Some time ago you asked for descriptions of wild flowers and fruits: I live in West Australia, so far north that we have flowers in our yard every month in the year. This past winter, during July especially, we had very cold weather for this part of Australia, yet our sarsaparilla grew well. It is of a lovely deep purple, and its flowers sometimes wholly cover a stiff stem eighteen inches long. In summer we have a flower called kangaroo's claw. It grows slowly, and has only one flower. Its slender stem looks like red plush. The flower resembles a man's hand held out to shake with you. The "fingers" are green, and, odd to say, there is always a pale green spot at the tips, that look like finger-nails.
We have a queer tree. It has pale green leaves, with prickly under leaves, and a cream flower that smells like Daphne. But the oddest thing about it is the fruit, which looks like luscious pears, but which is nothing but wood. Not a few people here send the fruit to their friends living in England, who use it to fool people with. The latter, if they do not know the fruit, can easily be induced to sit down with knife and plate to eat it. There is also here a Zamia palm. It looks like a huge pineapple, with a top like a close fern. The sprouts shoot up through the centre like two smaller pineapples. When the palm is opened one can scrape off from the inside very delicate wool, which country folks often use for beds in place of feathers. Cattle sometimes get hold of the wool and eat it, and it is most injurious to them. If the mails permitted, I would like to send you some of this wool.
Alicia Shaw.
Preston.
That Electric-light Outfit.
Mr. H. C. Durston was interested, as doubtless many others were, in "A Small Electric-light Outfit," and he writes, "Can you tell me if, by increasing the size or number of battery cells, I can get power enough to run a ten-candle-power lamp?" Increase the number, not the size. Yes. "Where can I get the small lamp mentioned, and what is its life?" Apply to the Standard Electric Lamp Company, 248 West Twenty-third Street, New York. Following are the claimed life: ½-candle power, one watt, no life guaranteed; ½-candle power, two watt, 100 to 200 hours; ½-candle power, three watt, 600 hours; and ½-candle power, four watt, indefinitely.
There is only one soap that is kept by all grocers, that is Ivory Soap.
The Procter & Gamble Co., Cin'ti.