Natural Science. otion are full with other matters of overwhelming interest. Were not the work one of distinguished COMMUNICATIONS for this Department should be ad- value, as well as elegance, its issue at the present dressed to 1. F. CADY, Warren. For the Schoolmaster. "Insects Injurious to Vegetation." time might have been a matter of doubtful expediency. As it is, however, there is danger that the limited edition will be exhausted long before all will have been supplied, who, on learning its merits, will covet its possession. While it is charac Ir is nearly twenty-five years since the Legisla- terized by all the fineness of material and beauty ture of Massachusetts, with a liberality worthy of of execution for which the "Riverside Press" is all praise, authorized, at the expense of the public, distinguished, its perfect accuracy must be regarda "Zoological and Botanical Survey" of the State. ed as its chief merit. This is specially true of its The objects of the survey, according to the in- pictorial illustrations, which consist of eight steel structions of his Excellency Edward Everett, plates containing ninety-five specimens, colored Governor of the State, to those entrusted with its from nature with such fidelity of shade and markexecution, were both economical and scientific. ing as almost to produce the illusion that one is The promotion of agricultural interests was to be viewing a real insect, and two hundred and seventymade a prominent object; hence the "merely cu- eight carefully executed engravings upon wood. rious" was to be made subordinate to "that which The drawings for all these were supervised, prewas practically useful." vious to engraving, and compared with original specimens, by Prof. Louis Agassiz, the greatest of living naturalists. The very important department of Insects was assigned to the late accomplished and lamented Dr. T. W. Harris, who executed his task with reBut it was not my purpose to dwell upon the markable industry and discrimination. In his first merits of the work. To those capable of judging report he enumerated more than two thousand of these it needs but to be known to be appreciatthree hundred species; but from "the magnitude ed. In the hands of an intelligent farmer it canof the undertaking," he forbore the attempt to not fail of being worth many times its price. Its present a minute description of each, but confining artistic beauty will secure for it a place among the his attention chiefly to those which might be re- choicest selections for the drawing-room library, garded as noxious, he particularly selected from while it will prove an indispensable "rade mecum" these, for description, such as are "remarkable to the incipient naturalist. In every public library for their size, for the peculiarity of their structure and among the books of reference in every public and habits, or for the extent of their ravages." school it ought to find a home. The result was the production of the most valuaOn looking into this book the reflection likely ble treatise, upon this interesting and important to be uppermost in the mind of the reader will be branch of Natural History, accessible to any ex- concerning the many erroneous impressions from cept the favored few whose means and leisure ena- which he might have been saved, in his earlier ble them to master the contents of ponderous and years, by a work like this. He would never have expensive volumes. fled in terror from some harmless dragon-fly, to In the course of eight years all the copies of the keep his eyes from being "sewed up." He would original report, together with those of a small edi- have understood that the "Calumniator" uses tion which the author was permitted to issue at his different instruments from these to close the eyes own expense, were exhausted. Meanwhile the of "wicked boys." It really seems surprising author continued to accumulate and arrange mate- that it should not be universally known that these rials, which he embodied in a new edition that he insects are never injurious. Passing the first stage had been solicited to prepare, and which bears of their existence in water, where they feed upon date of October 15, 1852. The lapse of ten years other insects, and after being transformed into the have made this also a work difficult of access. It pupae state, emerging from their cases,-which is therefore a matter of earnest congratulation may easily be found at the proper season, attached that still another edition, edited by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, has made its appearance since the commencement of the present year. by the legs to the coarse grasses in the margin of stagnant water,-at no period of their existence do they possess any weapons. offensive or defensive, more formidable than a short pair of jaws, intendOf the three editions of this work, which have ed solely for masticating the insects which constiappeared at intervals of about ten years, the last tute their only food. All this any school-boy might is far the most desirable. It is not extravagant discover, and yet we fancy that those may still be praise to pronounce it magnificent. The enter- found who fear that an evil eye is upon them while prising publishers, Messrs. Crosby & Nichols, of the eye