188 



TEE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[c/un«, 



vnrium, Grovillca ^Innglosii, Cass'mcn den- 

 ticulntrt, Zcfia revoluta, Trichilia gluntlulosa, 

 Rucllin Austrnlis, nncl Pimclia liiiifoliii. 



Not more than a 1>o\y slint from where I stood 

 I observed a eircle of long lanees, standing 

 above tlie low shrubs and ferns. Every moment 

 I cxj)ected to see tlie savage owners start up or 

 make some movement; but not a sound or mo- 

 tion broke the silence. Imitating their usual 

 C4ill, with a loud co-oc-er, 



" I li£tpned for a footfall, ami waited for a word, 



But the beating of my own heart, was (he only sound I heard." 



I cautiously advanced among the bushes, to re- 

 connoitre, when, lo and behold! was a sight, at 

 which I stood aghast. Before me lay the skele- 

 ton forms of nine human beings. In grim 

 ghastliness, the bony structures lay bleaching in 

 the wind and sun. No anatomical operation 

 could have been more skillfully performed by 

 the professional anatomist, than had been done 

 by a fierce army of ant.s. Their sharp and ac- 

 tive mandibles soon dissect a carcass. Springing 

 from between the ulna and radius bones of the 

 fore arm of a skeleton, was a thrifty looking 

 plant of Trichomanes venosa, a very graceful lit- 

 tle fern. Its clinging rhizomes were gradually 

 creeping round the bones, and had firmly at- 

 tached its clasping roots thereto. Its beautiful 

 pinnules so extremely slender, and resting on 

 such fragile stipes, seemed to be more airy and 

 gauze-like in their delicate green, which much 

 resembled hair-lined etchings on ivory. The 

 poor wretches had evidently come to an un- 

 timely end. Scattered around lay the wom- 

 meras, waddies, boomerangs, spears and shields 

 — all wooden weapons, of the most primitive 

 kind. 



In the centre of an exceedingly fine specimen 

 of Neottopteris Austrahusica, or Bird's Nest Fern, 

 rested a fleshless skull, around which the long, 

 undivided fronds radiated, after the manner of an 

 Elizabethan frill or ruffled collar, and much like 

 the stiff muslin chevaux defrise, with wliich the 

 artist usually surrounds the face of "good Queen 

 Bess." The forbidding grimace of death's head 

 shocked me, as its eyeless socl<ets seemed to fix 

 me with a horrid stare. With a shudder, I 

 turned from " those holes where eyes did once 

 inhabit," and leaving the sickening scene, re- 

 traced my steps along the solitary wild, and was 

 soon again by the side of Patrick, my invalid 

 companion. To my inquiries regarding his 

 health, he astonished me by saying, "he never 



felt better in all his born days whenever ho 

 faced Mt. Alexandria, l)Ut whenever his face wan 

 towards it, he felt as if he was kilt, intirely." 



Abernethy, in his ever prompt and peculiar 

 way, would have treated such a case heroically, 

 no doubt. But as he had gone to the shades long 

 ago, it remained for the writer to assume the 

 role of Escidapius for once, and from his own 

 vade mecum prescribe for his suflering compan- 

 ion. The diagnostic symptoms, evidently, indi- 

 cated a ver}' severe attack of gold/ever. As our 

 stock of drugs was small, and my allopathic 

 knowledge still smaller, I concluded a ki Hahney 

 mann, to prescribe siinilia similihus curantur. 

 Reluctantly, I, with my fever-stricken friend, 

 turned again towards the gold fields. When in 

 sight of a miner's hut, we halted beneath a 

 ]\Iimusops cyanocarpus, a very curious tree. 

 The wonderful "cow tree," M. eliator, of the 

 Amazons, so frequently described by travelers, 

 is a congener, which, with M. dissecta, when 

 once seen, are trees ever to be remembered. 

 The flowers bear a striking resemblance to a 

 monkey's face. Feeling more sick and sorrow- 

 ful than my friend Patrick after a long parley, 

 I clasped his honest hand for the last time, and 

 bidding him God-speed, separated forever. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Ruined by his Greenhouses.— The Boston 

 folks should look afte^ the agent of the Asso- 

 ciated Press of their city. While sending an 

 account to every leading paper in the country of 

 the failure of one of their citizens, lie coupled it 

 with his "opinion" that tlie trouble was caused 

 by "inordinate expenditures on greenhouses." 

 The Associated Press pays for news and not for 

 opinions, especially opinions that are founded 

 on mere guesses. We venture to say that no 

 amateur's greenhouses in the United States cost 

 as much as the horses and carriages, or as 

 much as the Winter parties and other extrava- 

 gances; and though it might be contended 

 that horses save car fare and railroad rides, the 

 fruits, vegetables and flowers used in a family 

 surely save as much t\s horse-keeping does. In 

 this particular case we feel especially sifre that 

 "inordinate expenses on greenhouses" would 

 not have amounted to anything like $3000 a year, 

 which would hardly involve a man to the extent 

 of perhaps a hundred thousand dollars. 



