APPENDIX.

HAT an attic-room is to the thrifty housewife, an appen

WHAT an attic room or a

dix is to the maker of a book. Some things that do not seem to be in place in the parlor or chamber are yet useful, and altogether too good to be thrown away, so they are put into the garret to await the expected use. In a book there are matters that the writer thinks ought to interest some reader, things that will be missed if they are not under the same roof, - I mean between the covers of the volume in hand, and yet the skill is wanting to incorporate these odd pieces (of furniture, if you wish) in the orderly chapters of the book. And so I give you here several long notes and some longer lists.

A LIST OF COMMON CABINET WOODS, DYE-WOODS, AND TIMBER.

Almond (Amygdalus communis). Ronron.

Fustic (Maclura tinctoria).

Funera.

Mahogany (Swietenia mahogani),

Guachapeli, a dark, very hard and strong wood, used in boatbuilding.

- of various kinds, as red, cir-Madre cacao (Erythrina), — soft.

cular, buttress.

Alligator wood (Guarea Swart

Mangrove (Rhizophora Mangle); zii).
the wood is dark red, and very | Trompillo.
durable.

Mangrove (R. Candel); the wood
is very heavy and takes a fine
polish.
Granadillo,

a very solid dark

red wood, much used for tables.

Tepemís, - yellow.

Uña de gato (Pithecolobium unguis-cati).

Blood-wood (Laplacea hæmatoxylon).

Palo de Cortez.

Palo de mulatto (Spondias lutea), | Cedar (Bursera).

Huiliguiste, light-colored wood. Rose-apple (Jambosa vulgaris).

Balsam-tree (Clusia rosea).

Calabash-tree, Guaje (Crescentia Canelillo.

Orange (Citrus),-white and close Sandbox-tree (Hura crepitans).

Pine, long-leaved (P. macrophyl- | Spanish plum (Spondias purlum).

Poknoboy (Bactris balanoidea).

purea).

Santa Maria (Calophyllum ca

Sandpaper-tree (Curatella Ameri- laba). cana), the rough leaves used Filo.

The Ecodoma, Zompopos, or leaf-cutting ants, are such a pest to the fruit-growers of Central America that I have quoted from Mr. Belt the most satisfactory account of their habits that has ever been published. He says:

"The first acquaintance a stranger generally makes with them is on encountering their paths on the outskirts of the forest crowded with the ants, one lot carrying off the pieces of leaves, each piece about the size of a sixpence and held up vertically between the jaws of the ant, another lot hurrying along in an opposite direction empty handed, but eager to get loaded with their leafy burdens.

If he fol

lows this last division, it will lead him to some young trees or shrubs, up which the ants mount, and where each one, stationing itself on the edge of a leaf, commences to make a circular cut with its scissor-like jaws from the edge, its hinder feet being the centre on which it turns. When the piece is nearly cut off, it is still stationed upon it, and it looks as though it would fall to the ground with it; but on being finally detached, the ant is generally found to have hold of the leaf with one foot, and soon righting itself, and arranging its burden to its satisfaction, it sets off at once on its return. Following it again, it is seen to join a throng of others, each laden like itself, and without a moment's delay it hurries along the well-worn path. As it proceeds, other paths, each thronged with busy workers, come in from the sides, until the main road often gets to be seven or eight inches broad, and more thronged than the streets of the city of London.

"After travelling for some hundreds of yards, often for more than half a mile, the formicarium is reached. It consists of low wide mounds of brown clayey-looking earth, above and immediately around which the bushes have been killed by their buds and leaves having been persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow after their first defoliation. Under high trees in the thick forest the ants do not make their nests, because, I believe, the ventilation of their underground galleries, about which they are very particular, would be interfered with, and perhaps to avoid the drip from the trees. It is on the outskirts of the forest, or around clearings or near wide roads that let in the sun, that these formicariums are generally found. Numerous round tunnels, varying from half an inch to seven or eight inches in diameter, lead down through the mounds of earth; and many more from some distance around also lead underneath them. At some of the holes on the mounds ants will be seen busily at work bringing up little pellets of earth from below and casting them down on the ever-increasing mounds, so that its surface is nearly fresh and newlooking...

"The ceaseless toiling hosts impress one with their power, and one asks, What forests can stand before such invaders? How is it that vegetation is not eaten off the face of the earth? Surely nowhere but in the tropics, where the recuperative powers of Nature are immense and ever active, could such devastation be withstood. . . . None of the indigenous trees appear so suitable for them as the introduced

ones.

"In June, 1859, very soon after the formation of my garden, the leaf-cutting ants came down upon it, and at once commenced denud

ing the young bananas, orange, and mango trees of their leaves. I followed up the paths of the invading hosts to their nest, which was about one hundred yards distant, close to the edge of the forest. The nest was not a very large one, the low mound of earth covering it being about four yards in diameter. At first I tried to stop the holes up; but fresh ones were immediately opened out. I then dug down below the mound and laid bare the chambers beneath, filled with ant-food and young ants in every stage of growth. But I soon found that the underground ramifications extended so far and to so great a depth, whilst the ants were continually at work making fresh excavations, that it would be an immense task to eradicate them by such means; and notwithstanding all the digging I had done the first day, I found them as busily at work as ever at my garden, which they were rapidly defoliating. At this stage our medical officer, Dr. J. H. Simpson, came to my assistance, and suggested the pouring carbolic acid, mixed with water, down their burrows. The suggestion proved a most valuable one. We had a quantity of common brown carbolic acid, about a pint of which I mixed with four buckets of water, and, after stirring it well about, poured it down their burrows. I could hear it rumbling down to the lowest depths of the formicarium, four or five feet from the surface. The effect was all that I could have wished; the marauding parties were at once drawn off from my garden to meet the new danger at home. The whole formicarium was disorganized. Big fellows came stalking up from the cavernous regions below, only to descend again in the utmost perplexity.

"Next day I found them busily employed bringing up the ant-food from the old burrows and carrying it to a new one a few yards distant; and here I first noticed a wonderful instance of their reasoning powers. Between the old burrows and the new one was a steep slope. Instead of descending this with their burdens, they cast them down on the top of the slope, whence they rolled down to the bottom, where another relay of laborers picked them up and carried them to the new burrow. It was amusing to watch the ants hurrying out with bundles of food, dropping them over the slope and rushing back immediately for more. They also brought out great numbers of dead ants that the fumes of the carbolic acid had killed. A few days afterwards, when I visited the locality again, I found both the old burrows and the new one entirely deserted, and I thought they had died off; but subsequent events convinced me that the survivors had only moved away to a greater distance. It was fully twelve months before my garden was again invaded. I had then a number of rose-trees, and also cabbages