which they think evil is only watching to Boston, are deserving of especial commendation relieve them from the attack of a brood of mosfor bringing out so elegant and expensive a work quitos which are thirsting for their blood. It is at a time when the channels of thought and emo- time to understand that the “devil's needles," as they are strangely miscalled, are our friends out of the ground around the plants." The name and not our foes at all. of the insect is the Asilus sericeus. The Asilus estuans is another familiar species of the same family. thus c'iscovered that a part of their existence was passed under ground. A natural question is, "Does the insect deposit its eggs there?" I will give the answer in the language of Mr. Harris, describing the habits of the seventeen-year Cicada, (Cicada septendecim). He says: It is extremely convenient to have a name by which to designate any object that we may wish to describe, even if we are obliged to employ a sci- Just at the beginning of the dog-days, during entific term. I say "even if" because scientific the last week of July, we always begin to hear a terms are often thought difficult to remember, and peculiar shrill and prolonged style of music in the for this reason are regarded with repugnance. I trees. This proceeds from the Harvest-fly (Cicada incline, however, to regard this objection as ill- canicularis) which is frequently called the locust, founded, and to believe that the scientific names a very different species of insect. In my boyhood of things would be as easily remembered as those I used to think it quite a feat to capture one of which are styled familiar, if they were habitually these winged "trumpeters," and when captured I employed. A lady once told me that she could re- was not able to make him fully reveal the source call the botanical names of the most familiar plants of his musical powers. It appears, however, that and flowers more readily than those by which they he is a drummer, and that he makes very active are commonly known, because, in her childhood, use of two drums at once, which instruments he she had learned to employ them from her uncle, carries in two little cavities that lie hidden in the who was an expert botanist. Without discussing first ring of his abdomen. I had in part become this question, however, I have often found that acquainted with that organ of these insects from there is much "in a name." For instance, I have personal observation, having, in several instances, been familiar, from my boyhood, with a dipterous witnessed their transformation from the pupae state insect which preys upon bees, wasps and hornets. at the time of their emerging from the ground, Though armed with no weapons except a sharp and taking their position upon the rough bark of a and stiff sucker, and strong claws at the extremi- tree where they would leave their pupae cases, ties of their feet, they easily capture insects larger after escaping through a slit upon the back. I than themselves armed with stings. It is wonderful with what tenacity they will cling to their prey. One of my school-boys, some time during the last summer, brought to the school-room, just before the commencement of the afternoon session, one of these insects with a honey-bee in its clutches, to which it still clung although itself a captive. I "After pairing, the females proceed to prepare exhibited the creature to the school, and suggested a nest for their eggs. They select, for this purthat he might still retain his grasp upon the bee pose, branches of a moderate size, which they clasp even were a pin thrust through his body. The on both sides with their legs, and then, bending thing seemed incredible. Still, from my estimate down the piercer at an angle of about forty-five of the capacity of insects for suffering pain, I degrees, they repeatedly thrust it obliquely into thought it not improbable. Accordingly I pro- the bark and wood in the direction of the fibres, at ceeded deliberately to thrust the enormously pro- the same time putting in motion the lateral saws, portioned instrument quite through his body just and in this way detach little splinters of wood at at the base of the wings. He seemed not to ex- one end, so as to form a sort of fibrous lid or cover perience the least inconvenience from the opera- to the perforation. The hole is bored obliquely to tion, and retained his hold upon the bee. In or- the pith, and is gradually enlarged by a repetition der still further to test his spirit, I pinned him of the operation till a longitudinal fissure is formfirmly beside the door in the library and there I ed of sufficient extent to receive from ten to twenty found him at the close of school, three hours later, eggs." In these groves he states that the eggs with his proboscis thrust deep into the back of the are deposited in pairs, and that the insect passes bee and enjoying his banquet with apparent relish. from one part of the limb to another, and from From his predacious character, for the sake of hav-limb to limb, making nests and filling them with ing a name, I called him the Weasel Fly. The eggs at the rate of nearly one nest for each fifteen work of Mr. Harris has made me acquainted with minutes until the number of eggs amounts to four the name