SEPTEMBER 35 



bales bringing goods from bot countries, wbich in dry 

 summers are batched out in tbese nortbern climates. 

 One summer my Sedums were covered witb a lovely 

 green beetle. I bave never seen bim again, but I am 

 too ignorant to know if be were a stranger or only an 

 insect common in our gardens and appearing in some 

 summers and not in otbers — a usual occurrence witb all 

 insects. Sometimes tbere are a quantity of one kind, 

 tbey having triumphed over their natural enemies and 

 flourished abundantly. Then for a year or two tbey 

 disappear entirely. This is an especial characteristic 

 of butterflies. I thought there might be some way of 

 encouraging butterflies in my garden, where they seem 

 to have become rarer, and I asked a friend, who has 

 studied natural history all bis life, whether be could help 

 me to do this. His answer was : ' The way to bave 

 butterflies is to encourage the food -plants of the cater- 

 pillar.' He added: ' Fortunately, our three handsomest 

 English butterflies feed on the nettle — the Peacock, the 

 Small Tortoisesbell, and the Red Admiral. The Purple 

 Emperor is too rare for consideration.' I, being a 

 gardener before all things, did not think it was at all 

 fortunate that their natural food was nettles. I bad 

 spent my whole life in eradicating nettles, so it is 

 perhaps not astonishing if butterflies bave become less 

 in my garden. 



We bave had a great many flgs this year, and tbey 

 bave ripened well. No doubt they do better since we 

 bave removed suckers and the small autumn figs that 

 never ripen here. It is curious how few people in Eng- 

 land realize that, apparently, the flg never flowers, and 

 that what we caU the fruit is the flower. Male and 

 female mixed are inside the flg, which when it enlarges 

 forms the receptacle and encloses numerous one -seeded 

 carpels imbedded in its pulp. This may be seen quite 



