118 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Birds' Nests in Unusual Places.— Anus, Iowa, Feb. 11. 
— Iii your issue of Jan. 31 I notice an account of a nest of the 
common robin built upon the ground. I can add another 
instance of the kind which cume under my observation in the 
State of Massachusetts some twenty years ago. In this case 
the nest was placed at the foot of on apple tree, between the 
swell of two roots, upon the down-hiJl side of the tree, which 
6tood upon a steep hillside. I discovered the nest when in 
the process of building, and watched it closely till the young 
flew away. F. E. L. Beal. 
— We have received from our frequent correspondent, Mr. 
G. H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, Cook County, Texas, sam- 
ples of his bird skins, Painted Bunting (Plectrophanes pictus), 
and Lecontes Sparrow ( Cotumiculut leeontd). The skins are 
well made, and the prices at which they are sold are reason- 
onable, being for C % Ueontei, $1.25, and for P. pictus. 40 cts. 
Ornithologists desiring bird skins from Texas will do well to 
eommuuicatc with Mr. Ragsdale. 
Death of The Hippopotamus. — It is with regret that wa 
announce that “Baby,” who was born in 1876, on the Nile 
shuffled off his mortal pachyderm on Tuesday, at the Aqua- 
rium. His graceful waddle, his open countenance will be 
seen no more. Dr. Kohn, his mentor, is disconsolate ; so is 
the milkman who supplied the baby hippopotamus with the 
lacteal fluid by the can. 
The Nautilus in Florida. — It has been doubted by some 
naturalists whether the Argonaut, or paper Nautilus, occuis 
on the Florida coast. Two paper shells have been found here 
this winter, and last winter one was found with the animal 
entire, besides another empty shell. Its habitat is probably 
in tropic seas, but it is sometimes brought to these shores by 
storms. In the Indian Ocean I have seen it in calm weather 
sailing on the surface, as described by old writers, but dis- 
credited by closet naturalists of these days. S. C. C. 
Halifax Inlet, Fla., Feb. 17, 1878. 
The Mild Weather. — Boston , Feb. 15 — Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Wednesday last, Feb. 13, I saw two American 
goldfinches flying about my garden. I recognized them first 
from their sung, and on investigating saw them on a clothes- 
line. Their predominant color was clear yellow with black 
on the wiDgs, and on taking flight they had their usual man- 
ner of first falling and then rising, uttering their usual song 
while flying. I have been much interested in ornithology and 
oology for some years back, but I never knew this bird, 
which is always very late, to arrive in the spring, rarely com- 
ing before June, and I have found their nests with eggs as 
late as the 10th of September. The day was pleasant ; ther- 
mometer about 30 deg. Is not this something rather unusual ? 
H. D. 
We think not. This species habitually winters as far north 
as Connecticut, and in mild seasons, like the one just passed, 
might well be seen occasionally in Mass. Another corres- 
pondent, Mr. Chas. J. Henri, writing from Cincinnati, says : 
Robins ( Tardus migralorius, Linn.,) made their appearance 
in Avondale, a suburb of this city, on Thursday, Feb. 7. 
This is some days sooner than usual. 
Cazenovia, N. Y.— Please record for March 7th to 9th of 
this remarkable spring as accompaniments of warm sunny 
days, butterflies, honey bees, grasshoppers, all the early birds, 
a tadpole and pussy-willows, in silken fur, and crocuses in 
bloom. It may be that fickle Spring may ring on changes of 
far less pleasant character, but her favors need not he for- 
gotten. The duration of ice in the lake has been shorter by 
en weeks than in seven winters. L. W. L. 
^foodhmd, effzrm nnd %nrdm. 
HIB DEPARTMENT IS EDITED BY W. J. DAVIDSON, SEO. N. Y. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
SPRING FLOWERS. 
S PRING flowers will soon paint our fields and woods, en- 
liven our garden, gladden the hearts of children and 
cheer the paths of older people. Their freshness, brightness 
and modest beauty rivet greater appreciation than the more 
gaudy summer belles, and surely they are by far the most ac- 
commodating. Many of them come into blossom and are 
past before arboreal vegetation is clothed in leaves ; hence, 
though they may occupy the shadiest positions in summer 
they may have sunlight sufficient in Bpring. They require 
little or no nursing in the way of cultivating, staking or 
watering ; merely plant them once, keep rank vegetation in 
check so that it may not choke them, and let them alone ; 
they will take care of themselves and annually become 
stronger and more beautiful. In fact, in many gardens there 
are places so densely shaded with trees as to be unfit for sum- 
mer flowers. Well, spring beauties are glad of 6uch a home. 
