One vine that we see covering our stateliest mansions and growing over our most humble little cottage, is common in all the woods of the United States from Maine to Florida, from New York to California, is the Ampelopsis quinquefolia—or Virginia creeper—American ivy or woodbine—its name changing with the portion of the country you happen to be when you find it, for we see it frequently under its various names in cultivation, and it certainly grows in great abundance and in the most graceful ways in our woods, over trees and shrubs and old rock fences, clinging in the most loving way to any surface with which it comes in contact. It belongs to the order Vitaceæ or Vine family, which is a family of climbing shrubs, and to which all of our wild grapes belong.
Its name Ampelopsis is from two Greek words, meaning vine and appearance; quinquefolia, five leaved or fingered; its leaves being alternate and compound, with five leaflets, long and pointed, radiating from the center. It may be that it was meant to signify that our five fingers may handle it recklessly and not run any risk of poisoning, as so many people are fearful of being—they being unable to distinguish it from the Rhus radicans or poison ivy—which belongs with the sumachs, and has only three leaflets or divisions in its leaves. This poison ivy could be so easily exterminated if every one who finds a plant of it would dig it up and burn it. It surely is as much one’s duty to help exterminate a poisonous plant as it is to cultivate and nourish an ornamental, beautiful, harmless one. Yet there is hardly a park in our larger cities where you will not find the Rhus radicans or poison ivy growing.
In the Virginia creeper we will find tendrils growing from the base of its leaves, that swell at their tips into sucker like disks, by means of which the plant clings firmly to walls and trees in its extensive climbing. The flowers of this beautiful vine are small, inconspicuous and greenish in color, with five concave thick spreading petals, with a calyx slightly five toothed, a two celled ovary or seed vessel, each cell containing two seeds. It blooms early in June and in the early autumn, when its leaves are turning the most exquisite shades of scarlet and crimson, these little flowers develop into clusters of deep blue or purple berries about the size of peas.
The whole vine is really more beautiful in the autumn than it is in the spring, and it surely does more than its part in making our American woodlands such great expanses of gorgeous coloring in the fall as to attract the attention and remarks of all visiting foreigners.
Miss J. O. Cochran.
SOME SNAILS OF THE OCEAN.
The Marine snails outnumber all of the other mollusks and their shells are far more beautiful, those in the tropics having the most gaudy colors imaginable. The animals are all formed on the same plan although each family has some peculiarity not shared by its relatives. They are found in all parts of the world, and in all climates. While the majority of species live either between tides on near low water, there are not a few which live in the abysses of the ocean and have been dredged at a depth of three thousand fathoms, a distance of over three miles. The average depth at which mollusks are found in any number is about one thousand fathoms. The variability of marine snails is so great that only a few typical forms can be mentioned.
The Limpet or Patella is a familiar mollusk to many visitors at the sea shore. This shell is a depressed, conical, oval disk, looking not unlike a miniature shield. They live on rocks, to which they tenaciously cling. Some experiments which were made on the English limpet several years ago showed that they could sustain a weight of thirty pounds attached to their shell without being pulled from the rock. The animal seems to have a pretty clear idea of local geography, for it invariably returns to the same place after its excursions for food and the rock in some localities has been hollowed out to a considerable depth by the continuous dwelling thereon of the limpet. If the surface of the rock is uneven the shell grows in such a manner as to fit these inequalities. While grazing along the sides of a rock covered with fine sea weed it will leave a track like a worm and will clear off quite an area in a very short space of time. This track is made by the radula, which is very long and is thrust out and loaded with food which it carries to the mouth. When at rest the radula is coiled like a watch spring. On the British coast the limpet is used as an article of food and primitive man not only ate the mollusks but made a necklace by stringing the shells together. There are several hundred species of limpet-like shells and they are found in all parts of the world, especially on rocky shores.
A family of shells closely related to the limpets is the Fissurellidæ, or keyhole limpet, distinguished from the last family by having a slit or foramen in the apex of the shell, through which the waste products of digestion are discharged. This slit resembles a key-hole and for this reason they are called key-hole limpets. The shells of Fissurella are generally rougher than those of Patella and they live, as a rule, in warmer seas. In habits the key-hole limpet resembles the limpet, living in one rocky place and making excursions for food. In the young shell the spire is without a perforation, this appearing as the shell increases in age. There are over one hundred species of key-hole limpets, several handsome species of which inhabit Florida and the West Indies.
The Haliotis or abalone shells abound in many parts of the world and are widely known for their beauty. The largest and finest shells live on the coast of California where they attain a length of ten inches. The shells are flat, though made in the form of a spiral and are perforated near the edge of the last whorl, which is many times the size of all the rest combined, and through this perforation the water from the gills, together with the waste products of the animal, are poured out. As the shell increases in size the old holes are filled up and new ones are formed. The inside of the shell is resplendent with iridescent colors, particularly about the region of the huge muscle scar, and when the outside is polished they become objects fit for the palace of a king. A large part of the mother-of-pearl is furnished by these shells and a vast number are annually exported for the purpose of making pearl buttons. In England they are called “Ormers” but the correct name, if we translate the generic title, is “Sea-ear” or ear-shells. To the Chinese the abalone is an object of great economic importance and they gather them in large quantities, dry the animals and use them as food, principally in the form of soup, which is said to be very delicious. The abalone clings to the rocks with terrible power and many a lonely fisherman has been drowned while gathering this mollusk, by getting his fingers caught between the shell and the rock.