February 13, 1975. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



143 



quently, the lives of all the sparrows of the kingdom be placed 

 in jeopardy, I will array myself on Mr. Abbey's side, and 

 endeavour to state a few plain facta, which I trust will deter 

 some enthusiasts of the chassi' a la mart from entirely banish- 

 ing sparrows from their places. The principal question is : 

 Does the good they do compensate for the alleged mischief ? 

 I have watched the doings of these little birds in this and 

 other countries, and I do not for a moment assert their inno- 

 cence of the crime of eating Goosebury buds, but never to an 

 alarming extent. A few bright-coloured shreds hung on the 

 bushes will usually keep them at a respectful distance. The 

 destruction of seeds they are charged with is not to be compared 

 to that of chadinches, which are most determined seed-eaters. 



If anyone takes the trouble to notice the kind of food the 

 sparrows feed their young with, they will see that it consists 

 of larv.i\ ants, caterpillars, beetles, woi'ms, ,V-C., and it is 

 estimated that to satisfy those hungry little ones requires 

 weekly at least three thousand of the above-named insects, 

 because from my own observation each of the old ones carries 

 food to the nest no less than twenty times per hour. This 

 wholesale destruction of innumerable noxious insects is, to 

 say the least, an equivalent for a few fruit buds. I would re- 

 commend, where sparrows really abound in alarming numbers, 

 to destroy part of the young before they are fledged. By that 

 method you ensure the destruction of a large number of insects, 

 and at the same time keep the sparrows within bounds. 



I will conclude with the following fact, which will speak for 

 itself: — Frederick the Great, as is well known, was a great 

 epicure of Cherries, but could not obtain them in sufficient 

 quantities from his gardens at Potsdam on account of the 

 depredations committed on them by sparrows. He determined 

 on the utter extirpation of these birds. Sixpence was paid for 

 every couple brought in, and in course of a few months not a 

 sparrow was to be seen for many miles round. 



What was the consequence of this war? The great king 

 not only had no Cherries, but no other fruit, the trees were 

 covered with caterpillars, fruitless and nearly leafless. Seeing 

 that he could not violate a law of Nature with impunity, he 

 rescinded the order, and was even compelled to import large 

 numbers of those little Cherry fanciers at a great cost. 



In reply to " Aoe," I would state th.at sparrows have been 

 sent to New Zealand some years ago, where they have suffi- 

 ciently multiplied to auswer all necessary purposes. — A. Wipf, 

 Heiffliington Hall Gurdciif!. 



I A3I no advocate for destroying life, but when it becomes a 

 nuisance I believe we are authorised to use our judgment in 

 taking away life. 



Notwithstanding all the praise lavished on the sparrow by 

 Mr. Abbey (and I look on him as an authority), my experience 

 tends in an opposite direction. I had much rather my young 

 Peas, Lettuces, and the like were left alone than picked to 

 pieces by sparrows, to say nothing of them in connection with 

 the bud question. I have seldom known early Peas and winter 

 Lettuces attacked by caterpillars, but I have known them 

 much injured by sparrows. This is not all their mischief, for 

 when you are anxiously looking for gathering your Peas you 

 often find them gathered for you, and on approaching the place 

 you see the sparrows go, and your Peas with them. It is all 

 very well to talk about a dusting of lime, a red thread, a net, 

 and the like, but birds will be fed. It may be that persons 

 like Mr. Abbey may have men and means at command, but 

 there are hundreds that have not, and it is the latter class that 

 suffer most from the depredations of the feathered tribe. 



There ought to be a very large margin left between great 

 and small means. I have had the good fortune to be placed 

 in at least one place where Ivy was a prevailing feature, afford- 

 ing abundance of shelter fcr the sparrows, and from experience 

 I know more of them than I care to tell. I know they will 

 cat caterpillars and buds too, but they prefer Veitch's Perfec- 

 tion Peas in a young state. 



I endorse Mr. AUcock's sentiment, and say Catch them and 

 kill them. I had rather contend with the caterpillars than 

 have both caterpillars and sparrows to fight against. — H. 



VEGETABLE INSECT-EATERS. 