High, dry, gravelly soils are .averse to their tastes ; they love 
to revel in good, free soil, enriched by vegetable mould or de- 
cayed leaves, but they are in nowise particular. 
Conspicuous among the earliest bloomers are Snowdrops 
and Crocuses, whose proper places are studded about on the 
lawns, under trees, near the roots of bushes, and maybe here 
and there a clump in the garden border. Daffodils and Jon- 
quils soon follow, aod may be naturalized in half wild places, 
or together with Grape Hyacinths, Siberian Blue Squill, 
Crown Imperiul, Guinea-hen Flower and Solomon’s Seal, plant- 
ed in clumps iD front of shrubbery or in the borders. Hya- 
cinths and Tulips are mostly used to fill up the flower beds 
prior to the advent of Pelargoniums,, Colenscs and other green- 
house paraphernalia j and about the end of May they are re- 
moved to some out-of-the-way place till next October or No- 
vember, when they are again transposed to the front. This 
double shifting enervates the bulbs | better plant them in per- 
manent clumps in the mixed border. Some growers advocate 
planting “ Dutch ” bulbs so deeply that they will be beyond 
ordinary digging Mepth, and thus they may remain unmoved 
without interfering with the summer inmates. But I do not 
practice this method myself nor recommend it to others. 
Spring Beauty is too tiny and pretty to scatter about. 
Keep it — also the Violet Oxalis — in little masses in choice 
shady places, and with a stout peg mark their whereabouts 
for the summer, otherwise, after they lose their leaves, - they 
may be inadvertently disturbed or lost. European and 
American Dog-tooth Violets only require a moist, shady 
nook and good ground, where they can run wild, to exert 
themselves to rank luxuriance. With them the Ten-o'-clock 
and Spring Snowflake may also associate and be happy. 
Lily of the Valley likewise loves a somewhat similar place, 
and to be left undisturbed ; it will take care of itself and in- 
crease mightily as well. It will also thrive rankly and flower 
more profusely when grown In sunny spots. 
The May Flower, or Creeping Arbutus, I love to see in the 
woods, and I leave it there, as it refuses to be comforted in 
our garden. Twin-leaf, Mandrake and Birthroots eDjoy shady 
locations and good soil, as among bushes where there is an 
annual accumulation of decaying leaves, or they can be 
grown to advantage in garden borders or half wild places. 
Bloodroot— a beautiful white flower — relishes somewhat 
similar conditions, and likes particularly to ramble in the 
shady portions of an old rockery or rootery. The creeping 
Forget-me-not, so productive of pretty white-eyed blue blos- 
soms, prefers to be naturalized along the garden fences, at the 
foot of old walls, among the bushes, or to share the room 
with Bluets on a moist bank. It is also an excellent subject 
in rockeries, rooteries or borders. Hepaticas, both single and 
double, are perfect gems, hardy as dandelions, and they bear 
their exquisite blue, red or white flowers in great profusion. 
Christmas Roses are not so intrinsically beautiful as they are 
desirable on account of their earliness to blossom, the white 
flowers often expanding as 600 n as thaw unlocks the surface 
of the earth. If the plants be protected with a mulching 
they often flower and are past before the covering is removed 
—say in March. The purple-flowered kibd is not so pretty 
as the white, neither does it open quite so early. 