and habits of the creature in the differ- or five hundred. By this process, in those years ent stages of its growth. He states that the lar- when these insects abound, multitudes of forest vae of the insect live in the ground upon the roots trees, especially of the oak species, and in many of plants, and that the Rev. Thomas Hill, of Wal- instances also fruit trees, are seriously injured by tham, found them, in the form of "yellowish-white the dying of the limbs in which the eggs are demaggots, devouring the roots of the tart rhubarb." posited. But the mischief does not end here. On These maggots "are transformed in the earth to the hatching of the eggs, which occurs within from naked pupae," which afterward make their way to forty to fifty days, the young insects, by a strange the surface, when the perfect insects emerge, leav-instinct, instead of feeding upon the leaves and ing their "empty pupae shells sticking half way branches of the tree, deliberately precipitate them Of the Of New selves to the ground, bury themselves in the soil No. 4. Name the exports of Brazil. and attack the roots, where they have been found West Indies. Of the United States. in immense numbers piercing the tender bark with England. Of Canada. Of the colonial division their suckers and absorbing, as it were, the very of South America. Of Central America. life-blood of the trees. Fortunately these crea- No. 5. Give the latitude and longitude of New tures make their appearance in the same region Orleans. Washington. Cape Farewell. Quito. only at remote intervals, during which the larvae, Rio Janeiro. Montreal. Cape Sable, Flo. Sanin large numbers, become the prey of various enetiago. San Francisco. Cape St. Lucas. Chicamies; otherwise their ravages would become fright-go. Charleston. Mexico. Havana. North Ameful. As it is, fruit trees are said sometimes to suf- rica. Halifax. South America. fer severely from the injuries inflicted upon their No. 6. What waters must be sailed upon to go roots. The common dog-day harvest-flies, though from Green Bay to Baltimore, thence to Frank similar in their habits, are far less destructive, owing, in a great measure, to the comparatively small numbers in which they make their appear ance. fort, and thence to Columbus? Albany to New- No. 7. Locate ten islands near the American Time and space both fail for making farther allusion to the multiplied details contained in the in- coast. Locate ten bays and gulfs. Also ten capes. teresting and instructive book before us. Mean- Also five straits. while I know not what better thing I can do than earnestly to commend the work itself to the attention of the reader. QUESTIONS FOR I. F. C. Written Examinations. No. 8. Name the States of the Union that lie wholly west of the Mississippi river. Entirely east of meridian marked 83°. South of parallel 35°. Name the countries of South America that border upon the Pacific Ocean. Name the mountainless States of the Union. No. 9. Name the republics of the western con COMMUNICATIONS for this Department should be ad-tinent. The colonies. The mountain systems. dressed to A. J. MANCHESTER, Providence. For the Schoolmaster. GEOGRAPHY.-WESTERN CONTINENT. No. 1. Name all the rivers that empty into the Twenty mountain peaks. ca. No. 10. Are there any places on the western continent where it never or seldom rains? State all that you know of the climate of South AmeriWhat causes have conspired to place the United States at the head of American civilization and influence? Give geographical reasons why the States of the Union should exist perpetually under one government. ARITHMETIC. Gulf of Mexico. Name those rivers that have their sources near the boundary between Utah and Kansas. Describe the Tennessee river. The Cumberland. The Osage. The James. The Savannah. The Neuse. The Shenandoah. The Sus- 1. What must I ask for flour which cost me $5 quehanna. The Kanawha. The Rappahannock. that I may fall 20 per cent. from the asking price The Maderia. The Orinoco. The Parana. Name and still gain 20 per cent. on the cost? the rivers that rise near the south-eastern part of 2. What per cent. of the asking price is the New Granada. Those that rise near Mounts cost? Brown and Hooker. 3. What per cent of the cost is the asking price? 4. What per cent. of the asking price is the re No. 2. Bound Virginia. Tennessee. Gulf of ribbean Sea. The last State admitted into the 5. What per cent. of the receiving price is the Union. Nova Scotia. The division of South asking price? America containing the highest volcanic peak. 6. What per cent. of the receiving price is the No. 3. Locate the following: - Newbern. Fort 7. What per cent. of the cost is the receiving Henry. Springfield, Mo. Memphis. Nashville. price? Ship Island. Amelia Island. Yorktown. Roan- 8. What per cent. of the asking price is the oke Island. Galveston. Fort Donelson. Norfolk. difference between the asking price and the receiv Richmond. Harper's Ferry. Knoxville. Cum-ing price? berland Gap. Mill Spring. Bowling Green. Co- 9. What per cent. of the asking price is the rinth. Cairo. Fort Pickens. Island No. 10. difference between the asking price and the cost? Fort Warren. New Madrid. Boston Mountains. 