geous than those of summer, they are 

 full of refinement of detail. Theirs 

 may be a cold beauty, but it is so clear 

 cut and perfect. 



Dear reader, if you possess the 

 frame, don't let the pictures escape 

 you. Remember that any day not ab- 



solutely cloudy and dull, will furnish 

 you with a masterpiece. And even 

 after the last bright rays of the dying 

 sunlight have faded away, glance out 

 of the window again, as you pass, for 

 perhaps the calm beauty of the even- 

 ing star has a message for you too. 



GOOSE PLANT IN BLOOM. 



TT LL lovers of plants and flowers 

 fY' should visit the greenhouse at 

 2 \_ Washington Park, Chicago, 

 and see the goose plant. It 

 is growing in one of the small span- 

 roofed structures, and as seen to-day 

 there are over a dozen goslings and 

 three or four geese growing on one 

 plant. 



One of the biggest geese is over a 

 yard long and broad in proportion. 

 This plant is one of the most unique, 

 rare and valuable known to scientists. 

 Its correct name is Aristolochia gigas 

 Stirtevantii, and it was brought here for 

 the World's Fair. At the Fair, how- 

 ever, it bore only one or two flowers, as 

 it was too young to bear more. It is a 

 native of South America and even there 



is considered a marvelous product. 

 In one of the greenhouses next to 

 the goose house at Washington Park is 

 a collection of caladiums of the most 

 varied shapes and colors ever dreamed 

 of. Mr. Kanst, the head gardener, says 

 the collection has no duplicate. Many 

 of the plants have leaves as delicately 

 traced as the finest valenciennes laces. A 

 newspaper may be read if covered with 

 one of these transparent leaves. The 

 colors are all shades of red, pink, ma- 

 roon, crimson and yellow. The collec- 

 tion of water lilies is now at the best 

 and is truly beautiful. Mr. Kanst says 

 that the aquatic plants are as amen- 

 able to cultivation as are the terrestrial 

 plants. 



A special stage is that of the semi- 

 apes. Probably man's ancestors among 

 the semi-apes closely resembled the 

 existing femurs, and, like these, led a 

 quiet life climbing trees. 



These are immediately followed by 

 the true apes, or simians. It has long 

 been beyond doubt that of all animals 

 the apes are in all respects the most 

 nearly allied to man. Just as on the 

 one side the lowest apes approach very 

 near to lemurs, so on the other side do 

 the highest apes most closely resemble 

 man. 



The difference between man and the 

 highest form of apes, the gorilla, is 

 slighter than between the gorilla and 



the baboon. Below even the baboon,, 

 the oldest parent form of the whole ape 

 group must certainly have been thickly 

 covered with hair, and was, in fact, a 

 tailed ape. 



It is, after all, some satisfaction tO' 

 know that a thousand million years 

 may have been consumed in this evolu- 

 tion of man. 



The heron seldom flaps his wings at 

 a rate less than 120 to 150 times a min- 

 ute. This is counting the downward 

 strokes only, so that the bird's wings 

 really make from 240 to 300 distinct 

 movements a minute. 



210 