Moss Pinks will grow anywhere not in a bog, and though 
desirable for a place in the garden I never saw them look 
sweeter or more appropriate than in interlacement with 
Bluets, Violets, Canada Lilies and other wild flowers on a 
grassy sward in a New England old country graveyard. For 
snowy patches few plants can excel the White Arabis or 
Rock Cress — a free growing but dwarf habited plant equally 
at home in the border or rockery. After the same fashion is 
the yellow Rock Alyssum, and the blue or violet Aubrietias, 
but the latter particularly prefer the rockery and a slight 
winter covering. The Spring Adonis has pretty yellow 
blosoms and feathery leaves, as has also the Winter Aconite, 
likewise a yellow flower and the earlier of the two. Euro- 
pean and Asiatic Globe flowers, the one with orange and the 
other with yellow blossoms, may also associate with them, 
and they are all desirable garden plants for the border, rockery 
or shrubbery bed. The single and double flowering Marsh 
Mangolds (erroneously called Cowslips) are wortny the damp 
est corner. The Golden Corrydalis and better still the hind 
called 0. nobilis are almost indispensable ; they have fern like 
leaves and yellow flowers that are freely borne from spring all 
through the summer. In this course they have good company 
in their relative Dicentra exemia, with pink-purple flowers, 
but otherwise of somewhat equal size and habit. Next of kin 
to the last named is the Bleeding Heart, a native of Northern 
China, and one of the loveliest and most graceful of hardy 
herbaceous perennials. Stellaria Holostea, a species of Star- 
wort Chickweed is a complete sheet of white in May, and it 
grows quite freely ; it likes a moderately moist soil and just a 
little shade. The Smooth Lungwort, with its profusion of 
raceme-like clusters of light blue flowers, is one of our hand- 
somest spring plants, and if grown in the border it should 
have its place marked as it soon dies down after blossoming. 
Wood Anemones are modest little beauties, but there is a 
double-flowering variety which is showier and more suitable 
as a garden plant. They grow well under ordinary conditions, 
providing they be not in too sunny places. The shrubby or 
evergreen Candytufts bloom very profusely and should find 
room in every garden. They are Europeans, but are among 
the finest of hardy perennials. 
Our Stemless Lady's Slippers, so abundant in moist and 
sandy woods, are very fine garden plants, and may be suc- 
cessfully transplanted even when in flower-bud. Grown in 
pots or pans in cool greenhouses they do splendidly. False 
Solomon’s Seal, notwithstanding its commonness, repays 
a position in a rootery or rockery, or in some’ natural- 
like place ; its white flowers are so neat and plentiful in spring, 
and its red berries in the fall. Epimediums bloom freely in 
spring and feel equally at home in sunny or shady places, in 
the border or rockery. Two years ago I found a patch of Se- 
dum ternatum in a half-wild place here. It was bursting into 
flower, but I lifted it and replanted it as a border to a walk un- 
derneath the shade of some trees, and more vivid belts of white 
we could hardly expect to see. Of Columbines we have an 
immense variety of species and varieties, beginning with 
the Canada red and ending with the Rocky Mountain Yel- 
low. They grow readily from seeds or division, bloom quite 
gayly, and are worthy a place in the choicest garden. Tree 
Pseonias and single and double-flowering Common Pnsonias 
are gorgeous garden plants, and no less conspicuous is the 
brillaint Oriental Poppy. We do not find the mossy Saxi- 
frages do very satisfactorily, but the large-leaved sorts, oo 
S. crassifolia, cordata, etc., grow and flower splendidly. The 
Californian Umbrella-leaved Saxifrage bears two-fect-high 
stems of pretty blossoms, but they are rather transient, 
scarcely lasting a week. After the flowers, arise the noble 
leaves which comprise the chief attraction of the plant. It 
likes moisture, aud luxuriates by bauks of streams. Stone- 
crops make a dense carpet of gold, and require a sunny place. 
The Periwinkle or Myrtle os it is wrongly called, blooms free- 
ly and makes perhaps the best living edging for very shady 
places, and its neat habit and fresh evergreen leaves render it a 
favorite subject for cemetery planting. Of Native Violets we 
have a number of species and varieties presenting different 
shades of blue, yellow and white blossoms, and which make 
desirable garden plants providing they get a moist, shady nook. 
The Sweet Violets are barely hardy, but the slightest cold 
frame protection in the winter time amply rewards us in 
spring. Pansies are best treated as frame plants, but they 
also do well in north- facing borders, where they are benefited 
by a light protection in the way of evergreen branches or some 
sedge-grass. English Cowslips and Primroses amply repay 
similar care. In frame quarters I do not know of any plant 
that proves more satisfactory than the Polyanthus ; and who 
could deny that sweet old favorite, the Wallflower, an equal 
chance ? 
