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BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



We nevermore expect to behold them in troops, as of 

 yore in their native bog. 



The passion for utilitarian improvements threatens 

 all our natural beauty. To the botanist and bird- 

 lover a swamp is the most valuable part of a farm, 

 and a wayside thicket is veritable riches. Let us heed 

 the Call of the Wild. We cannot have birds if we 

 cut down every bush by the road and railway track, 

 and no cultivation will ever transform a bog or 

 rocky ledge into anything half so inviting as its natu- 

 ral covering of chance-sown vegetation. Mown lawns 

 are good to walk on, the same as concrete sidewalks, 

 but the birds care as much for one as the other ; while 

 the passion for cutting and scraping bids fair to de- 

 stroy all our woodsy dells with their wealth of lichens 

 and creepers. Probably a new generation of Nature- 

 lovers must be educated before people learn that it is 

 easy to trim and shave, but the old takes a long time 

 to grow; and that a natural woods is more to be de- 

 sired than a clipped park. 



To return to our orchids: Much of the Turkey 

 Pond region is still so inaccessible that it may be safe 

 to mention it as the home of the habenarias. Here 

 has been found the large, purple-fringed orchis, H. 

 fimbriata, which blossoms in July, a spike at once so 



