754 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the autunin of 1903. The degree of development attained by the second 

 carpel varied considerably, as may be seen from the figures. The writer 

 quotes various authors who have described bicarpellary fruits of the order 

 Leguminosce, and says : " In the beans figured and described above there 

 can be no doubt that they arose from a single flower, as the calyx was in 

 most cases still present, and comprised the usual five sepals." He also 

 discusses the question whether this peculiarity " may be regarded as a 

 reversion to an ancestral state." — G. S. S. 



Birch Timber, Destruction by Fungi. By I. I. Lindroth (Nat. 

 Zeit. Land-Forst. ii. pp. 393-406 ; 7 figs. ; 1904). — The author describes 

 the progress of the destruction of Birch timber attacked by Polyporus 

 nigricans. This has not been done before, and this careful description 

 adds another to the investigations on timber-rot begun by the late Prof. 

 B. Hartig. The author draws attention to the occurrence of this fungus 

 not only on Birch, but on Goat Willow and Aspen. Infection takes place 

 through wounds and gradual!/ causes disintegration of the timber ; the 

 illustrations show the progress of the decay. — W. G. S. 



Birds : How they Affect the Orchard. By F. E. L. Beal, B.S. 

 (U.S.A. Dep. Agr. Yearbook, 1900; illustrated).— The author claims that 

 the good birds do in orchards in destroying insects and noxious mammals 

 far outweighs the harm that is often more apparent. 



Among the birds which must be considered useful to the fruit-grower 

 are the woodpeckers, of which there are about forty-five species in the 

 United States, and of which the most important are the downy woodpecker 

 and the hairy. They eat wood-boring larvae, ants, and scale. 



The yellow-bellied woodpecker often damages the bark of trees, and the 

 red-bellied woodpecker bores holes in the Oranges in Florida. These 

 birds have a remarkable development of tongue, which, sharply pointed 

 and barbed at the end, and capable of muscular elongation, enables them 

 to spear their prey, and withdraw it from the very heart of the tree. 



Titmice, nuthatches, and creepers, being very small birds, eat very small 

 insects, such as the eggs of aphides, and scale or lice. 



Cuckoos, the most important being the yellow-billed and the black- 

 billed. They eat the caterpillars of many harmful moths and butterflies, 

 especially the hairy kinds which other birds avoid. 



The Baltimore oriole (or golden robin), warblers, vireos. 



Birds of prey, such as hawks and oivls, are invaluable in destroying 

 rodents and rabbits, which nibble the bark of young trees and do serious 

 damage. 



And lastly shrikes (the butcher-bird and the loggerhead shrike). 



When birds are rearing their young, they invariably feed them on 

 soft- bodied caterpillars and larva;, in preference to hard beetles and seeds, 

 and thus destroy large numbers of the former. 



Among those that must be considered harmful, because they feed in 

 winter and spring on the buds of trees and plants, are the following : 

 purple finch and house finch, robin, catbird, cedar waxwing. 



The robin has been proved to prefer wild fruits to cultivated, but 

 where these are not available, as in the neighbourhood of large towns and 



