Very soon after the appropriation of 1876 became available, Colonel (then lieutenant colonel) Thomas Lincoln Casey, corps of engineers, U. S. A., was designated by President Grant, through Secretary of War McCrary, as the engineer officer to conduct the work, and Captain George W. Davis, 14th U. S. infantry, was ordered here from Texas and placed on special duty as an acting engineer officer, as assistant for the monument construction.

The first work done was in 1877, when shafts were sunk at different points about the monolith and borings made to find the character of the strata below the foundation. It had already been ascertained that the original foundation extended only five feet below the surrounding earth surface, while fourteen feet reached above to the floor of the shaft. The examinations showed that below the old foundation was a series of layers of yellow and blue clay on a rock strata, sloping away to the original bed of the adjoining Potomac, and that these beds of clay were thickly strewn with huge boulders of the ice-period. The clay taken out was tested for compressibility, but the examinations and tests showed that, to sustain the huge structure of over 81,000 tons, the foundation should rest upon the bedrock, still fifteen feet below. These examinations and the studies of the subject made by Captain Davis continued until 1878, when finally the plan of building a new foundation beneath the old one was decided upon, to the astonishment of engineers all over the civilized world. How such a thing could be done was the wonder until Colonel Casey and Captain Davis practically demonstrated it by accomplishing the fact.

The old foundation was so ridiculously shallow and narrow in base that the addition of the weight necessary to carry out the design of height would have sunk the structure into the ground, much like thrusting a cane into moist earth, or, more likely, have toppled it over toward the adjacent Potomac flats. A new and wide foundation was built under the old one and resting on the bedrock beneath. The magnitude of this before unheard-of feat of engineering was so great that home and foreign civil engineers visited the work to see for themselves that it was actually being done. The complete work of the sub-foundation is one of the greatest feats of engineering known in the world.

Meantime, while the foundation examination had progressed, means had been found to reach and examine the top which was left unfinished before Congress took action. The three upper courses of stone, each one two feet high, were found to be so damaged by the action of frost, and perhaps lightning, that they were removed before the work on top was resumed at the exact height of 150 feet.

September 11, 1878, an inspector of the proposed work and Mr. P. H. McLaughlin reported at the monument grounds, and were followed next day by a small gang of carpenters, of which Mr. McLaughlin was then the foreman, who began the erection of the necessary buildings. The first superintendent, who reported in the same month, was Mr. Navarre, and on his resignation in 1879 Mr. McLaughlin was promoted from master carpenter to succeed him.

August 7, 1880, the first stone above 150 feet from the foundation was laid, and to this date Mr. McLaughlin has superintended the whole of the work.

Since the commencement of work on this monument the States of California, Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, and Colorado have been admitted into the Union, we have chronicled the history of nine political administrations, witnessed the birth and death of political parties, and passed through a terrible civil war and four financial strains, and established the best banking system in the world. The great republic in the meantime has grown from 23,000,000 to 55,000,000 people, and in material wealth from $7,400,000,000, or $320 per inhabitant, to $57,000,000,000, or about $1,000 per inhabitant. When the National Monument was begun Great Britain possessed five times the wealth owned by the United States, and while the wealth of the former country has only doubled within the past four decades, that of the latter has increased twelvefold. As to the constituent factors of American progress in their aggregate in the four decades they are sufficient to buy up the whole Austrian Empire several times over, or pay for the aggregate value of the "effete" monarchies of Italy, Holland, and Belgium almost three times over during that period. Our tilled acreage has increased from 50,000,000 to 170,000,000 acres, the crops have increased in value from $415,000,000 to $2,500,000,000, and the cattle have increased in value from $380,000,000 to $18,400,000,000. Our imports have increased from $178,000,000 to $668,000.000, and our exports from $152,000,000 to $836,000,000.

The work is by no means completed now, for it will take many months, and perhaps several years, to complete the pedestal and finish up the surroundings.

