Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

SUSPENDED VITALITY IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS . ( Continued ) . It is evident that wheat and other seeds would have a much greater chance of survival if hermetically sealed up just after harvest , when the germinating power is at its lowest , than if packed away in the same manner just at seed time , when the germ , though unseen , has begun to develop . It may , indeed , be kept back for a time by absence of moisture , but the germ , once fully formed , and then checked , will not grow again . If we turn from

p lant to animal life , we shall see the same problem of suspended vitality presented in many forms . Let us , for instance , consider that wonderful awakening after rain , in tropical and semi-tropical countries , so often described by travellers . Months of drought have dried up the watercourses , so that you may dig down deep in the beds of rivers and ponds and find no moisture . The earth is bare and parched , riven in great cracks by

the scorching sun , and a silence , as of death , reigns everywhere . There is a tropical shower , and , suddenly , the air resounds with the croaking of frogs and toads , the chirpings of insects , and the songs of birds ; whilst grass and flowering plants spring up as if by magic . It is a veritable resurrection , brought about by that which may well be termed the water of life—the sudden revival of many things , animate and inanimate , apparently

dead . Lumbolti : says : " In South Australia a drought once lasted for 26 months . The country was transformed into desert , and life was not to be seen . Sheep and cattle had perished , and so had the marsupials . Suddenly rain poured down . The long drought was at an end , and six hours after the storm had begun the rain was welcomed by the powerful voices of the frogs . Flies afterwards came in great numbers , and then

bats appeared in countless swarms . " But independently of drought , there are many singular and inexplicable cases of the intermittent appearance of living things , after having undergone long periods of quiescence . Such is happily the case with the locust , of the latest visitation of which , in South Africa , it is said , that after rain , they made their appearance in vast numbers , emerging from the ground where their eggs had Iain for nearly 20

years . The ordinary locust does not seem to have a definite time for reappearance ; but the American locust , known asthe Cicada septemdccim , comes out regularly every 17 years , whence its name . It emerges in the pupa state from deep holes in the ground , even in hard pathways , crawls to some neighbouring tree , where it sheds its skin , and sits drying its wings , and singing " Pha-ra-oh , " by which name it is commonly known . As the

locusts increase in number this song becomes a loud chorus ; and , as they sing , they hollow out long furrows in the branches of the tree upon which they rest , and in these furrows they lay their eggs . The branches thus excavated die and drop off , and thus probably the eggs are conveyed to the earth to be washed into the soil by rains in order to undergo their 17 years of change and death-like sleep ; and at the end of the 17 years return to

the upper air , and so follow again the example of their long-deceased parents . But what becomes of the perfect insects , how the eggs germinate , how and why they become buried so deeply underground , and what metamorphoses they undergo , during this long burial , no one knows . The only thing certain about them is that they will return punctually at the end of 17 years , and neither earlier nor later . There seems reason to suppose that

those disease-producing microscopic objects , known to modern science as "bacteria , " have also periods of quiescence , and renewed activity , resulting in epidemics of various kinds , but whether the air , earth , or water , serves them as a resting place during their periods of repose , and by which of the elements they are conveyed to their victims , we do not know with certainty . It seems , however , to be proved that some , at least , are destroyed by that

sunshine which exerts so vivifying an influence upon most plants and animals . From all these instances , it seems clear that Nature refuses to be bound by any of the hard and fast rules which science formulates . She works by secret and mysterious laws ; hidden alike from the learned and simple ; she has not only her regular and set periods of sleep and re-awakening , but , also , long and indefinite seasons of repose , or death-like trance , during

which her children he perdu in earth , or air , or beneath the running waters , awaiting like the sleeping damsel , of old romance , the kiss of some fairy prince , to restore them to life and vigour . The kiss may come by lire , or flood , or by the viewless air , and after months , or years , or centuries of waiting ; but whenever it does come it is certain to find them ready to cast off the trammels of their enchanted sleep , and to resume their place , and play again their destined role , lot either weal or woe , in the living tapestry of Nature's handiwork .

