Januaby 20, 1912 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



57 



. 'I 



1' 



bat" 



■ 



t. 



1F> 



;in2 



wilde 



but rather an 



need not be a 

 arrangement on natural lines of some of tlie 



more ornamental^ liardy plants and slirubs 

 not largely employed in otlier parts of the 

 grounds. A wild garden is capable of being 

 made extremely beautiful, for the number 

 of plants and bulbs suitaWe for its embel- 

 lishment is sufficient to make it more or less 



An un- 



a 



attractive at all .seasons o-f the year, 

 dulating area is the best for such a garden, 

 and if it contains a few epecimen trees 

 foundation exists for a picturesque and beau- 

 tiful feature. Should there be water within 

 or near the wild garden that will admit of 

 an irregular stream being made to wind 

 through fit, th^ general effect will be greatly 

 enhanced. Moreover, if the stream can be 

 widened here and there to form pools, it 

 would provide suitable positions for a con- 

 siderable number of aquatic and. bog plants. 

 Among suitable subjects for a wild garden 

 are Japanese maples, roses dn variety, rlio- 

 d€-dendrons, ericas, rubus, cystisus, vitis, 

 hardy ibamboo^, yuccas, and other ornamen- 

 tal, deciduous, and evergreen shrubs; plants 

 like gunneras, Japanese irises, spiraeas, fox- 

 gloves, seneciofi, camipanulas, funkias, pr'm_ 

 roses, apennine anemones, narcissi snow- 

 drops, and numerous others are desirable. 



BEDDING PLANTS.--Cuttings taken of 

 tender bedding plants last autumn can now 

 be potted off and put separately into 3in. 

 pots, and it is well to attend to this before 

 the roots become much entangled. Helio- 

 tropes, fuchsias, swainsonias, streptosolens 

 and pelargoniums should be treated in this 

 way. Soft-wooded plants, as, for example, 

 mesembryanthemums iresines, alternan- 

 theras, verbenas, and ageratum can now be 

 propagated by means of cuttings taken from 

 plants potted up for the purpose. 15iey 

 may be inserted in -well-drained pots or boxes 

 filled with a light sandy compost, and rooted 

 in a warm temperature. — J. Gardner, Bats- 

 ford Park Gardens 



MAGNOLIA GLAUCA. 



The sunny summer of 1911 was most 

 favourable to this species, for it bloomed 

 more freely than usual^ and the flowers 

 were produced over a considerable period. 

 Even when we had reached the middle of 

 October, flowers 

 Avhile 



were to be 



buds 



found, 

 failed to 



takes 



many unopened 

 develop. As a rule, flowering 

 place during the earlier summer months, 

 the white or cream-coloured flowers 



terminating 



two 



inches 



or 



the short 

 nre two to three 

 fnlly expanded, and 

 The flowers 

 tiitions are 

 fruits 



shoots 



They 

 when 



across 



fragrant, 

 w^hen 



very 



are succeeded , w^lien con- 

 fayourable, by reddish-brown 



from which scarlet-coated seeds are 

 ejected in autumn. 



For a short period 

 alter ejection the seeds are suspended from 

 tne fruits by means of slender threads, 

 which gives the 



Tlie loaves on different 



whole head a somewhat 

 quaint appearance. 



plants may be evergreen or deciduous. Tliev 

 are oval, from three to five inches h)ng, 

 green above and glaucous beneath. 



glauca is a native of the Tnited 

 states, where it forms a bush from six to 

 nr teen feet or so in height. Owing to the 

 laurel-hke leaves it 



IS 



j-i -, - sometimes calle<l 



xne laurel magnolia, while its preference for 

 lamp or swampy ground has gained for 

 It t le name of swamp bay. Though in it^ 

 natural habitat it is often met with in wet 



^^nder cultivation in or- 

 u nary garden soil, with a preference for 

 nevp/r'\ ^ontains a little peat, and is 

 ne\er liable to become very dry, 



W. D. 



^ate work on +W« ? ^^^<^^^s. F.L.S. An np-to- 



«^ flowers ild^^U ^^^"^^^^^^^ cultivation 

 P'-^c^ 7^ 6d n^P^"^^* <uiaptoi for outdoor culture. 



