82 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
of leaves and they have established themselves as though nature 
had planted them. 
I have devoted a chapter to fern pools and there are two of 
them in this bit of forest. In the upper one, which is not badly 
infested with land crabs, I have a great variety of exotic ferns 
and other shade and moisture loving vegetation. Down one 
side of this pool I have worked out an irregular, sloping path 
which leads to a seat also worked out in the wall of the pool, and 
from the seat it turns and goes down to the water. In this seat 
I often sit and visit with the plants, the fish and tadpoles in the 
pool, and the various little woodsy people that come toit. Birds 
come to drink and look curiously at the old man. Mud wasps 
hang about the water and make up balls of limy mud which 
they bear off to build their nests with. 
This pool is a great resort for butterflies and there is rarely a 
time when the sun is shining that some of them are not hovering 
about it. Conspicuous among them is Heliconius charitonius, a 
lovely, slender winged species of a jet black with diagonal yellow 
bars. Sometimes fifty or more of them may be seen on the wing 
moving about with a peculiar trembling flight. When at rest 
they hang themselves up by the feet, allowing the wings to drop 
down; the color of the lower sides of the wings often fades, and | 
in this position they look exactly as though they were dead. I 
have seen a dozen or more of them clinging to a dead twig, a 
habit no doubt adopted as a means of protection from enemies. 
The family is widely distributed and abundant in the American 
Tropics but this species is its only representative in the United 
States. Occasionally the dainty Comptie butterfly (Eummenia 
atala) drifts into the forest, though for the most part it prefers 
the open, and yellow and orange Catopsilias and some of the 
great Papilios visit the pool. Several other rare tropical forms, 
some of which are supposed not to occur in this country, are 
occasionally seen here. 
The birds are perfectly at home here and have increased in 
numbers since I have lived on this place. I am sure that they 
understand,that they are welcome and that they are safe with 
me from the guns of hunters. They flit about and peer curiously 
but wholly unafraid at the old, white bearded man who sits in 
