Natural Science News. 



VOL. IT. No. 9. 



ALBION, N. Y., MARCH 28, 1896. 



Weekly, $1.00 a Year 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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My Boyhood Days in Spring. 



Dk Morris Gibus. 



How oft' in boyhood's days, in years 

 long pas'd, 

 When chilling winds fled from the 

 vernal sun, 

 And birds from southern haunts return- 

 ing fast, 



Proclaimed that dreary winter then 



was gone— 

 That I, a youth of that ecstatic hour 

 When Nature opens first to youthful 



view; 



Turning us by a simple bird or flower 

 From indoor ways to fields and pas- 

 tures new: 

 Then walked in boundless freedom, 

 wood and plain 

 And gathered Nature's wonders from 

 the lea, 



With feelings touched by happiness and 

 pain; 



Of thoughts of past and of futurity. 



Each bird was then a wonder to my 

 eyes. 



Each brook melodiously babbled a 

 new found joy, 

 The leafy tree which in the zephyrs 

 sighs; 



All! all, were rapturous to me when a 

 boy. 



Watching; wondering, with keen int'r- 

 est bent 



On learning of the mysteries of the 

 wood, 



Unconsciously my spirit underwent 

 A change, akin to happy solitude. 

 Farmore to me than ways of city strife, 

 And deeper in my heart than schools 

 and books, 

 Were pleasures of the days of that new 

 life 



Spent musingly in fields and forest 

 nooks. 



Oh, gentle Spring! with zephyrs soft 

 and low — 

 Wafted o'er beds of fairest woodland 

 flowers; 



Where birds of silvery tongue are float- 

 ing through 

 The ever pleasing leafy, fairy bowers. 

 Charmed season of the year, of flower 

 and song; 

 Season of merry-hcaitedness and love; 

 When fleecy clouds through azure drift 

 along, 



And poets to woo their muse then 

 seek the grove. 

 The muse, who by her soulful, innate 

 power 



Oft' favors rarest thoughts, all evil 

 spurns; 



A gift of Heaven's highest, richest 

 dower, 



And from our baser thoughts our 

 fancy turns. 



Alone in contemplation most profound, 

 I walked by river's brim, nor eared 

 for friend 



To lure me from my thoughts, while all 

 around 



The voices of the wood with sweet- 

 ness blend. 

 The bell-toned notes, as pure and fair 



As ever Philomela strained, are heard 

 From wood thrush, shy, secluded bird, 

 the air 



Above is filled from the throats of 

 warblers poured. 

 The winter wren, diminutive proof of 

 song 



Concealed, is caroling in bold disdain 

 Rivaling the gushing grosbeak's notes, 

 Accompaning the vireo's refrain. 



Again in fancy I visit darken'd woods 

 At early morn and see the squirrels 

 run 



About the trunks, and watch their vary- 

 ing moods 

 Of frolic; the birds of day have just 

 begun 



To twitter, and still the owl looks for 

 his prey; 



The bat wheels fast o'erhead in fresh- 

 ened air; 



O wave of light heralds the approach of 

 day 



And active life returns with eastern 

 glare. 



The birds burst forth in chorus rich and 

 rare: 



The hum of many insects on the wing 

 Is heard as from the opening flowers 

 they share. 

 Boy, birds and all are joyous in the 

 spring. 



The New York Botanical 

 Garden. 



With the opening ot spring, 

 work will be prosecuted on the 

 New York Botanical Garden, 

 whose managers propose to make 

 it one of the finest places of the 

 kind in the world. The plans of 

 the garden have been formulated 

 by Cornelius Vanderbilt, president 

 of the garden, President Seth Low 

 of Columbia College, William E. 

 Dodge, Addison Brown and Prof. 

 N. L. Britton, and preparations to 

 carry these into effect have been 

 completed. It is expected that by 

 the end of the warm weather great 

 advances will have been made to- 

 ward beautifying the region set 

 apart for the garden. 



The garden will comprise 250 

 acres appropriated from Bronx 

 Park, near the Bedford Park sta- 

 tion of the Harlem Railroad. The 

 land abounds in natural beauties, 

 which will, of course, be preserved. 



A building with three stories and 

 a basement, and having a total 

 floor space of 90,000 square feet, is 

 to be erected near the entrance to 

 the garden for use as a museum. 

 It will also contain rooms for a 

 library, an economic museum, her- 

 baria, laboratories and also apart- 

 ments where students may study 

 special subjects. 



An immense horticultural house 

 of iron and glass, covering an acre 

 of ground, will be another feature 

 of the garden. A central dome 60 

 feet high will cover the palm house, 

 and smaller buildings of similar 

 construction will be erected for 

 nurseries and rain shelters. 



The trustees of Columbia Uni- 

 versity have agreed to deposit its 

 herbarium and botanical library in 

 the museum building and the my- 

 cological herbarium of f. B. Ellis, 

 of Newfield, N. J., will also be 

 preserved there. Lectures will be 

 delivered in the museum, and the 

 work of the garden will be pub- 

 lished from time to time in pamph- 

 lets. 



Three miles of stone driveways 

 will be constructed within the gar- 

 den, and two driveway bridges, be- 

 sides many foot bridges, will span 

 Bronx. Footpaths will afford ac- 

 cess to every part of the garden. 



A temporary nursery has been 

 established in the garden, and 

 about 2,500 trees and shrubs are 



