I lo NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



longer emit their refined musky odor in 

 the morning, but the fruit makes spots of 

 gorgeous orange against the dulling leaves. 

 Chrysanthemums and cosmos are coming 

 to flower, and dandelions are putting up a 

 second crop. The little sheep-sorrel that 

 is red in the spring is likewise red in the 

 fall, and is one of the few plants that have 

 vivacity in town. Certain of the lesser 

 things have vanished. The gradual but 

 utter disappearance of many plants after 

 flowering is one of the oddest and most 

 unaccountable things in nature. There is 

 the little Scleranthus annuus, for example : 

 where does it go ? 



I have mentioned our toads. They were 

 brought home from the suburbs in a botany- 

 box while young so young they could 

 have been put into a walnut-shell. Their 

 fare of insects has been so plentiful that they 

 have waxed fat, the first inhabitant hav- 

 ing taken on almost unseemly proportions. 

 The ability of the fellow to disappear is 

 surprising. You beat about the bush, as 

 it were, and turn the leaves, but he never 

 shows up until he is good and ready, when 