The joint commission in charge of the monument has recently submitted to Congress a report showing its progress during the past year. The report shows the weight of the monument is 81, 120 tons, and it has cost $1,187,710, of which Congress appropriated $887,710. In relation to the completion of the monument the engineer in charge of the work submitted a report with that of the commission. He says: "Two methods of treating the terrace at the foot of the shaft have been suggested. One method proposes to erect a retaining wall of the most beautiful marble around the terrace, which wall is to be surmounted with marble balustrade. At the centre of each face is to be set off, broad double stairs extending from the general level of the esplanade, which is to be paved with marble tiles of approved patterns. The other method of finish proposed, is to fill earth about the present terrace, and extend this filling as far from the monument as to fade the slopes of the embankment gradually into the surrounding surfaces, and this is to be done with so much skill as to give the mound an appearance as far from artificial as possible. This mound is then to be planted with trees and shrubs, and paths are to be laid out. A pavement is to be put around the foot of the mound, far enough to prevent storm waters from washing out the filling. If the marble wall is decided upon, an appropriation of $612,300 is asked to complete the entire work. If the second proposition is adopted but $166,800 is desired. The joint commission favor the latter method.

The Congressional Commission to arrange for the dedication of the monu

ment invites through the medium of the Associated Press all civil, military and naval organizations in the United States to attend the ceremonies, which will be held at the base of the monument on the 21st of February, 1885. Any organization accepting this invitation is requested to notify Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, U. S. A., Marshal of the day, of the number of persons in such organization, whereupon he will assign it to proper position in the procession to be provided for by the commission. At a meeting of the commission recently the programme was decided upon. The morning is to be devoted by the Marshal of the day to the concentration of societies and troops on the ground. The ceremonies at the monument will begin precisely at 12 o'clock, Senator John Sherman, Chairman of the Congressional Commission, presiding. The programme will be as follows:

Music. Prayer by Rev. Mr. Sutor, of Christ Church, Alexandria, Va. Remarks by W. W. Corcoran, First Vice-President of the Washington Monument Society. Remarks by the engineers of the joint commission turning over the completed structure to the President of the United States. Acceptance by the President for the people of the United States and dedication to the memory of General George Washington. Music.

During the performance of music the procession will be formed and will proceed to the Capitol Grounds where it will be reviewed by the President of the United States.

The order of procession will be as follows:

Chief Marshal, with Chief of Staff and an aide from every State and Territory; military escort; General commanding; brigade of artillery; brigade of infantry; naval brigade; battalion of marines; chartered military organizations, taking precedence by the dates of their charters, and temporarily organized in regiments and brigades; civic procession; Congressional Commission; members and exmembers of the joint commission for the completion of the monument; engineers of the monuement and detail of workmen; the Washington Monument Society; the President of the United States and orator of the day; the President and VicePresident elect of the United States; ex-Presidents of the United States; Judges of the Supreme Court; Diplomatic Corps; Governors of States and their respective staffs, taking precedence in the order of admission of their States into the Union; Senate and House of Representatives; Commissioners of the District of Columbia; Society of the Cincinnati; Masonic fraterntty, with other organizations which officially contributed stores or money for the erection of the monument; citizens of States and Territories, with civic organizations from those States without partisan flags or emblems, each State taking precedence in order of admission into the Union; Fire Department of the District of Columbia and visiting firemen.

BOTANY.

VEGETABLE DISSEMINATION.

REV. L. J. TEMPLIN.

