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"Pooh!" said the king.
" 'Continuing our progress, we perceived a district
with vegetables that grew not upon any soil but in the air.1 There
were others that sprang from the substance of other vegetables;2
others that derived their substance from the bodies of living animals;3
and then again, there were others that glowed all over with intense fire;4
others that moved from place to place at pleasure,5 and what was
still more wonderful, we discovered flowers that lived and breathed and moved
their limbs at will and had, moreover, the detestable passion of mankind for
enslaving other creatures, and confining them in horrid and solitary prisons
until the fulfillment of appointed tasks.' "6
1. The Epidendron, Flos Aeris, of the family of the Orchideae,
grows with merely the surface of its roots attached to a tree or other object,
from which it derives no nutriment --- subsisting altogether upon air.
2. The Parasites, such as the wonderful Rafflesia Arnaldii.
3. Schouw advocates a class of plants that grow upon living
animals --- the Plantae Epizoae. Of this class are the Fuci and Algae.
Mr. J. B. Williams, of Salem, Mass.,
presented the "National Institute," with an insect from New Zealand,
with the following description: --- "'The Hotte,' a decided caterpillar, or
worm, is found growing at the foot of the Rata tree, with a plant growing out of
its head. This most peculiar and most extraordinary insect travels up both the
Rata and Perriri trees, and entering into the top, eats its way, perforating the
trunk of the tree until it reaches the root, it then comes out of the root, and
dies, or remains dormant, and the plant propagates out of its head; the body
remains perfect and entire, of a harder substance than when alive. From this
insect the natives making a coloring for tattooing."
4. In mines and natural caves we find a species of
cryptogamous fungus that emits an intense phosphorescence.
5. The orchis, scabius and valisneria.
6. The corolla of this flower (Aristolochia Clematitis), which
is tubular, but terminating upwards in a ligulate limb, is inflated into a
globular figure at the base. The tubular part is internally beset with stiff
hairs, pointing downwards. The globular part contains the pistil, which consists
merely of a germen and stigma, together with the surrounding stamens. But the
stamens, being shorter than the germen, cannot discharge the pollen so as to
throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands always upright till after
impregnation. And hence, without some additional and peculiar aid, the pollen
must necessarily fan down to the bottom of the flower. Now, the aid that nature
has furnished in this case, is that of the Tiputa Pennicornis, a small insect,
which entering the tube of the corrolla in quest of honey, descends to the
bottom, and rummages about till it becomes quite covered with pollen; but not
being able to force its way out again, owing to the downward position of the
hairs, which converge to a point like the wires of a mouse-trap, and being
somewhat impatient of its confinement it brushes backwards and forwards, trying
every corner, till, after repeatedly traversing the stigma, it covers it with
pollen sufficient for its impregnation, in consequence of which the flower soon
begins to droop, and the hairs to shrink to the sides of the tube, effecting an
easy passage for the escape of the insect." Rev. P. Keith-System of
Physiological Botany.
"Pshaw!" said the king.
" 'Quitting this land, we soon arrived at another in
which the bees and the birds are mathematicians of such genius and erudition,
that they give daily instructions in the science of geometry to the wise men of
the empire. The king of the place having offered a reward for the solution of
two very difficult problems, they were solved upon the spot --- the one by the
bees, and the other by the birds; but the king keeping their solution a secret,
it was only after the most profound researches and labor, and the writing of an
infinity of big books, during a long series of years, that the
men-mathematicians at length arrived at the identical solutions which had been
given upon the spot by the bees and by the birds.' "*
* The bees --- ever since bees were --- have been constructing
their cells with just such sides, in just such number, and at just such
inclinations, as it has been demonstrated (in a problem involving the
profoundest mathematical principles) are the very sides, in the very number, and
at the very angles, which will afford the creatures the most room that is
compatible with the greatest stability of structure.
During the latter part of the last century,
the question arose among mathematicians --- "to determine the best form
that can be given to the sails of a windmill, according to their varying
distances from the revolving vanes, and likewise from the centres of the
revolution." This is an excessively complex problem, for it is, in other
words, to find the best possible position at an infinity of varied distances,
and at an infinity of points on the arm. There were a thousand futile attempts
to answer the query on the part of the most illustrious mathematicians; and
when, at length, an undeniable solution was discovered, men found that the wing
of a bird had given it with absolute precision ever since the first bird had
traversed the air.
"Oh my!" said the king.
" 'We had scarcely lost sight of this empire when we
found ourselves close upon another, from whose shores there flew over our heads
a flock of fowls a mile in breadth, and two hundred and forty miles long; so
that, although they flew a mile during every minute, it required no less than
four hours for the whole flock to pass over us --- in which there were several
millions of millions of fowl.' "*
* He observed a flock of pigeons passing betwixt Frankfort and
the Indian territory, one mile at least in breadth; it took up four hours in
passing, which, at the rate of one mile per minute, gives a length of 240 miles;
and, supposing three pigeons to each square yard, gives 2,230,272,000 Pigeons.
--- "Travels in Canada and the United States," by Lieut. F. Hall.
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