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New Rubber-Producing Plant.--The German period cals describe a new plant which produces a gum simila to caoutchouc. It is a variety of Landolphia thoUoni It attains a height of 40 to 50 centimeters, and ha numerous roots, from which a juice is extracted cor taining as much as 18 per cent of gum. It grows i: sandy places and will bear drought. It is reproduce by sowing, and when the time of harvest comes, th large roots are cut, leaving the small ones to bud an' multiply. Preparation and Properties of Nitryle Pluoride.--MM Moissan and Lebeau give, in a memoir presented to th Academic des Sciences, the results of the researche by which they have demonstrated that fluorine doe not react at ordinary temperature on nitrous oxid and nitric peroxide, and that it gives with nitric acii a new gaseous compound, fluoride of nitryle, NO,F The density of the gas is 2.24; the fusing point, 63. C; it is endowed with great chemical activity. A] though it does not combine, cold, with hydrogen, su] phur, or carbon, it reacts at the ordinary temperatur( with boron, silicium, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and iodine. It decomposes, cold, with production o fluorhydric acid and nitric acid; it reacts on a largi number of organic compounds. Of the cereal crops of this country wheat sufferi most from insect depredations. Of the large number o insects which depredate on this cereal, the three im portant species are the Hessian fly, the chinch bug and the grain plant-louse, using the latter term to in elude several allied species which work in much th( same manner. The chinch bug is notably a whea pest, although its damage to other cereals and forag( crops is very considerable. The losses from the depre dations of this insect on wheat in single States hav ranged between 10,000,000 and 20,000,000 in one year A very reasonable average annual estimate of loss taking the country as a whole, would be 5 per cent oj the value of the wheat crop, which would indicat; about 20,000,000 a year chargeable to this insect. Variable Composition of Piredamp.--M. Lidoff has made exhaustive investigations on mine gas, and has arrived at the conclusion that what is understood bj the term "firedamp" is an essentially variable com pound. According to Dingler's Polytechnisches Jour nal, instead of consisting chiefly of methane, it fre quently contains 60 per cent of it, while 37 per cent is ethane, and some carbonic acid is present. In many English mines the proportion of methane varies be tween 77.5 and 98.2 per cent, whereas in the valley oi the Donetz it is between 52 and 70 per cent. It cannot be aflirmed positively that a small quantity of argon is invariably present, but it is noteworthy that some times the gas consists, so to say, merely of carbonic acid. A Poster Family of Ducks.--A curious experiment in the hatching of ducklings by a turkey was made recently on a model farm at Willerhof, in the outskirts of Schlestadt, in Lower Alsace. It succeeded admir ably, as attempts not dissimilar have succeeded else where. The bird was placed in a basket in which were two plaster eggs, and it was kept there by means of a framework. In a couple of days the two artificial eggs were replaced with a dozen duck's eggs. In due time nine ducklings were hatched. The turkey showed much attachment to its brood and protected it de votedly. The first time the ducklings took to the water, the turkey followed them, but soon drew back and patiently awaited their return and its vigilance did not relax even when they had grown up. When the fowl could not share their nest any longer, it left them in the evening to rejoin its fellow-turkeys, but when the coop was opened in the morning, it quickly sought its strange family, all the members of which are in I good health.--La Nature.
