are formed parallel to the surface of
freezing. They are formed when the sun shines upon the ice of every
lake; sometimes in myriads, and so small as to require a magnifying
glass to see them. They are always attainable, but their beauty is
often marred by internal defects of the ice. Every one portion of the
same piece of ice may show them exquisitely, while a second portion
shows them imperfectly.

Annexed is a very imperfect sketch of these beautiful figures.

Here we have a reversal of the process of crystallization. The
searching solar beam is delicate enough to take the molecules down
without deranging the order of their architecture. Try the experiment
for yourself with a pocket-lens on a sunny day. You will not find the
flowers confused; they all lie parallel to the surface of freezing. In
this exquisite way every bit of the ice over which our skaters glide
in winter is put together.

I said that a portion of the sunbeam was stopped by the ice and
liquefied it. What is this portion? The dark heat of the sun. The
great body of the light waves and even a portion of the dark ones,
pass through the ice without losing any of their heating power. When
properly concentrated on combustible bodies, even after having passed
through the ice, their burning power becomes manifest.

[Illustration: LIQUID FLOWERS IN LAKE ICE.]

And the ice itself may be employed to concentrate them. With an
ice-lens in the polar regions Dr. Scoresby has often concentrated the
sun's rays so as to make them burn wood, fire gunpowder, and melt
lead; thus proving that the heating power is retained by the rays,
even after they have passed through so cold a substance.

By rendering the rays of the electric lamp parallel, and then sending
them through a lens of ice, we obtain all the effects which Dr.
Scoresby obtained with the rays of the sun.

[Illustration]

THE ORGANIC WORLD

(FROM THE ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE.)

BY ST. GEORGE MIVART F.R.S.

The number of all the various kinds of living creatures is so enormous
that it would be impossible to study them profitably, were they not
classified in an orderly manner. Therefore the whole mass has been
divided, in the first place, into two supreme groups, fancifully
termed kingdoms--the "animal kingdom" and the "vegetal kingdom." Each
of these is subdivided into an orderly series of subordinate groups,
successively contained one a within the other, and named sub-kingdoms,
classes, orders