Londcxn U8 end 149, Aldersgate Street. 



THE VALUE OF BIRDS TO 



MAN* 



At a recent meeting of the Britisli Empire 

 Naturalists' Association, Mr. James Buck- 

 land read an exhaustive and interesting 

 paper on "The Yalue of Birds to Man," and, 

 in view of the importance of the subject, we 

 purpose publishing the sections of special 

 interest to horticulturists. 



The Use of the Birds in Nature. 



Man ha8 become the dominant power on the 

 earth. He has delegated to himself the right 

 to adopt a utilitarian standard by which he 

 measures the useiulness or destructivenetss of 



all other forms of life. 



All animals which 



injure his person or his property he classes as 

 injurious. All animals that contribute to the 

 increase in value of his property, (tf* to his 

 comfort, he considers beneficial. Beauty he 

 disregards, devastating the wild places of the 

 earth in mere wontouness of strength. But 

 let that pass for the present. To take him 

 from his own standpoint, is he not sometimes 

 in error? In his grasp for the useful, has he 

 not overlooked the beneficent power of the 

 bird? 



To answer this question we must first de- 

 termine what particular functions it is in 

 the economv of Nature that birds alone are 

 fitted to perform. 



Vegetation is the prime requisite for the 

 perpetuity of all other forms of life upon the 

 earth. It is the only form in organic nature 

 that does not war upon other forms. The 

 greatest known enemy to vegetation is insect 

 life, while bird life, by virtue of its pre- 

 dominating insect diet, wields a most im- 

 portant balance of power against the ravages 

 of this the chief pest of vegetation. 



Tliis is the principal mission of the bird in 

 preserving the balance of Nature's forces; 

 and when we remember that birds are dis- 

 tinguished from all other animals by organs 

 of perfect flight, when we remember that the 

 sense of sight in birds is developd to a degree 

 unparalleled in the animal world, when we 

 remember the surpassing breathing power 

 possessed by birds, their wonderful muscular 

 strength and activity, the high temperature 

 and rapid circulation of their blood, and, as 

 necessary fuel for all these fires, their extra- 

 ordinary capacity for assimilating food, we 

 must admit that these marvellous creatures 

 are admirably fitted to pursue and capture 

 their natural prey, or, by making earth-wide 

 sweeps from zone to zone^ to follow the 

 seasonable ebb and flow of the tide of insect 

 life. We must also admit that no other class 

 of animals could fill their peculiar place. 



umber and Reproductiven 



of insects. 



That it may be seen how essential the bird 

 is as a part of Nature's great plan, I propose 

 making brief mention of the enormous num- 

 ber of insect species, of their stupendous 

 powers of reproduction, and of their insa- 

 tiable voracity. 



The number of insect species is greater by 

 far than that of the species of all other living 

 creatures combined. Over 300,000 have been 

 described, and it is considered not impro- 

 bable that twice that number remain to be 

 described. Practically all living animals, us 

 well as most plants, furnish food for these 

 incomputable hordes. More than this, Kirkby, 

 in the Introduction to Entomology,'' de- 

 votes no less than five entire epistles to the 

 injuries we sustain from insects, whilst two 

 onlv are sufficient to describe the benefits 

 they yield. 



The fecundity of certain insect forms is 

 astounding, the numbers bred reaching such 

 prodigious proportions as to be almost be- 

 yond belief. Eiley once computed that the 



hop aphis, developing thirteen generations in 

 a single year, would, if unchecked to the end 

 of the twelfth generation, have multiplied to 

 the inconceivable number of ten sextillions of 

 individuals. Noting the preceding, Forbush 

 says, if this brood were marshalled in line, 

 ten to the inch, it would extend to a point so 

 sunk in tlie profundity of space that light 

 from the head of the procession travelling at 



the rate of 184,000 tniles per second, would 



require 2,500 years in which to reach the 

 earth. 



