BIRDS AND BONNETS. 
177 
gascar, Mauritius, &c. She returned to England in the spring 
of 1883, enfeebled by an attack of fever ; but, after a few months’ 
comparative repose, proceeded to the Seychelles, where she 
painted the peculiar palms, screw-pines, and other characteristic 
plants. In the meantime she had set the builders to work on a 
new wing to the gallery at Kew to receive the new paintings. In 
the autumn of 1884 she went to Chili. On her return, in 1885, 
Miss North at once commenced hanging the new paintings, 
which, including those from South Africa and the Seychelles, 
are some two hundred in number. 
Every London Selbornian doubtless knows the North Gal- 
lery ; we trust that these brief remarks may bring it under 
the notice of dwellers in the country, and induce them to make 
a point of visiting it when they are next in town. Beautiful as 
the drawings are, they are rendered additionally interesting by 
the very excellent catalogue prepared by Mr. Hemsley, which 
can be purchased in the gallery at a nominal sum. 
It may be interesting to give some statistics of the contents 
of the gallery. Out of about 200 natural orders of flowering 
plants, as limited in Bentham and Hooker’s Genera Planta- 
rum, 146 are represented in this collection of paintings, and 
the plants depicted belong to no fewer than 727 different genera. 
With regard to species, the number actually named is under 
goo ; but as specific names have only been given to such as 
could be identified with ease or without too great an expendi- 
ture of time, this is considerably below the total number 
painted. They are included in 848 paintings ; and when we 
know that they were all painted between 1872 and 1885, and 
that they by no means represent all the painting done during 
that period, we can realise to some extent the intense applica- 
tion of the artist. Miss North’s rapidity of execution was 
as marvellous as her fidelity to nature. 
BIRDS AND BONNETS: THE LADIES IN 
PARLIAMENT. 
So large a number of lady Selbornians have been anxious to speak on this 
subject that vve are loath to consign to oblivion the eloquence of our fair con- 
tributors, although after the present number we fear we shall be reluctantly 
compelled to apply the closure. In the communications that have reached us 
there has been a general consensus of opinion in condemnation of the artificial 
birds whose use has been advocated by some members of the Selborne Society. 
Miss Rosa Little, Baronshalt, Twickenham, puts the arguments against them 
in a practical and forcible manner. She says : — “ When I was ordering a hat in 
Richmond the other day the milliner said, ‘ Of course you will let me trim it with 
Selborne birds?’ I do not know if this is the name by which these birds are 
generally known, or whether she coined the name knowing me to be a member of 
the Selborne Society; but at any rate she meant by the term ‘Selborne birds,’ 
to express that they were ‘ made ’ ones, not real. At first sight these ‘ made ’ 
birds may appear to be a way out of the difficulty so often discussed, as to what 
to wear in winter hats and bonnets in place of real birds and wings, but a 
moment’s reflection will show, I believe, that these ‘ Selborne birds,’ if considered 
