TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
119 
for the morning meal of meat and crumbs, viz., a jay, which came several times, 
not only to the food placed on the ground, but also to the fat which was hung 
under the verandah. It did indeed seem strange to see this great bird trying to 
hang on like the tits to the suspended fat. 
Cliff Cottage, Melbourne, Derby. Arthur Myers. 
Hardiness of sub-tropical plants.— It may be of interest, and may 
surprise some of the readers of Nature Notes, to mention that the recent 
severe winter, which even here in Bournemouth froze up most of the water-pipes, 
and killed such shrubs as laurels, laurustinus, arbutus, berberis, and even gorse, 
wholesale in many gardens, has proved the completely hardy character of several 
sub-tropicals, at least in this light soil. Not to mention yuccas, which scarcely 
even drooped during the severest frost, the bamboos (Bambusa falcata, B. Fortunei 
and B. aurea), are none the worse, except that a few of their leaves are cut by 
the East wind. But, stranger still, the “ hardy ” palms {Chamcerops Fortunei and 
C. excelsa), some of which have stood out in the garden for several years, while 
others were planted out last year, have only lost their outer fronds, and are 
green and vigorous at the top. The only protection they receive during the 
winter is from a few ashes covered with dead bracken fronds around the roots. 
Aralias have not suffered in the least. A curious thing happened to a clump of 
primroses in the garden. It came into bloom during the warm weather in 
December, appeared in bloom from under the frozen snow when it melted in 
February, and has been blooming ever since. 
H. Morden Bennett. 
A Friendly Rat (p. 55). — “ G.” will, I am sure, be interested to hear that 
it was quite a common occurrence for a female (brown) rat and her young brood 
to feed fearlessly with the flocks of fowl almost at the feet of the poultry keeper, 
near where I resided a few years ago. An old gentleman {Mus decumanus) used 
to warm himself regularly every night at the kitchen fire for years during the 
winter months, at Castlemorton in this county, regardless of the fact that cats, 
dogs, and several specimens of the genus homo were at the same time similarly 
occupied. What seems to me strange is that neither the members of the canine 
nor feline species took any notice of him. 
Ferns, Ireland. G. E. J. Greene. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Strathmore. — It is a seedling of the common beech. 
E. Swain. — Mr. Kirby says : “ The fly sent is St. Mark’s fly {Bibio marci). 
Various insects mine the leaves of different plants ; the mine enclosed is formed 
by the larva of a very small moth, belonging to the genus Nepticula." 
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