278 



THE FLOfiAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



very pretty pot plant; and Selaginella Willdenovii, which sums up 

 the whole list. There is no doubt but you will be able to make a 

 very suitable selection of ferns and mosses from the list I have drawn 

 up, and with proper attention to watering and shading, I am sure 

 you will be successful. The cultivation of ferns has a peculiar 

 charm for some people, and there is much to be said in their favovir, 

 for there are always the charms of grace and beauty to delight the 

 eye in their presence before us. 



(To be continued.) 



INVADERS, VISITORS, AND SETTLERS IN OUR 



GARDENS. 



(Continued from page 236.) 



|E will now describe what may be thought, perhaps, to be 

 the very ugliest of all the dwellers in our gardens, and 

 yet it is one who has much in its life that is very curious. 

 It has, in fact, a sort of double life, being at first an 

 inhabitant of some pond in the neighbourhood of the 

 garden where it is found, in form very like a fish, and feeding on 

 water plants, and afterwards becoming a land animal, and requiring 

 for its support flies, slugs, small beetles, and worms. We know him 

 best when, as a frog, he sits under the shelter of some large cabbage 

 or rhubarb leaf, or among the strawberry plants in our gardens, 

 careful not to expose himself to the heat or light of the sun, for he 

 likes shade and dampness as much as a snail; in fact, his life 

 depends on keeping his skin moist, and he would die were he to 

 be exposed to the heat of the sun, so as to have his skin dried up. 

 There he sits, grave and ugly ; his prominent eyes on the look out 



for any living creature on the wing that may come near, and with his 

 great mouth ready to open like a trap, and his long tongue prepared 

 to dart out to capture the prey ! 



The frog, though it has four legs, is not classed with quadrupeds, 

 but with reptiles. It is said to be amphibious, which means having 

 " both lives " — one on land and the other in water. In early spring 

 the eggs of the frog may be seen in large clusters in ponds, like 

 transparent beads, with a black dot in the middle, and in April the 

 creature we call a tadpole is hatched from them. At first it is lik« 

 a tiny fish with gills outside its head, but these soon disappear, and 

 nothing is to be seen but a round body, like a head and stomach in 

 one, and a long tail (Fig. 1). It feeds on the plants which grow 