CULTIVATION OF INDIGO . A few notes respecting the cultivation of Indigo may prove of interest . From one of the Deputy Collectors in Gujarat we obtain these particulars . Indigo cultivation is carried out in the Taluka of Patlad , belonging to H . H . the Guiacowar of Baroda , and in Vasua , a Cambay village , as well as in five villages in the Borsad Taluka , under the Kaira Collectorate , and in Gajera , in the Jambusar Taluka , in Broach . In this last there are about 3000

acres , and m the former about 1800 , and the produce is apparently sufficient to meet the demand in the Surat , Broach , and Kaira CoIIectorates . The cultivation and preparation of the dye in Gajera are described as follows : Seed is sown after the first good fall of rain . When the plants are sufficiently high , weeding and harrowing take place . When the plants mature in September they are cut and brought in carts to masonry vats

near a well . They come in in the morning , and are kept on the ground in an upright position ; in the evening they are placed in a vat and pressed down with heavy pieces of wood . Water is then let in from another vat just sufficient to cover the wood . On the following morning the plants are taken out , each handful being previously washed in the water as it is taken out . Six men then get into the vat , and for three hours work it about with

their feet , alter which the water is allowed to stand till evening to clear , the colouring matter settling down , and the clear water being drawn off through a hole in the vat . The colouring matter left is then taken out and put into a small masonry vat close by , where it is allowed to settle for another ni ght , after which the clear water at the top is again drawn off . The thick

deposit is then spread over a coarse thick cloth in a pit about 5 feet long and 4 feet broad , and there allowed to dry till the next day , when small quantities of it are placed in rows on ashes spread on the ground . The ashes draw out the water from the colouring material , and are first passed < J > ough a fine sieve . On the lumps becoming sufficiently dry they are

Science, Art, And The Drama.

removed in bags , and presumably sold in this state . The large vats , of which there are two at each well , are about 4 feet in depth and 12 feet in length and breadth , and the one small vat is about 2 feet deep and 4 feet square . The stumps of the plant are left in the ground for another season , and grow for the second year , but their yield is smaller than the first .

Miniature Painters In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

MINIATURE PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH .

( . Continued ) . At the Lord Montacute's , at Coudray , is another invaluable work of Isaac Oliver . It represents three brothers of that lord's family , whole lengths in black , their ages 21 , 24 , and 18 , with the painter ' s mark . These young gentlemen resemble each other remarkably , a peculia r itv observable in the picture , the motto on which is Ftgurce conformis affectus , 15 68 ,

another person is coming into the room aged 21 . The picture of James I . served Reubens and Vandyck when they had occasion to draw that monarch after his decease . In an office book of Lord Harrington , Treasurer of the Chamber , in the possession of Dr . Rawlinson , was an entry of payment to Isaac Oliver , picture-drawer , by a warrant dated at Lincoln 4 th April , 1617 , for 4 several pictures drawn for the prince's highness , as appeareth by a bill He of

thereunto annexed ^ 40 , drew a whole length Robert , Earl of Essex , in white , and heads of him several times , and of many others of the nobility , but his works are much scarcer than those of his master , Hilliard . Of Oliver's drawings several of them are extant , particularly a capital one in Queen Caroline ' s closet , at Kensington ; the subject—the entombment of Christ in the sepulchre—consisting of 26 figures . This piece , which Isaac

had not completed , was finished by his son , and is dated 1616 . Another , a large drawing—the Murder of the Innocents—on blue paper , heightened , after Raphael . Vertue saw a print of the history of St . Lawrence touched and heightened by Oliver with great skill . Sir John Evelyn , in 1734 , showed to the Society of Antiquaries , a drawing by Oliver from a picture ot Rapiiel in the Escurial , of the Virgin , Child , and St . John . It was copied Oy Isaac

in 1631 , while the original was in the collection of Charles I . He did not always confine himself to water-colours . There are instances of his working in oil . In this manner he painted his own , his wife's , and the portraits of his children ; a head of St . John Baptist on board ; and the Holy Family . In the Bodleian Gallery , at Oxford , is a portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury , in oil , nearly the size of life , painted in an oval shape , and upon a bright

blue ground . It has so much the air of an enlarged miniature , that it may be conjecturally added to those at Wroxton . A small oil portrait of a young lady , in the dress of the early part of James l . 's time , painted upon an oval plate of silver , 4 inches by 3 I , after having been preserved in a cabinet for nearly two centuries , became the property of the Rev . James

Dallaway . It had the beauty and delicate touch , so admirable in his limmngs . Isaac Oliver died at his house , in the Blackfriars , London , in 1617 , aged 61 , or 62 . He was buried in St . Anne ' s Church , in that parish , where his son erected a monument to his memory , with his bust in marble . The monument and bust were destroyed in the great fire in 1666 . ( To be continued . )

Messrs. Thos. Agnew And Sons.

