CURIOSITIES. 
[ lie shall he glad to receive Contributions to this se- hon , and to pay for suck as are accepted 
HINT FOR GARDENERS. 
I AM sending you a photograph, taken in our 
garden, of a sunflower which is the largest, we 
have ever seen. When the yellow flower fell off, leaving 
the white seed disc, 1 thought how easily it could be 
converted into a comical face to please some children 
I had visiting me just then. So I made one earlv one 
morning in a second or two with pen and ink, and was 
rewarded, when the children went out and discovered 
Mr. Sun smiling on the world at large. Two of the 
children thought, it was a natural growth ! — Mrs. W. 
Keith Banner, Thirteenth Avenue, Norwood, Penn- 
sylvania, U.S.A. 
A SCULPTURED MERMAID. 
'T ''U IS graceful bronze statue, representing Hans 
1 Andersen’s “ Little Mermaid,” was recently 
erected at the entrance to the harbour of Copenhagen. 
The figure is seated on a huge boulder, as though she 
had just emerged from the sea, and the effect, as may 
be imagined, is both pretty and original.— Mr. K. P. 
Nors, 19, St. Ann’s Road, Brixton, S.W. 
NATURE AS SCULPTOR. 
H ERE is a photograph of “ Old Man Rock,” 
situated on the road through Mitchell’s Pass, 
leading to the village of Ceres, ('ape Province, South 
Africa. This is a genuine freak of Nature, nothing in 
any way hav ing been done to the rock t.o accentuate 
the likeness to an old Bushman evidently enjoying 
life— Mr. E. Rossouw, Holm Lea, Wellington, Cape 
Province, South Africa. 
STRANGE FIND IN A NEST. 
W HILE the Way and Works departments men 
were destroying sparrows’ and starlings’ nests 
in the new extension shed at Parkeston Quay, G.E.R., 
they came across, on the top of a column about thirty 
feet high, a sparrow’s nest containing two eggs and an 
old toy celluloid hen of small dimensions. The sparrow 
had undoubtedly carried it there while building Ik* 
nest, as it. was very light. — Mr. P. G. Branch, 7, George 
Street, Harwich, Essex. 
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