10. What per cent. of the asking price is the Gauley river. Fort Adams. Fort Pulaski. Key difference between the receiving price and the cost? West. Gordonsville. Fort Macon. Phillippa. 11. What per cent. of the receiving price is the Lake Pontchartrain. Huntsville. Chattanooga. difference between the receiving price and the cost? Fortress Monroe, 12. What per cent. of the receiving price is the difference between the receiving price and the ask-ments, Alignment, Approaches, Apron, Assembly, ing price? Banquette, Bastion, Battalion, Berme, Bomb, 13. What per cent. of the receiving price is the Boyau (pl. x), Brevet, Cashier, Chevaux-de-frise, difference between the cost and the asking price? Counterscarp, Courts-martial, Coup-de-main, Cre14. What per cent. of the cost is the difference nalated. Cuirassiers, Curtain, Enfilade, Engineers, between the cost and the asking price? Entrench, Escalade, Escarp, Eprouvette, Fascines, 15. What per cent. of the cost is the difference Gabion, Glacis, Grenades, Grenadiers, Hors de between the cost and the receiving price? 16. What per cent. of the cost is the difference between the asking price and the receiving price? 17. The asking price is what per cent. of the sum of the asking price and receiving price? 18. The asking price is what per cent. of the product of the asking price and receiving price? 19. The sum of the asking price and cost is what per cent. of the receiving price? 20. The product of the asking price and receiving price is what per cent. of the receiving price? GRAMMAR. Parse the italicised words. combat, Invest, Interval, Linstock, Lodgment, Logistics, Lunette, Malignerer, Metre, Mine, Mutiny, Minie, Orderly, Outpost, Parallels, Parapet, Park, Pioneers, Platoon, Ploy, Point-blank, Rally, Rampart, Rank, Recruit, Redan, Ricochet, Roster, Sabre-tasche, Salient, Sally-port, Sap, Siege, Sortie, Shako, Stockade, Traverses, Terre-plein, Tete-de-pont, Trenches, Trous de-loup, Tumbrels, Vidette, Camisado, Provost-marshal, Tompion, Ram, Turtle. Strange Geographical Paradoxes. [OUR attention has been directed, by a commu1. I felt a chilling sensation creep over me.nication from the teacher in the third room of the Sometimes we see bad men honored. Providence High School, to certain " Geographical Paradoxes," found in "Pat. Gordon's Geographical Grammar. From the forty-five there given we select the following, making such changes 3-4. With its clear streams, beautiful flowers only as a lack of ancient forms of type will oblige 2. Whatever the law says we must abide by Please excuse my son's absence. John did it himself. and noble trees, the old homestead offered to the weary a most welcome repose. 5. No wind that blew was bitterer than he. 6. He was elected senator on the first ballot. "Honesty is the best policy," and that we well know. 7. "Whomsoever He will, He hardeneth." 8. We choose rather to lead than follow. 9. You are to solve the example having those data given. us to make. The author says of these Paradoxes:-"Tho' they may appear to some as meer Fables, yet there is no mathematical Demonstration more infallibly true than every one of them, the Explaining whereof may prove both useful and pleasant to the ingenious Reader."] 1. There are two remarkable Places on the Globe of the Earth, in which there is only one 10. Whatsoever ye would that men should do Day and one Night throughout the whole year. to you, do ye also to them." WORDS TO BE DEFINED. [The March number contained one hundred words to be defined in a military sense. We were indebted for that selection to Miss Emma Brown, teacher in the Prospect Street Grammar School. The compositor would make us spell trunnion in this manner, trunion-which, of course, is not correct. In the April number the word incorrigible is not only repeated in the second set of words for "spelling," but is spelled -able. 2. There are also some Places on the Earth, in which it is neither Day nor Night at a certain Time of the Year, for the Space of twenty-four Hours. 3. There is a certain Place of the Earth, at which if two Men should chance to meet, one would stand upright upon the Soles of the other's Feet, and neither of them would feel the other's Weight, and yet they both should retain their natural Posture. 4. There is a certain Place of the Earth, where a Fire being made, neither Flame nor Smoke would For the following list of words we are indebted ascend, but move circularly about the Fire. Moreto L. A. Wheelock, Esq., formerly of the Elm over, if in that Place one should fix a smooth plain Street Grammar School, but now teaching in the Table, without any Ledge what ever, and pour Dwight School, Boston.] Define in a military sense: thereon a large Quantity of Water, not one Drop thereof could run over the said Table, but would Barbette, Casemate, Columbiad, Dahlgren, Par-raise itself up in a Heap. rott, Paixhan, Armstrong, Cohorn, Mortar, Shrap 5. There is a certain Place on the Globe, of a nel, Revetement, Pennant, Picket, Parole, Gui- considerable Southern Latitude, that hath both dons, Colors, Grape, Case-shot, Battery, Rifle-pits, the greatest and least Degree of Longitude. 6. There are three remarkable Places on the Echelon, Deploy, Platform, Chamber, Earthwork, Skirmishers, Ordnance, Sergeant, Quartermaster, Globe, that differ both in Longitude and Latitude, Commissary, Adjutant, Aid-de-camp, Staff, Field, and yet all lye under one and the same Meridian. 