182 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



exact figures to hand, cases are surely known 

 exceeding this.— Ed. G. M.] 



Catalpa at Bkaver Dam, Wisconsin.— Mr. 

 Perry writes as follows: "The old Catalpa tree" 

 is probably C. bignonoides. "Catalpa speciosa 

 planted two years ago made rampant growth 

 last year— four to five feet. A little tip of unripe 

 wood, two to. three inches killed, wood bright 

 and full of sap from the first fully developed bud. 



To my mind it is hardier than the Golden Russet 

 Apple trees. I think you can safely say it is 

 hardy south of 44° or 45°. My old Catalpa bore 

 a few seed pods last year. I picked them off 

 j Saturday, 2Gth. They were from six to sixteen 

 inches long, and contained a winged wafer-like 

 seed; find a few enclosed. I never saw the 

 fruit or seed of a Catalpa before this, so cannot 

 tell whether they are perfect or not." 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTE ON THE BUZZARD. 



BY W. H. BURFORD, INDEPENDENCE, MISS. 



An old vulture, or turkey buzzard, occupied 

 the same nest for twenty years. In a certain 

 piece of woodland, on a farm now belonging to 

 the writer, is a buzzard's nest, formerly in a 

 hollow tree, but the tree was felled several years 

 ago, and the buzzard still occupies the same nest 

 in the stump. 



The former owner of the land informed me, 

 four years ago, that a buzzard had laid and 

 reared her young in that stump for sixteen years 

 in succession, and to my certain knowledge one 

 has done so for this the fourth year since, 

 making twenty years in all. She is now sitting 

 on two eggs, which is the number always laid 

 by this species. The eggs are about the size and 

 shape of the common turkey hen's egg, only a 

 little longer and more pointed, ground pure 

 white, with large, irregular splashes or spots of 

 dark red. They usually, if not always, hatch, 

 and are reared by the old one. While in their 

 infant state they are covered with a pure white 

 down, which is afterward replaced by black 

 feathers, and when all the down has disappeared 

 the bird is able to fly. 



[While the editor was in the mountains of 

 Tennessee last year, the conversation with the 

 guide turned on the habits of the buzzard, who 

 said also that they built on the ground in the 

 cover of the high rocks in the same place year 



after year. As snakes were said to abound, we 

 asked, "Do not the snakes trouble the eggs or 

 young?" ''Day doesn't want 'em, sah." "Why 

 not?" " Day smell too strong." " How do they 

 smell?" "Did yah eber smell a pup when he 

 cum out ob de water?" And then our colored 

 friend put on a smile such as those only can 

 who feel satisfied that they have completely 

 nonplussed the questioner.— Ed. G. M] 



SOUTH CAROLINA WILD FLOWERS. 



BY A CHARLESTON LADY. 



Your ''Wild Flower" correspondent in the 

 May number of your magazine, speaks of the 

 facility with which the Blood root (Sanguinaria 

 Canandensis) may be grown in a garden. 



Three or four years ago we brought in a good 

 number of roots from a beech wood in our neigh- 

 borhood. They were planted in two wide shal- 

 low wooden boxes, the bottoms of which were 

 perforated for drainage and sunk in a border. 

 Every Spring since, we have a most luxuriant 

 bloom of these pretty flowers, and at a time when 

 flowers are rare and valued. They always excite 

 the admiration of our visitors, many of whom 

 have perhaps never before seen a blood-root. 



A bed of wild pink Phlox has succeeded admir- 

 ably, being a mass of bloom long before the 

 Phlox Drummondii puts in an appearance. 



The Cactus known to us as Prickly Pear, and 

 which we find on any sandy barren, forms a 

 handsome clump in my garden. Its bright 

 yellow cups are like finest silk, succeeded in the 



