8 



nowhere common. Whether in the changes of the plant covering 

 they will ever become so, remains to be seen. 



GARDENING IN INDIA. 



The gardeners of the North Temperate Zone, who, tiring 

 of battling with such small game as aphide, snails and moles, long 

 for a more adventurous life, might try their craft in India. The 

 gardener's life there is anything but monotonous, as the following 

 from Indian Gardening and Planting shows: 



In India, gardening is carried on under difficulties such as 

 seldom present themselves in Europe. One of the charms of 

 an English garden is that one can seat himself on a bit of grass 

 without the fear of death haunting him; for there are no snakes 

 and other venomous vermin to disturb his peace of mind. Out 

 here it is different, for one can scarcely turn over a stone in the 

 garden without finding some crawling thing beneath it. 



The authorities of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, 

 have to contend against various wild beasts. In 1879 the Cura- 

 tor of the Garden was mauled by a tiger, which had found its 

 way into the garden. Jackals are permanent residents in the 

 garden. They devoured a goat quite recently, and were it not 

 that the swans and geese are carefully guarded, there w r ould not 

 be much left of them. Turtles infest the ponds and lakes, and 

 are destructive creatures, eating up any choice aquatic that may 

 be planted out. They have a peculiar weakness for young Vic- 

 toria regia plants, and it is for this reason that this queen of water 

 lilies cannot be grown in these gardens. The latest addition to 

 the carnivora of the gardens is in the shape of crocodiles, for 

 which the recent floods are probably responsible. One of these 

 saurians, which had taken up its permanent quarters in one of 

 the lakes in the gardens, was shot a few days ago by Mr. N. Gill, 

 the Assistant Curator of the gardens, who intends to preserve 

 the specimen. Snakes, scorpions, centipedes, huge red ants, 

 venomous caterpillars, and insect pests of all sorts are, like the poor, 