Whoever looks into the vegetable world for the first time with an intelligent eye and a thoughtful and inquiring mind will be forcibly struck with the manifestations of design that meet him on every hand. The wise adaptation of means to ends and the beautiful harmony that appears in all departments of organic nature naturally lead the unbiased mind to the inference that, behind and beneath all this order and harmony, originating, upholding and directing them, there is, and of necessity must be, an all comprehending intelligent power. Probably in all the realm of organic nature there is no more manifest exhibition of wise adaptation of means to the accomplishment of worthy purposes than is seen in the various methods employed for the dispersion and dissemination of the different species of plants. This field of research furnishes so many evidences of design, and so much of variety and excellence that it seems difficult if not impossible to shut out the conviction that some intelligent designer must have been employed in planning a scheme that has so many excellences to commend it to the enlightened judgment. To attribute all this to chance is to invest chance with the attributes and acts of the Deity, and simply changes the name of this great first cause. But in the sense in which this term is generally used the assumption is absurd, as, in that sense chance is nothing and consequently can do nothing. Turning our attention to the subject of the dissemination of plants, we find Nature employing various methods that are not confined to any particular order or class of plants. Considering a plant in its relation to the world at large. as well as to its own species, its whole purpose in life seems to be to propagate its own species, and disseminate its progeny as extensively as possible under its surrounding conditions. The spreading of plants from the original locality is accomplished not only in a great variety of ways, but also with a great diversity of degrees of rapidity.

The method by which the offspring is carried the least distance from the parent plant, and, consequently, in which the dissemination is the slowest, seems to find illustrations in those cases in which the young plant starts as a sucker or offshoot directly from the base or collar of the parent plant. In this process adventitious buds are formed at or just beneath the surface of the ground which push up new stems into the air, and from the subterranean parts of these, new roots are sent out into the soil, thus enabling the young plant to draw its nourishment from soil and air independently of the parent plant and even to survive

the death and decay of that parent notwithstanding the vital union that previously existed between them. These in turn form buds and send up suckers, thus further extending the group till joining with other similar groups an extensive break or forest is formed.

Examples of this are exceedingly numerous. This mode is often illustrated by the peach, apple and basswood among trees; the elder, currant and gooseberry among shrubs, and the balm, rhubarb and various grasses among herbaceous plants. A similar or identical principle is involved in those cases in which not only the parts about the base of the plant, but all parts of the roots, even to their extremities, form buds and send up suckers, thus extending the area occupied by the plant much more rapidly than in the preceding case. method the wild plum, murello cherry, and the blackberry and red-raspberry are well known examples. Resembling this method in appearance is the multiplication of plants and the consequent growth of them a short space from the parent plant, is that by means of the rhizoma or underground stem. Some plants send out these stems laterly at a greater or less depth below the surface of the ground. At frequent intervals, greater or less according to the species of plant, a node is formed from which roots are emitted and a stem is sent up to the surface where it forms a perfect, and, to all appearances, an independent plant. Not only does this rhizoma continue to extend, sending up its numerous stems, but from each of its nodes similar stems branch off, usually on both sides, which repeat the same phenomena as the original one. In this way these stems and plants are multiplied till the whole space occupied by this multiple plant becomes a regular net-work of stems and the plants become so crowded as to smother the later comers that are struggling to reach the light and air. A single plant of this nature will, in a comparatively short time, occupy all the ground for a considerable distance in all directions from the original plant. And if it be a perennial, this process will continue from year to year, and there is really no limit to its extension except such as may be presented by insurmountable obstacles that may bar its further progress. As examples of this mode of propagation and dispersion may be mentioned the Canada-thistle, Chufa, Bermuda-grass and couch or quitch-grass.

Tubers, as of the potato and artichoke, are only enlarged underground stems, full of buds that we call eyes. From them the plants of the next season are produced a little distance from the stalk of the parent plant, and so the young plants are gradually separated and dispersed. Similar in nature and manner of growth to the underground creeping plants are those that send their creeping stems on the surface of the soil, sending roots into the soil and stems into the air, and also other creeping stems in lateral directions on the surface. Of this class may be named the twin-flower, the partridge-berry, some species of mint and some of the creeping grasses.

Differing but little from this is the regular running plant that sends out a slender stem that grows to some length without node or leaf; a cluster of leaves is then formed, from the base of which roots enter the ground and thus a complete