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 to it. 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 