7. There is a certain Island in the Ægean Sea, Line, Abatis, Limber, Cascabel (or -ble), Accoutre upon which, if two Children were brought forth at other, that though the first lyes East from the sethe same instant of Time, and living together for cond, yet the second is not West from the first. several Years, should both expire on the same. 19. There is a certain European Island, the Day, yea at the same Hour and Minute of that Northmost part whereof doth frequently alter its Day, yet the Life of one would surpass the Life of Latitude and Longitude. 20. There is a certain place in the Island of Philology. the other by divers Months. 8. There is a particular place of the Earth, Great Britain, where the Stars are always visible where the Winds, though frequently veering round at any time of the Day, if the Horizon be not the Compass, do always blow from the North Point. overcast with Clouds. 9. There are a considerable Number of places within the Torrid Zone, in any of which, if a certain kind of Sundial be duly erected, the Shadow will go back several Degrees upon the same, at a certain Time of the Year, and Twice every Day for the Space of divers Weeks: Yet no ways derogating from that miraculous returning of the Shadow upon the Dial of Ahaz, in the Days of King Hezekiah. For the Schoolmaster. AN intelligent boy can express his own ideas. His top, marbles and kite-common topics of 10. There is a remarkable place in the Globe of thought- are readily and quickly discussed in all the Earth, of a very pure and wholesome Air to their aspects, benefits and uses. What does he breathe in, yet of such a strange and detestable need of grammar? Quaiity, that it is absolutely impossible for two of Business men enter into sharp trade with each the sincerest Friends that ever breathed, to con- other, write receipts, give notes, make terms; and tinue in the same in mutual Love and Friendship, no one knows whether of two men, one educated for the Space of two Minutes of Time. and the other unlearned, is the better bargainer. What does Thrift need of grammar? 11. There is a certain Village in the Kingdom of Naples, situate in a very low Valley, and yet Yet when a boy attempts to write what he menthe Sun is nearer to the Inhabitants thereof every tions with a shrug as "a composition"-a very Noon by 3000 Miles and upwards, than when he simple and harmless thing when properly consideither riseth or setteth to those of the said Village. ered-what he does every day and does well 12. There is a large Country in upper Ethiopia to whose Inhabitants the Body of the Moon doth always appear to be most enlightened when she is least enlightened; and to be least when most. 13. There is a remarkable Place on the Earth of a considerable Southern Latitude, from whose Meridian the Sun removeth not for several Days at a certain Time of the Year. 14. There is a certain Place of the Earth of a considerable Northern Latitude, where though the Days and Nights, even when shortest, do consist of several Hours; yet in that place it is Noonday every Quarter of an Hour. enough to be understood, becomes not only an irksome, but almost an impossible task. So when an illiterate business man writes a letter, he either descends into a stereotyped form of expression or employs one who is expert in such matters to write his letters for him. Now it is just the power which the boy needs to write compositions and the merchant to write letters that is ostensibly bestowed on the pupil who faithfully learns the text of his grammar-book. It is confidence and facility in the manner together with elegance and precision in the matter of the statement. One unlearned can express thought, but the learned alone can express thought with correctness and propriety. 15. There is a certain Country in South America, many of whose Savage Inhabitants are such unheard of Cannibals, that they not only feed upon And so the grammarians define the Art of EngHuman Flesh, but also some of them do actually lish Grammar to be the art of speaking and writeat themselves, and yet they commonly survive ing the English language correctly. Such they that strange Repast. would perhaps have it to be, but in reality, it is little more than a philosophic analysis of language by certain tests. 16. There is a remarkable river on the Continent of Europe, over which there is a Bridge of such a Breadth, that above three thousand Men I do not object to the complete mastery by the abreast may pass along upon the same, and that pupil of every essential definition and application without crowding one another in the least. in the books, but I must assert, what writers in 17. There are ten places of the Earth distant the past have not only felt but have shown by their from one another three hundred Miles and up- attempts to remedy it they have believed, that the wards, and yet none of them hath either Latitude mere study of the elements of language as preor Longitude. sented in popular grammars is quite insufficient 18. There are two distinct places on the Conti-though it may be essential. For it stops far short nent of Europe, so situate in respect of one an- of the end desired; it does not accomplish any |