MESSRS . THOS . AGNEW AND SONS .

ENGLISH ART , rgoo . There is an exhibition of pictures here by distinguished artists of the English school . This distinctly appeals to the sympathies of the lovers of art , as the entire proceeds of the charge made for admission will be devoted to the Artists' General Benevolent Institution . All these pictures have been painted specially for Messrs . Agnew and Sons . We can only notice a few

our space being limited . No . 3 , Crabs and Crayfish , by C Napier Henry , A . R . A . ; 5 , Rough Pastures , by Peter Graham , R . A ., a fine example of the artist ' s well known style ; S , The Burning Heart , by Frank Dicksee , R . A ., it is tenderly treated ; io , Vain Courtship , by Sir L . Alma-Tadema , R . A ., an interesting work , conception good , fine execution ; 20 , The Doctor , by Luke Fildes , R . A ., the original painting by this distinguished artist ; this

picture , so well known to all , requires no commendation from us ; 30 , A Bright Day—North Wales , by B . VV . Leader , R . A ., this is a lovely , charming work ; 31 , Diana and Endymion , by Sir Edward J . Poynter , P . R . A . This is an illustration of some beautiful lines in " Endymion " by the poet Keats . The artist , by his poetic rendering and execution , has beautifully depicted the author ' s ideas . We would draw attention to 16 , A Sussex Farm , by

J . W . North , A . R . A . ; 18 , " Her Soul went back to its child-time , " by Frank Branley , A . R . A . ; 23 , Taken at the Flood , by W . L . Wylie , A . R . A . ; 25 , Old Airs , by Seymour Lucas , R . A . ; 27 , Early Arrivals , by A . C . Gow , R . A . ; 34 , Italian Sailor , by J . S . Sargent , R . A . ; 39 , Henry Power , F . R . C . S ., by VV . W . Ouless , R . A ., a fine portrait . There are other works , by well-known artists , of great merit . It is a small but admirable collection of modern English art .

The Dowdeswell Galleries, 160 New Bond-Street ,W.

THE DOWDESWELL GALLERIES , 160 NEW BOND-STREET , W .

Some recent work by Oliver Hall is now on exhibition . He is a clever landscape painter , varied in style , some pictures full of light , others sombre in tone—we prefer the latter , in which we think he excels—we would especially draw attention to Nos . 2 , Old Orchard—near Nutbourne , Sussex ; 4 , A Forest Glade ; 31 , Chiltington Common , Sussex ; 36 , Brough Castle , Westmoreland ; 46 , The Hill Farm . It is a pleasing collection , and is worthy of a visit .

Messrs. Henry Graves And Co., Ltd., 6, Pall Mall, S.W.

MESSRS . HENRY GRAVES AND CO ., LTD ., 6 , PALL MALL , S . W .

R . Caton Woodville ' s latest work , " Just like Bobs , " an incident in the South African campaign , is a picture which appeals to all . There is an interesting , well-written notice put in the hands of visitors , which renders any long description , on our part , unnecessary . We will simply say that , after the Battle of Driefontein , Lord Roberts , riding across the battle-field , came by chance on a wounded soldier . Tne Field Marshal , at once

dismounting , gave him a drink of water out of his own bottle , fnu portrait of Roberts is good and life-like . A kindl y feeling of compassion is expressed on the face . We would draw attention to the details of this fine workthey are in admirable keeping , being well subordinated to the chief figure ; the attitude of tne norse is very happy . Tne local-colour and torm of the South African scenery has a convincing air of truth . The picture full y sustains the artist ' s high reputation .