the most satisfactor}^ bird bath imaginable. I have seen twenty-five 
birds of seven different species bathing in it at one time. A similar 
boulder, but without the natural hollow, was set up near the church 
in Meriden, and required only a few hours' work by a stone cutter to 
make it into a lovely little bird fountain. 
For those who like more formal beauty, several sculptoresses have 
recently designed charming bird baths which are as attractive to the 
birds as they are to humans. Mrs. Louis Saint Gaudens of Cornish, 
New Hampshire, is making blue and red and fawn colored terra cotta 
replicas of her famous bronze " Quercus " bird fountain in the Meriden 
Sanctuary, and in New York not long ago I saw some beautiful bronze 
bird baths designed by Miss Eugenie Shonnard and others of the 
younger school. 
So let us make our gardens more and more attractive by increasing 
the number of our bird visitors. By doing this we shall add greatly to 
our own joy of living, but what perhaps is of even more importance 
at this time, we shall be taking part in a great nation-wide" movement 
for the protection of American birds — a movement which as Roosevelt 
said " is entitled to the support of every sensible man, woman and child 
in the country." 
Some of the Newer Peonies 
Mrs, Edward Harding 
Within the last two or three years, so many new, or newly-intro- 
duced. Peonies have been put upon the market, that the amateur 
who is striving to collect only the best varieties is somewhat dazed. 
He asks himself which of these much advertised and high-priced 
Peonies are really equal to the fine ones already known, and upon 
which he shall expend bis sometimes limited garden money. 
Unless one is a veritable peony maniac, unable to rest until he has 
every variety of which he hears, the purchase of roots costing from five 
to fifty dollars apiece is a matter worthy of some thought. 
I have not tried out all the new varieties myself. Some I shall 
never purchase, at any price. Some I would not care for either in ex- 
change or as a gift. Others are so lovely and desirable that I consider 
them worth the high price demanded. 
Quite as important as the beauty of the flower is the habit of 
growth of the plant. Such virtues as strength and erectness of stem 
and general robustness are necessary in the make-up of a high-class 
Peony. 
Weakness of stem is a most annoying defect. One much talked 
of Peony — Jubilee — has this serious imperfection. The flower may or 
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