up from the sea,--I
don't know which,--and drives along, through the storm, in a great
watery column. I have heard of whirlwinds, and I think this might be
called a "whirl-water."

THE USES OF HAIR ON PLANTS.

M.E.K. writes, in answer to my question in July, that her "Botany" book
says, "Hair on plants seems to afford them security against changes of
weather, and plants with hair can stand more heat than bare ones." A.W.
Ferris says:

"If a plant that needs much moisture is dug up from its native wet
home and planted in a dry spot, hairs will sprout on it and try to
get from the air the moisture that can no longer be drawn from the
earth. But if you put back this plant in its old home, it will lose
its hair--becoming bald. Sometimes, plant hairs are connected with
glands of poisonous liquid, as with the nettle, whose hairs we say
'sting,' because of the pain the poison gives when the skin is
pricked by them."

Frances and Margaret Bagley, also, write on this subject, and I'm much
obliged to all four. Besides these letters, I've had word that
plant-hair is put to the following uses: On some plants it catches
insects and helps to eat them; in others, the hair sends out a kind of
juice which keeps away insects that might harm the plant; on the
mulleins, the stiff hairs are supposed to prevent cattle from browsing
on them; and on yet others, the hairs suck in gases and liquids as part
of the food of the plants. And there may be other uses for these hairs
that I haven't heard of yet.

DARK SUNS.

Here's something strange,--so strange that, may be, you 'd better
inquire further into it. I give you the paragram just as it comes to me:

"The bright star Sirius, itself a vast flaming sun, has a companion
which is also a sun,--nearly seven times as large as our own,--but which
is dark, and gives no light at all. This dark sun was seen through a
very powerful telescope in 1862, and it is thought that there are a
great many like it, although no others have been found."

THE LETTER-BOX.

_To the little girl who asks if Bryant wrote any poem that would
interest "us children" and to all young readers of_ ST. NICHOLAS:

Yes, indeed. You will find in the collected works of this beloved
American writer many songs and poems that you can understand with ease
and read with delight. A good, pure-hearted man, like William Cullen
Bryant; a man so honest, so simple and earnest, s