Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/691

Rh or leaves of a single plant are exactly the same, so in the glass reproduction every infinitesimal variation is rendered with a fidelity which is almost painful. A distinguished local botanist has made a test of this accuracy by selecting at random a number of specimens from various orders and submitting them to the lens. In one of these examples, that of Aralia spinosa, L., he counted nearly eight thousand buds and flowers, some of the former so small as to be indistinguishable to the naked eye, while every flower was yet found to be complete even to the number of petals and stamens. The same exactness is shown in the large compound leaf of this plant, even in the under surfaces, which are hidden from the eye of the observer by being turned toward the cardboard on which it rests. The result, as may be imagined, is simply unequaled, and one hardly knows whether to give the greater credit to the genius which inspired such work, or to the conscience and patience which have made its execution possible. Let us linger before one or two of the object lessons taught in the economic room. One of the most complete studies is that of the Indian corn (Zea mays). Here we find, first, the glass model, a stalk of corn from two to three feet in length, showing the long, wavy-margined leaves, the tasseled flowers, and the developed ear in its infolding wrappings of husk and with its delicate plume of "silk." The magnified details in this instance give a single flower, a stamen, and a single grain of maize in its development from the flower. On a shelf above the models, but still in the same case, are displayed dried ears of ripe corn of all sizes and varieties, from the tiny pop corn to the largest and most highly cultivated product of the market garden.

Next these are arranged glass jars containing the articles of commerce prepared from corn: here are corn meal, hominy, bran and cattle feed, corn oil and oil cake, starch in all its forms, climax sugar, anhydrous sugar and caramel, American and British gum, dextrin, mucilage, and whisky.

A beautiful specimen is that of the nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), one spray of which gives the amber-tinted flowers in their small, axillary clusters, while another branch shows the ripened fruit. There is also in glass a thin section or slice, showing the nut in its surrounding aril which forms the mace of commerce, and the enveloping husk outside this again.

A number of small, open boxes hold various kinds of nutmegs, some from India, some from Java, and there is even a wooden nutmeg to complete the collection!

The exhibit which seems to awaken perhaps the most popular interest (at least among the children, who visit the museum in throngs) is that of the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao). The beautiful glass reproduction is interesting enough in itself, as