rSg6. 



GARDENING. 



313 



LOMARIA GIBBA BLECHNOIDES 



pected activity of the wood pewee, whose 

 customary drooping mein and drawling 

 plaint, gives no hint ot capability lor the 

 sudden dart and ensuing somersault in 

 mid air that the approach of unsuspect- 

 ing insects occasions; to count a thrush's 

 greenish blue eggs in a nest nicely bal- 

 anced on a raspberry cane; to look into 

 the mouths of a brood of song sparrows, 

 gaping as if for dentist's inspection, and 

 nesting in the open lawn apparently 

 wholly unprotected from enemies, and, in 

 truth, eventually crushed out ot existence 

 by a horse's foot; to observe the ludi- 

 crously solemn aspect of a flicker, stand- 

 ing upon a chimney-pot and peering 

 down, evidenth' pondering the adapta- 

 bility ot the contrivance to nesting re- 

 qui ements; to consider the neatness with 

 which chi ppy coils his horse-hair mattress, 

 to glow with martial ardor at the roll of 

 a hair>' woodpecker's drum; to speculate 

 upon the stability of a bough weighted 

 down by a flock 'uf purple grackles; to 

 secure a glimpse of the gorgeous livery of 

 a passing red-headed woodpecker; to 

 assist as spectators, now at an exhibition 

 of acrobatism by a white-breasted nut- 

 hatch while exploring cracks and cran- 

 nies in a rough-barked locust, anr" again 

 at a display of agility in parallel-bar 

 feats by chicadees on pendulous outer- 

 most twigs; to mark the characteristic 

 habits of the little brown creeper starting 

 at the base of a tree and winding spirally 

 up to sweep down with a graceful under- 

 curve to the loot of a near-by trunk, and 

 so again and again. All these pleasant 

 sights, and more, the family were invited 

 to observe. Were they thereby stimu- 

 lated to a desire to study birds? Not a 

 bit of it. Next season tbund them as be- 

 fore with interest responsive to prodding, 

 but with their stock of bird-lore, likewise, 

 at the original low-water mark. 



To a bird-lover such indifference is un- 

 accountable. He regards birds as much 

 a part of the garden as flowers. Indeed 

 why is a bird not a sort of animated 

 flower? It is highly colored and, in a 

 sense, grows on tree or shrul). If it pos- 

 sess song and flight, are not these attri- 

 butes additional attractions only? That 



birds are helpful to the tiller of the soil is 

 doubtful. They untiuestionablj- destroj- 

 countless injurious insects, but with calm 

 impartiality, probably devour equal num- 

 bers of beneficent ones. Some birds like- 

 wise nibble at buds, peek at fruit and 

 strip the bark from trees. 



Opinion among so-called experts, re- 

 garding the function of birds in nature is, 

 at present undergoing constant modifica- 

 tion. Ornithologists have proved that 

 hawks, owls and crows, at least, are not 

 the immoderate chicken, bird or grain 

 consumers they have borne the odium of 

 being, but that their principal pabulum 

 is moles and insects. Hence the claim is 

 made that thej' deserve protection, not 

 extermination. 



Robins are too unblushing offenders to 

 permit a successful denial of fruit-eating 

 proclivities. But the plea is here urged 

 that their enormous destruction of worms 

 and insects more than offsets the mischief 

 they do. And, to guard against their 

 depredations, the use of nets or the em- 

 ployment of small boys with clappers has 

 been suggested. What will provide 

 against the small boy's raids remains to 

 be discussed. The object, here, however, 

 is not to investigate the agency of birds 

 or consider whether it be good or evil. 

 The only desire is to emphasize the fact, 

 in so far as the limits of a short article 

 allows, that birds, in greater or less 

 numbers resort to every garden; and to 

 persuade flower-lovers that a knowledge 

 of birds, and a habit of intelligentlT ob- 

 serving them will add much to garden 

 life, and that, too, not only in the hey- 

 day of summer, but also when other 

 pleasurable garden-sights are few. 



JflFflN PERSlMi«0N5. 



These are of no use about New Vork; 

 it is perfectly useless to try to grow them 

 in this latitude. I have tried now for five 

 years, and while I have had some fruit 

 none ever ripened, and usually the trees 

 die down every winter. 



New York. Wm. H. S. Wool. 



At Dosoris we had them and they lived 



well enough and without dying down in 

 winter, but they made very little growth, 

 and while they set fruit every year and it 

 swelled and colored a little, it never 

 amounted to anj'thing, not even becoming 

 palatable. But we are on the wrong 

 track altogether, the Japan persimmons 

 (probably they are not natives of Japan 

 at all, but of China) that we have in our 

 American gardens are the same that are 

 cultivated in the south of Japan; those 

 that are found in northern Japan and 

 which we might expect to be perfectly 

 hardy in New York,arenot in cultivation 

 here at all. Observe what Professor C. 

 S. Sargent says in his "Forest Flora of 

 Japan": "In central and northern Japan 

 the variety which produces large, orange- 

 colored, ovate, thick-skinned fruit is the 

 only one planted, and the cultivation of 

 the red-fruited varieties with which we 

 have become acquainted in this country 

 is confined to the south. * ♦ * Diospyros 

 Kaki, or an allied species, is hardy in 

 Peking, with a climate similar to that of 

 New England, and fully as trying to plant 

 life; it fruits in southern Yezo and deco- 

 rates every garden in the elevated pro- 

 vinces of central Japan, where the winter 

 climate is intensely cold. There appears, 

 therefore, to be no reason why it should 

 not flourish in New England, if plants of 

 a northern race can be obtained; and, so 

 far as climate is concerned, the tree, 

 which, in the central mountain districts 

 of Hondo, covers itself with fruit year 

 after year, will certainly succeed in all 

 our Alleghany region from Pennsylvania 

 southward. * * The northern Kaki, 

 the tree of Peking and the gardens of 

 central Japan, has probably not yet been 

 tried in this country." 



A Prettv Blle Flower.— J. A. L , 

 .\kron, Ohio, sends us seeds ot "a pretty 

 blue flower. I have had it for sevcal 

 years in my bed of perennials, where it 

 comes u]) every year from seed." It is 

 Asperula selosa. a neat and pretty little 

 .-mnual, but one that isn't at all showy. 

 It sclfsows itself with the freedom of 

 coreopsis or petunias. 



