THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



The Spy Qlass is a new monthly mag- 

 azine of twenty pages, published by 

 Greene and Balliet, Arkansas City, Kan. 

 It is devoted to all the sciences and has 

 our best wishes for its success. 



Oiur Dumb Animals, published at 19 

 Milk St., Boston, Mass., deserves to be 

 read by every boy and girl in America. 

 A wide perusal of its pages would do 

 much to lessen the suffering of "'those 

 that cannot speak for themselves." 



We have received from the publishers 

 of the Aluminum Age several of the 

 aluminum souvenirs, given away with 

 subscriptions to that paper. The souve- 

 nirs are octajoaal pieces of pure alum- 

 inum on which is the Lord's Prayer in 

 the smallest space ever coined. The 

 paper is a sixtean-page monthly devot- 

 ed to the interests of metal workers and 

 should be read hj all interested in the 

 new metal aluininum. It is published 

 by the Aluminum Age Publishing Co., 

 Newport, Ky. 



The result of Mr. Walter Raines col- 

 lecting trip to the north-west, is a vol- 

 ume entitled " Bird-Nesting in North- 

 west Canada " which will be issued in 

 October. It will describe the nests and 

 eggs of many of our rare northern birds. 

 . All ornithologists will be pleased to 

 know that we are soon to have a new 

 edition of Nuttall's famous ornithology. 

 The work has been carefully revised by 

 Mr. Montague Chamberlain, who has 

 retained everything of value in the 

 original work and added much new 

 matter. The descriptions of plumage 

 have also been re-written. The work 

 will be issued in two well-illustrated 

 volumes ' ' Land Birds " and ' ' Game 

 and Water Birds" and will be out of press 

 in November. 



GENTIANS. 



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



The writer was much interested in tlie 



editorial on autumn iiora, in the Sep- 

 tember number of this magazine. Three 

 of the-species of gentian there alluded to 

 flourish in the swamps and by the 

 country waysides of my native state. 

 The two species, the blossoms of which 

 have closed corollas, fringe the pastures 

 and water ways, while the fringed var- 

 iety nestles by rail fences or hides 

 amid the hedge shrubs. 



The writer once found a white fringed 

 gentian, but wh'^ther it was a variety, 

 or only a bleached specimen, being 

 shadowed by higher plants, remains an 

 enigma. The blue blossoms are among 

 our latest wildings. Once after the 

 frosts had blighted the fields I foiiad a 

 cluster of these flowers bright and smil- 

 ing, almost lost in the angle of a pas- 

 ture fence. This plant may be almost 

 christened an aquatic, being found with 

 brook mints and cardinal flowers. 



One often meets tourists from the 

 Green and White Mountains, with bas- 

 kets full of gentians, as sweet remind- 

 ers of their outings. By this one can 

 judge these flowers are plentiful all 

 through New England. 



I have often placed a vase of these 

 buds by a closed window, and there the 

 flowers opened in the sun light, and re- 

 mained for several days in full beauty. 

 This is a drowsy blossom, the fringed 

 eyelids only unclose to greet full light. 

 By placing a vase, filled with these 

 closed flowers, under the gas fixture, of 

 an evening, it is very interesting to 

 watch them unclose and make believe 

 it is day. The gentians tourists tell of, 

 that flourish amid the Alps, are quite 

 different frona those that we gather in 

 our lowlands. 



It sometimes seems as if our New 

 England flora is growing less, year by 

 year. Many interested in botanical 

 studies, carry away root and branch, 

 scarcely leaving enough for seedlings. 

 In my school days, fields and meadows 

 were ever gay with a continual change 

 of blooms, now many species are extinct. 



—A, 



wmmm 



imm&m»mm. 



