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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



the continent to a most extraordinary extent, and 

 this provision is intended to check it, the act re- 

 citing — that in consequence of such destruction 

 it had been found that vegetation greatly suffered. 

 Almost all the thick-billed birds which eat corn 

 and seeds will also prey upon caterpillars, insects, 

 and larvae. In fact it is difficult to name a single 

 bird which does not do as much good as harm. 

 The bullfinch is perhaps a plague. Walk out 

 quietly among your plum-trees, and you will see 

 every now and then two or three of these birds 

 quietly crushing the blossoming buds all over the 

 tree ; but these birds are not over numerous. 

 Wood-pigeons have increased of late years, so as 

 to become a nuisance ; they will shear off entire 

 rows of peas as clean as a rabbit. The two latter- 

 named birds do not, as far as I am aware, compen- 

 sate for the mischief they do. The preservation 

 of game, causing the extirpation of nearly all the 

 birds and animals of prey, have immensely in- 

 creased the numbers of the feathered tribes, and 

 at the same time in a great measure stopped the 

 predatory incursions of the bird-nester in our fields 

 and woods. Thus the equilibrium of check and 

 counter-check, which in such things constitutes 

 the economy of nature, is somewhat interfered 

 with.— I. 



Our Native Flowers. — Perhaps no one of your 

 readers would dissent from the proposition that 

 beauty, not rarity, is the first quality to be desired 

 in the tenants of our parterres ; and, for ourselves, 

 we have no he station in saying, that that gardener 

 should not have the direction of our flower-borders 

 who rejected the beautiful, because it was common, 

 to make room for the more insignificant, merely 

 because it was scarce. No ; we prefer, before all 

 other considerations, beauty of color, beauty of 

 form, and excellence of fragrance. Moreover, we 

 are not of those who admire most that which costs 

 most ; but, on the contrary, we should be best de- 

 lighted to save every guinea we could from being 

 expended upon the tenants of our out-door depart- 

 ments, in order that we might have that guinea to 

 spare upon our stove and greenhouse, the denizens 

 in which must, beyond escape, be excellent, in 

 proportion to their costliness. We make these 

 observations, because we happen to know that 

 effects the most beautiful may be obtained by 

 the aid of our native plants. We have seen 

 rustic seats looking gay, yet refreshing, from 

 their profuse clothing of our Vinca minor and 

 major; and we will venture to wager a Persian 

 melon against a pompion, that half the amateiir 

 gardeners of England would not recognise these 

 flowers in their cultivated dwelling-place. Again, 

 if any one wishes to have the soil beneath his shrub- 

 beries gladsome in early spring, let him introduce 

 that pretty page-like flower, the wood anemone, 

 to wave and flourish over the primroses and violets. 

 Let him have there, also, and in his borders too, 

 the blue and the white forget-me-not, Myosotis 

 palustris and M. Alba. We will venture the same 

 wager, that not a tithe of your readers ever saw 

 that last-named gay little native. Mr. Paxton's 

 observation applies to them both, when he says, 

 as a border-flower it has a very high characteristic 

 — it only requires planting in a moist soil, slightly 

 sheltered and shaded, to become a truly brilliant 

 object ; it is equally good for forcing, very valu- 



able for bouquets, and alike fit for windows, green- 

 houses, borders, and beds. Under favorable culti- 

 vation, its blossoms increase in size nearly one- 

 half. The plants only required to be divided an- 

 nually, and to have the flower-spikes cut off as the 

 lower-florets decay. By thus preventing their seed- 

 ing, a very protracted display of bloom is obtained. 

 These are not a hundredth part of the native flowers 

 which might be introduced with the happiest effect 

 into our gardens. — George Glenn y. 



Australia ; two sides to every Question. — The 

 climate of Australia has been much lauded in our 

 Journal, and no doubt, the climate, at certain 

 seasons, is lovely. But is it always so ? Listen ! 

 Mr. W. Howitt, writing from the Ovens Diggings, 

 says : — " The season has been frightfully unhealthy, 

 and the journey to the gold-fields has been fatal 

 to many. Thousands have been struck down by 

 sickness ; hundreds have already returned, cursing 

 the parties who sent them such one-sided state- 

 ments of the gold-fields and the climate . Hundreds 

 were still lying ill from the insidious influence of 

 this ' fine, salubrious climate.' In a letter just 

 received from Melbourne, I hear that scarcely a 

 soul there but has been ill, and all up the country 

 it is the same. Gentlemen who have been in 

 India, China, and over the whole continents of 

 Europe, and America, say that this is the worst 

 climate they know. Without any apparent cause 

 people are everywhere attacked with dysentery, 

 rheumatism, cramp, and influenza. All this 

 ought to be fully and fairly stated. One-sided 

 statements are a dishonest procedure — ' a delusion, 

 a mockery, and a snare.' The little black fly of 

 Australia is a perfect devil. The grass-seeds in 

 summer, which pierce your legs like needles, will 

 actually run through the sheep-skins into the flesh 

 of the sheep, and into their lungs, and kill them ; 

 but this is more particularly the case with the 

 seed-spikes of a wild geranium, which act like 

 corkscrews. The dust winds, and the violent 

 variations of the atmosphere — often of no less than 

 100 degrees in a day — these are nuisances which 

 ought to be well-known. A deal is said about 

 sending out 3'oung women to marry men in the 

 bush. God help such young women as marry 

 the greater portion of such fellows as the common 

 class here. Their very language is perfectly 

 measled with obscenity and the vilest oaths and 

 the basest phraseology, and they drink all they 

 can get. In short, this is a country to come to, 

 as people go to India, to make money; as to 

 spending it here, that, under present circumstances, 

 would require different tastes to those of most 

 cultivated men and women. The greatest thing 

 that can be said of this country is, that the better 

 classes are so exceedingly kind and hospitable, 

 and, considering their isolated lives, not deficient 

 in general information. I am sure we shall always 

 have occasion to remember the kindness of the 

 inhabitants of the bush. Every house, if we had 

 desired it, would have opened itself to us as a 

 home, and, but for bush kindness, I should, 

 perhaps, not have been writing this." — Do, Mr. 

 Editor, print this little extract. It may do some 

 real good. It can do no harm. — Rebecca J. 



[The accounts now arriving from Australia are 

 terrific — really no other word is suitable to express 

 one's sentiments. If thousands are going out, 