Kirkland lia^ computed that one pair of 

 gipsy moths, if unchecked, would produce 

 enough progeny in eight years to destrov all 

 the foliage in the United \State6. 



A Canadian entomologist has determined 

 that a single pair of Colorado beetles, with- 

 out check, would multiply in one season to 

 61),()[)().()(K) units. 



The filibusters of old, who carried on their 

 nefarious business chiefly within tropical 

 areas, declared that of all dangers, and of all 

 pains, they dreaded most the wounds of in- 

 sects. No surgical instrument ever in'vented 

 by man could inspire more terror than the 

 impliments insects possess for pierfini»-, cut- 

 ting, dissecting, and rending. These' appli. 

 ances, which are used to do haltle with 

 animal and vegetable life, are e^iualled in 



horror only by the furious ravenousness of 

 the insects. 



Indeofl, the voracity of insect life is as 

 astonishing as its power of reproduction. 

 Many caterpillnrs counime 1 wire tlieir weight 

 m leaves per day, whit h coi ii-p ^jids to a horse 

 eating daily a ton of hay. I'orbushsays that 

 a certain flesh-feeding larva will consume in 

 twenty-four fours 2iH} times its oiig-inal 

 weight, a parallel to which, in ihv 

 race, wwild be an infant consuming, m the 

 first day of its existence, 1,500 pounds of beef. 

 Trouvelot, who made a special study of the 

 subject, aflirms that the food taken by a 

 single silkworm in fifty-six days equals in 

 weight 86,000 times its original w<Mcr|,t at 

 hatching. What a destruction this ' .siugl;' 

 species of insect could make, if only a one- 

 hundredth part of the eggs laid came to 

 maturity I 



human 



Man at 



War with 

 Laws. 



Nature's 



cr 



The development of young birds is 

 rapid, and the demand upon the vitality of 

 older ones so great, that an enormous amount 

 of food is necessary to sustain the vital pro- 

 cesses. Digestion iti exceedingly rapid in 

 birds, and they feed for the most part 

 throughout the day, copeeiaJIy when rearing 

 young. The number of insects daily passed 

 into the insatiable maws of the nestlings 

 during this period almost exceeds belief. 



But the most valuable services oi' the adult 

 bird are rendered when it is feeding in win- 

 ter or early spring, for then it destroys 

 countless numbers of insects in the embryo 

 state, and thus presents myriads of depre- 

 dators from coming forth. 



Grave and far-reaching results invariably 

 follow the suppression of this perennial regu- 

 lative influence which is exerted by birds 



individually everywhere as a check on insect 

 life. 



Some years ago the agrit ulturists of Hun- 

 ary, nu^^ed to the iuc-ane by ignori 



and prejudice, succeeded in getting the spar- 

 row doomed to destruction. Within tive 

 years these same men were crying franti- 

 cally for the bird to be given back to them, 

 lest they should perish; and it cost the 

 Government 230,000 rix-dollars to reinstate 

 the outlaw. So the sparrow was luouglit 

 back, and, driving out the hordes of de- 

 vastating insects, proved the salvation of th 

 country. 



In the Lsland of Bourbon once, liecause of 

 the same ignorance and prejudice, a price 

 was set on each martin's head. The birds all 

 but disappeared, and grasshopjDcrs took pos- 

 session of the ir-Jand. Then the edict of 

 banishment was hurriedly revokod and the 

 exile recalled. And fortunate indeed was it 

 for the Island of Bourbon that the bird wius 

 not beyond recall. 



During the years 

 France gave an unusually poor return, and a 

 commission wan njijiointed at the instance of 

 t he Mini s te r < > i A g r i e u 1 1 u re to i n vest i gate 

 the cause of the deficiency, Bv this commis- 

 sion the deficiency was attributed to the 



e 



1861 the harvests of 



ueticiency 



ravages of insects which it was the function 

 of certain birds to check. Tlio'-e birds, it 

 appeared, had been shot, snarecf. and trapped 

 throughout the country in such numbers that 



but little repressive influence had been 