 The genera known as insectivorous are eight i number — 

 Cephalotus, Darlingtonia, Diontea, Drosera, IK4iamphora, 

 Nepenthes, Pinguioula, and Sarraeenia. Of these, Darhng- 

 tonia, Hionasa, Drosera, and Sarraeenia have been most care- 

 fully watched. So far as is known, Ellis, au American botanist 



and collector who lived near a hundred years ago, was the 

 first to notice that the entrapping of insects by Diourea was 

 anything more than accidental. Tbese observations and some 

 others that were made about the same time were published in 

 the Transactions of the Liunioan Society in 1813, but did not 

 then attract much attention, being generally discredited by 

 botanists. 



The observations of Mrs. Mary Treat of Vineland, New 

 Jersey, are the most recent, as well as among the most thorough 

 that have been made on these curious plants. In the mouth 

 of May last she received from Dr. Wood of Wilmington, N.C., 

 some thirty fine specimens of the Dionasa muscipula, and 

 placed them at once in separate pots, numbering each and keep- 

 ing a careful diary from the outset. 



When an insect is entrapped a slimy secretion begins to 

 ooze from the inside of the leaf, and in a day or two envelopes 

 the insect's body. After a period of several days the insect 

 disappears, with the exception, perhaps, of some hard parts, 

 which are ejected, and the leaf re-opeus if it is healthy, to 

 receive another victim. Such being the modus operandi in 

 general terms, Mrs. Treat proceeded to make more careful 

 observations. She found that the leaves and plants differed 

 greatly in their powers of assimilation. Some leaves were un- 

 able to digest even a single fly, while others disposed of three 

 successively, but never could manage a fourth. When a leaf 

 has done its duty in contributing nutriment to the parent stem 

 it dies, and is replaced by another or others. The leaves were 

 not restricted to a uniform diet. Mrs. Treat tested them with 

 beetles, spiders (of the daddy-longlegs variety), etc., and even 

 sat for some two hours with her little finger in one of the leaves. 

 This last experiment was unsatisfactory, as for some reason 

 her nerves refused, much to her regret, to let her remain a 

 prisoner long enough to be even partially digested. The leaf 

 had, however, begun to exude its digestive fluid, as if it 

 would have been quite pleased with a human victim had it 

 been big enough. Beetles and other hard-winged insects were 

 digested by some of the stronger leaves, the operation requir- 

 ing in some cases as much as two weeks. The strongest plant 

 in the collection caught in all forty insects between May and 

 October, and digested most of them, but this was accomplished 

 by successive sets or relays of leaves. Insects removed alter 

 two or three hours of confinement sometimes recovered, but if 

 they were left long enough to become covered with the slimy 

 secretion they always died, although in some cases the secre- 

 tion was carefully washed off. Such in brief are tome of Mrs. 

 Treat's conclusions. 



In the case of Drosera, natives of the Northern States of 

 America, she found that while the leaves would close over bits 

 of beef and the like, they would take no noticp of dry mineral 

 substances, and seemed doubtful about fruit. If, however, 

 a fly were fastened within, say. hall an inch of a leaf, it would 

 begin to reach toward it, and usually made fast within two hours. 



Mr. Darwin has found that the digestive secretion has an 

 acid reaction like that of the gastric juice of animals, a dis- 

 covery which doubtless gave him great satisfaction. He like- 

 wise thought that he proved the existence of nerve points in 

 the bristles which border the edges of the leaves. Other ob- 

 servers who are disciples of the evolutionists have noticed 

 electrical currents induced by the closing of the traps, such as 

 follow muscular action in animals. 



Some of the genera referred to, such, for instance, as Sarra- 

 eenia, have tube-like leaves lined with inward-pointing bristles. 

 These leaves are baited with a sweetish fluid, which attracts 

 wingless insects within the tube, and they are unable to climb 

 out. So, also, winged insects encounter the introverted hairs 

 in their efforts to escape, and they, too, fall into the little pool 

 of deadly fluid at the bottom of the tube. Of this tubular 

 structure, also, are Darlingtonia, Nepenthes, and Cephalotus. 

 The other genera enumerated at the beginning of this paper 

 have leaves which roll themselves together with their prey 

 inside, or are divided in two parts like a clam-shell, these 

 remaining wide open when ready for a victim, but closing 

 firmly together and interlacing the marginal spines, which, 

 according to Darwin, may be rudimentary nerve-points, as 

 soon as an insect alights on the sensitive surface. — (Medico- 

 Pharmaceutical Eevieii'.) 



THE LIME OR LINDEN TREE (Tilia europ.sa). 

 This is one of the most beautiful and most useful of our 

 forest trees. P.'anted singly it is a tall graceful object, and an 

 avenue of Limes, as is to be seen in the Cathedral yard at 



