries usually longest; secondaries long, exceeding some of the shorter primaries. Tail rather lengthened and rounded; tarsi robust, rather long; toes and claws strong. Head usually with a crest or with the frontal plumes erect and crest-like. Plumage of various colors, mostly with some part of greater or less extent, blue. Exclusively American. Type C. pileatus . (Wagler.) Form. Feathers of the head in front or at the base of the upper mandible, short, erect and rigid—other plumage of the head above somewhat elongated; wings rather short, with the fourth and fifth quills slightly longest; tail ample, and...
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE MAKING OF BROMIDE PRINTS BY CONTACT AND BROMIDE ENLARGING BY DAYLIGHT AND ARTIFICIAL LIGHT, WITH THE TONING OF BROMIDE PRINTS AND ENLARGEMENTS TENNANT AND WARD NEW YORK Copyright 1912 by TENNANT AND WARD, NEW YORK Contents What is bromide paper? It is simply paper coated with gelatino-bromide of silver emulsion, similar to that which, when coated on glass or other transparent support, forms the familiar dry-plate or film used in negative-making. The emulsion used in making bromide paper, however, is less rapid (less sensitive) than that used in the manufacture of plates or films of ordinary rapidity; hence bromide paper may be manipulated with more abundant light than would be safe with plates. It is used for making prints by contact with a negative in the ordinary printing frame, and as the simplest means for obtaining enlarged prints from small negatives. Sometimes bromide paper is...
And why should it not be possible? I asked myself. The picture, divested of the ideas which accompany it, and considered only in its ultimate nature, is but a succession or variety of stronger lights thrown upon one part of the paper, and of deeper shadows on another. Now Light, where it exists, can exert an action, and, in certain circumstances, does exert one sufficient to cause changes in material bodies. Suppose, then, such an action could be exerted on the paper; and suppose the paper could be visibly changed by it. In that case surely some effect must result having a general resemblance to the cause which produced it: so that the variegated scene of light and shade might leave its image or impression behind, stronger or weaker on different parts of the paper according to the strength or weakness of the light which had acted there. Such was...
Probably the earliest independent work in Arabic Spain to embrace the whole of medical knowledge of the time is the encyclopedic al-Tasrīf, written in the late 10th century by Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī, also known as Abulcasis. Consisting of 30 treatises, it is the only known work of al-Zahrāwī and it brought him high prestige in the western world. Here we are concerned only with his last treatise, on surgery. With its many drawings of surgical instruments, intended for the instruction of apprentices, its descriptions of formulas and medicinal preparations, and its lucid observations on surgical procedures, this treatise is perhaps the oldest of its kind. Scholars today have available a translation of the text and reproductions of the drawings, but many of the latter are greatly modified from the originals. This study reproduces examples of al-Zahrāwī’s original illustrations, compares some with early drawings based on them, and comments on passages...
Author of “Drawing and Design,” etc. RELATING TO HAND PUMPS; POWER PUMPS; PARTS OF PUMPS; ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN PUMPS; STEAM PUMPS, SINGLE, DUPLEX AND COMPOUND; PUMPING ENGINES, HIGH DUTY AND TRIPLE EXPANSION; THE STEAM FIRE ENGINE; UNDERWRITERS’ PUMPS; MINING PUMPS; AIR AND VACUUM PUMPS; COMPRESSORS; CENTRIFUGAL AND ROTARY PUMPS; THE PULSOMETER; JET PUMPS AND THE INJECTOR; UTILITIES AND ACCESSORIES; VALVE SETTING; MANAGEMENT; CALCULATIONS, RULES AND TABLES. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. ALSO GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS; GLOSSARY OF PUMP TERMS; HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS; THE ELEMENTS OF HYDRO-MECHANICS, HYDROSTATICS AND PNEUMATICS; GRAVITY AND FRICTION; HYDRAULIC MEMORANDA; LAWS GOVERNING FLUIDS; WATER PRESSURE MACHINES; PUMPS AS HYDRAULIC MACHINES, ETC. PART ONE. PUBLISHED BY THEO. AUDEL & COMPANY 72 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, U.S.A. 7, IMPERIAL ARCADE, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C., LONDON, ENG. Copyrighted, 1905, by THEO. AUDEL & CO., NEW YORK. Entered at Stationers Hall, London, England. Protected by International Copyright in Great Britain and all her Colonies, and,...
The Editor takes this opportunity of returning his best acknowledgments to Sir John Stoddart , LL.D. , to the Rev. James Gillman , Incumbent of Trinity, Lambeth, and to Henry Lee , Esq., Assistant Surgeon to King's College Hospital, for their great kindness, in regard to this publication. The accompanying pages contain the unfinished Sketch of a Theory of Life by S. T. Coleridge. Everything that fell from the pen of that extraordinary man bore latent, as well as more obvious indications of genius, and of its inseparable concomitant—originality. To this general remark the present Essay is far from forming an exception. No one can peruse it, without admiring the author's comprehensive research and profound meditation; but at the same time, partly from the exuberance of his imagination, and partly from an apparent want of method (though, in truth, he had a method of his own, by which he marshalled...
A man's food, when he has the means and opportunity of selecting it, suggests his moral nature. Many a Christian is trying to do by prayer that which cannot be done except through corrected diet.— Talmage. Our pious ancestors enacted a law that suicides should be buried where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should be thrown upon the body. Yet, when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide, not by cord or steel, but by turtle soup or lobster salad, they may be buried on consecrated ground, and the public are not ashamed to read an epitaph upon their tombstones false enough to make the marble blush.— Horace Mann. It is related by a gentleman who had an appointment to breakfast with the late A.T. Stewart, that the butler placed before them both an elaborate bill of fare; the visitor selected a list of rare dishes, and was...
Grasses vary very much in their habit. Some grasses grow erect forming tufts and others form cushions with the branches creeping along the ground. (See figs. 5 and 6.) We usually find all intermediate stages from the erect to the prostrate habit. Underground stems such as stolons and rhizomes occur in some grasses. Grasses of one particular species generally retain the same habit but this does not always hold good. For example Tragus racemosus grows with all its branches quite prostrate in a poor, dry, open soil. If, on the other hand, this happens to grow in rich soils, or amidst other plants or grasses, it assumes an erect, somewhat tufted habit. Andropogon contortus and Andropogon pertusus are other grasses with a tendency for variation in habit. Plants that are usually small often attain large dimensions under favourable conditions of growth. Ordinarily the grass Panicum javanicum grows only to 1...
In his excellent taxonomic treatment of the tree squirrels of Mexico and Central America, Nelson (Proc. Washington Acad. Sci., 1:15-110, 2 pls., May 9, 1899) recognized three subspecies of red-bellied squirrels, Sciurus aureogaster aureogaster F. Cuvier, Sciurus aureogaster hypopyrrhus Wagler, and Sciurus aureogaster frumentor Nelson. In his lists of specimens examined, Nelson ( op. cit. :42 and 44) assigned certain specimens from "mountains near Santo Domingo" and Guichicovi in Chiapas, and Catemaco in Veracruz, to S. a. aureogaster , and other specimens from the same localities to S. a. hypopyrrhus . I originally attempted to study (identify to subspecies) the series of animals from only three places, but it became evident that a more extensive study was indicated. The locality whence the holotype of Sciurus aureogaster aureogaster was obtained is unknown. Because certain specimens from Altamira, Tamaulipas, closely resemble Cuvier's figure of the type, Nelson ( op. cit. :41) subsequently...