The European Heather, Erica carnea, as clumps or belts in 
shrubbery borders has few equals ; it sets its blossom-buds in 
fall and opens its myriads of purple bells in early spring. Ia 
exposed places it likes the protection of a few evergreen 
branches in winter. Daphne Mazereum is a little shrub not 
much bigger than a common herbaceous plant, but in earliest 
spring its branches become clothed with purple, rose-colored 
flowers, which are soon succeeded by brilliant red berries. 
It will grow auy where almost. Another species, D. Cneorum, 
is a low spreading evergreen that is covered with terminal 
clusters of handsome rose-pink blossoms in early spring, and 
they bloom again in the fall. As clumps in the front of 
shrubbery borders or edgings to Rhododendron beds they are 
very appropriate. If the young branches be layered every 
year they will become greatly invigorated, and if need be 
yield great increase. 
Wild Riob. — A pplications for wild rice, and inquiries as 1 
to the best method of cultivating it, come thick and fast. 
We will therefore here say to all, that we do not think that w 
particle of wild rice can now be had. The little wild rice 
that is harvested is gathered by the Indians in the fall, on 
special order, and Mr. Thomas Cantwell, of Bramerd, Min- 
nesota, who was kind enough to secure a small lot last year, 
was early obliged to announce that he could fill no more 
orders, the crop being almost a total failure. If there is a 
good crop next fall, he promises to .secure a large quantity. 
The fall is the natural season for planting the seed, as wild 
rice sows itself ; hut the spring is equally favorable. We 
have repeatedly, within the past four years, printed instruc- 
tions for the culture of wild rice ; but so long as we can aid 
the cause of game production, we will continue to repeat 
them at intervals, in indulgence of the forgetful, and to 
benefit those who may never have 6«*jn them. 
For planting, rice should be gathered when “ in the milk,’’ 
or, more properly speaking, before it gets too ripe to shell. 
It should be stripped off the 6talk, and not pounded off; and 
planted anywhere where there is mud and water. As soon 
after it is picked as possible, if dry enough to sink it will 
take root, increase and multiply, like Canada thistles. 
Where it is desirable to sow rice on ground not muddy, a 
strip three or four feet wide can be chopped around the 
margin of the pond with a hoe. The first rise of water will 
soak the seed and cause it to sprout and take root. 
Mr. Cantwell has described in a contemporary the Indian 
method of gathering rice. He says : 
“ Wild rice, so called, is, in the opinion of several observ- 
ing friends, a member of the oat family, and grows in vast 
quantities in nearly all the lakes and ponds in the nothwest- 
ern part of this State. It ripens generally about the first of 
September, and the annual rice harvest is a sort of jubilee 
time with the Indians. They make arrangements some time 
ahead, get their outfit, kettles, pots, pans, squaws, pappooses, 
guns, dogs, etc , and start in their canoes for some rice 
lake— the nearer the better, for the ‘noble red' abhors 
work. On arrival at the lake, the squaws and youngsters 
put up the ‘ tepees,' or conical shaped pole shelters, covered 
with anything that is handy, or that they may have with 
them, while the lordly bucks bask in the sun, and find fault 
with everything in general. 
“ Ducks are always plenty about a rice lake, and the head of 
the family, when he gets hungry, pot-hunts mud-hens along 
shore. 
" When the ‘ tepees ' are finished, the squaws, generally two 
in each canoe, start out into the rice, and as they move along 
they grasp handfulls of stalks, which grow high above the 
water, and deftly bind them together with strips of bass- 
wood bark. This causes the grain to ripen quicker - and 
every bunch tied up belongs to the squaw who tied it up In 
u fow days, when fully ripe and dry enough to shell out, they 
move out among the bunches, with a blanket stretched along 
the bottom of ttie canoe, bend the bunches over the side of 
the boat, and pound the rice out with a stout club. Wben 
sufficient for the day is gathered, thoy go ashore, and par- 
tially roast the rice, which causes the husk t > open, no the 
rice will drop out. They then winnow it, and the rice is 
ready to eat." 
We wish we could give our readers as satisfactory an an. 
swer with regard to the culture of wild celery, which U 
inquired for. 
