Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/590

572 the lower cryptogams, they comprise one sixth of the native vegetation. The comparative scarcity of grasses and of composite and leguminous plants, as contrasted with the unusually large number of Rulaceæ, Rubiaceæ, Lobeliaceæ, and Labiaæ, is a matter of astonishment to the collector from more temperate regions. To the student of the lower cryptogams an immense field is open. Near the summits of the mountains, and in other places where there is a large amount of moisture, the trees, bushes, and ground are draped and carpeted with mosses and liverworts. Lichens seem to be most abundant on the trees and rocks of the lower and middle regions. The "kukui" tree, which flourishes only in the lower forest region, is the host of more species of lichen than perhaps any other tree. Next comes the "koa" tree, which harbors many interesting species, but, as a rule, different from those which are found on the kukui tree. Parasitic fungi are common on the leaves and stalks of many plants, but fleshy fungi seem to be scarce. Marine algae are abundant.

Trades Unions in China.—The following facts regarding trades unions in China are taken from an abstract of Consul Charles's report in the Journal of the Society of Arts. Although labor is cheap in China, the workmen seem able to dictate their own terms. Neither masons nor carpenters begin work in winter much before 9 ; in summer they knock off at noon for a long two hours' siesta, and at all seasons of the year smoke and drink tea, and rest whenever it suits them. According to the regulations of the builders' union, wages, if the men find their own food, are one hundred and eighty cash (about twelve cents) a day. These, in the case of skilled laborers, include their apprentices' wages, which are paid at the same rate. As accidents are frequent in the trade, especially among unskilled hands, the parent of the apprentice has to give an engagement in writing holding the boy's master free from all liability, but a present is expected in case of an accident. No interference is permitted with a customer's engaging any builder preferred by him. No outside firm is allowed to work, however, until it has joined the union and received a certificate, the fee for which varies. Masters have to pay the union at the rate of about one tenth of a cent per diem for every man employed by them, to form a fund to meet subscriptions. A similar tax is levied on assistants to meet the cost of festivals, illuminations, etc. If trouble occurs between a builder and his employees and work is stopped, no other labor can be engaged in until all outstanding accounts are settled. Attendance is obligatory at meetings called to fix the quota to be paid toward subscription funds. There are but five important guilds or trade unions in China—the silk and piece goods, the banks, the sugar, the rice, and the general dealers. The members of these guilds are taxed in proportion to their business to meet the various subscriptions required from the guilds toward canal works, etc. The. funds are also used for the relief of widows and orphans of former members. The whole power of trade in China rests in combination and monopoly.

Rhodesia.—Mr. F. C. Selous, who has spent twenty-five years in the country north and south of the Zambesi—in Matabeleland and Zululand—gave the British Association a favorable account of the climate of Rhodesia, and the adaptability of the highland country to white settlement. He regarded the climate as singularly favorable for the development of Europeans. He had never seen a finer race of men than the Boers and the British colonists of English, Irish, and Scotch descent, who were established in Cape Colony in 1820. They are tall, fine men, and the speaker believed that the highlands of Rhodesia would produce an equally fine race. The country includes the valleys of the Zambesi and Limpopo, where as in all African lowlands, deadly malaria prevails; and it is only the tracts four thousand feet and more above the sea level—in the elevated backbone of the country, which forms the watershed between the Zambesi and the Limpopo in the west, and the Zambesi and the Sabi in the east—that can be looked upon as likely to become peopled by white men. Possibly, as settlement advances, cultivation may gradually encroach upon the lower regions and drive the malaria from them. The superficial area of that part of Rhodesia which lies at and above an