THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



A FEW COMMON FLOWERS. 



BY C. B. HASKELL, KENNEBUNK, ME. 



Although it is rather early in the season, per- 

 haps some of the readers of the Ornithologist 

 AND Botanist would like to know a little about 

 the flowers of this county of Maine. In my 

 experience as a botanist, I have collected more 

 specimens of the heath family (Ericaceje) than 

 any other. Of this class, the blueberry (Vaccin- 

 ium I is the most common, there being three varie- 

 ties, viz., high bush, low bush and swamp blue- 

 berries. These berries are very nice eating 

 with sugar, and " awful nice " when a little cream 

 is added. 



Another very interesting family of plants in 

 these parts is the Orchidacese. Of this kind 

 there are about eight varieties in the state of 

 Maine. I have collected five of them, namely 

 the Cypripedium acaule or ladies' slipper, the 

 Arethusa bulbosa or fragrant arethusa, the Spir- 

 anthes gracilis or slender ladies' tresses, the 

 S. cernua and the Calopogon or grass pink. 



The ladies' slipper is a large red flower grow- 

 ing on a straight stalk surrounded by two acute 

 lily-shaped leaves. 1 have found white ones, 

 but these are very rare. The arethusa is a very 

 handsome fragrant plant growing from six to 

 eight inches high in plots of from fifty to five- 

 hundred flowers. The others mentioned are 

 pretty and possess many characteristics of the 

 other orchids. 



The Violaceae is represented here by four 

 varieties, Viola blanda, V. cucullata, V. lance- 

 olata and V. cordata. Another very interesting 

 flower is the Trillium crythrocarpum, a member 

 of the Trilliaceje. Read about it in Gray's. 



BOBWHITE. 



( Ortyx Virginius.\ 



BY JAMES HILL, EDINBURGH, ILL. 



This bird is ten inches in length the wing 

 being about four and one half inches long. The 

 bill is stout, head without a crest and tail short. 

 In color, above it is brownish-red, the under parts 

 being white. The head is beautifully marked 

 with pure white and black. 



The nest is built in a tuft of dry grass, gener- 



ally, and a small hole is made through which to 

 enter. The nest is an oval structure and often 

 securely hidden. 



The eggs are pure white and from ten to twenty 

 are laid. I have known nests to contain thirty 

 eggs and upward; I suppose more than one fe- 

 male deposited her eggs in such nests. 



This bird is very common here after a mild 

 winter. During the winter of '88 the quails 

 were captured in large quantities; and in '89 we 

 had a mild winter and they were quite common. 

 When large storms come, and it snows for many 

 days, they huddle together and are often covered 

 with snow and so die of starvation. Many 

 others are caught in the coveys. 



This quail often seeks the habitations of man 

 as if for protection and the nest is often placed 

 by the roadside. I found one nest, this year, 

 placed within twenty-five yards of a house, and 

 on the outside of the road-fence no more than 

 five feet from the centre of travel. This bird 

 has been domesticated successfully. 'I'he young 

 leave the nest as soon as hatched. Ortyx Vir- 

 ginianus belongs to the order, Gallinse (hen 

 birds), and as it closely resembles the herbage 

 it frequents, is extremely hard to see, 



ADAPTABILITY OF NATURE. 



BY MRS. S. E. ROESSLEK, NEW HAVEN,CONN. 



The adaptability of everything in Nature, is 

 interesting. Those flowers which are fertilized 

 by night-flying insects, are not open by day; those 

 fertilized by bees, would gain nothing by being 

 open by night. Does not the closing of flowers 

 have reference to the habits of insects ? Acord- 

 ing to Sir John Lubbock — wind-fertilized flow- 

 ers never sleep. 



Arctic explorers tell us that flowering plants 

 are never found witnin the Antarctic circle. In 

 the Arctic region, there are seyen hundred and 

 sixty-two kinds of bloomls; fifty of these being 

 really polar flowers. In color these are mostly 

 whitg. 



In Rio, an orchid incrusts the wires of the 

 telegraph and causes leakage. In Japan, the 

 webs of the large spiders interrupt traffic. In 

 Norway, a species of wood-pecker perforates 

 the poles. 



