60 
House & Garden 
CHINA AND GLASS 
FOR THE COUNTRY HOUSE 
COPELAND CHINA WITH EMBOSSED FLORAL DECORATION. 
IN OPEN-STOCK, BREAKFAST, TEA 
AND DINNERWARE 
FOUNDED 1887 
;ilGGIN§&SEITEI^ 
9 G 11 EAST 37“STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 
CHINA, AND GLASS 
CRETONNE.and 
PAINTED FURNITURE TO MATCH 
Seled your cretonne.one that you want to live with . 
have a set of furniture painted to match the colof scheme, repeating 
the motifs, flowers, branches, what not, of the cretonne, on the 
furniture surfaces ^ «, 
The result is delightful .and UNUSUAL 
One of the ‘Decorative Ideas of 
JOSEPH P. McHUGH &c SON 
The HOUSE of the UNUSUAL 
9 WEST 42nd STREET NEW YORK CITY 
Designers and Makers of dMcHughwillow 
Fabrics and IVall Tapers 
Marriage of Flowers by Birds 
{Continued from page 48) 
certain West Indian islands where log¬ 
wood does not grow no species of creep¬ 
er, elsewhere frequenting that tree, are 
to be found. In Sumatra, according to 
Forbes, a green spider-eater (a sun-bird) 
feeds on the bright flowers of a kind of 
ginger, that blooms on the surface of 
the ground in dark places where few in¬ 
sects are to be found. No other means 
of cross-fertilization of this plant are 
apparent than this particular spider- 
eater. 
Layard relates of a fine honey-sucker 
in the Island of New Caledonia that 
it crowded into certain forest trees when 
in flower; but completely disappeared 
from the locality when the flowers were 
gone. Of this and another species he 
noted that he found a specimen which 
had its throat covered with yellow pollen 
“and we doubt not that some of the 
large, lofty, flowering trees are fertilized 
by such agency, as insects are very 
scarce here.” 
Darwin concluded that the beaks of 
birds are specially adapted to the vari¬ 
ous flowers which they visit; and Grant 
Allen expressed the complemental opin¬ 
ion that “many of the most brilliant and 
beautiful bell-shaped tropical flowers 
have been specially developed to meet 
the tastes and habits of these compara¬ 
tively large and powerful fertilizers.” 
But it is among the hummingbirds 
that we get the most striking examples 
of the reciprocal relation of birds and 
flowers. 
It would be hard to find in the animal 
kingdom a better example of adaptation 
of form and powers and habits than the 
hummingbird with its ability to find 
and live upon food practically inac¬ 
cessible to other birds; its marvelous 
strength of wing, enabling it to hold its 
body suspended in the air while it ob¬ 
tains this, exclusive food; and its long 
bill and extraordinary tongue that form 
perfectly fitted implements. These little 
creatures, rivaling gems in their flashing 
beauty, illustrate another general and 
interesting phase of our subject, namely, 
that, with hardly an exception, the birds 
associated with flowers are themselves 
brightly colored, many gorgeously ar¬ 
rayed in their small way, and this de¬ 
spite the great disparity among them; 
even the eucalyptus-aiding lories are 
the gaudiest parrots of their showy race. 
Why? I do not know. 
About SOO species of hummers have 
been catalogued, varying in size from 
one hardly larger than a bumblebee to a 
giant as big as a chimney swift, but the 
differences in bills are even more striking, 
for the straight beak of a Docmastes 
may measure S", more than equal to the 
combined length of head, body and tail, 
and capable of penetrating the depths of 
huge trumpet-flowers, while in one 
species of Ramphonicron it is only Yf 
long. In some the bill curves slightly 
upward; in others downward; in the 
Eutoxeres it is bent just like a sickle. 
All these varieties indicate special re¬ 
quirements — the choice of particular 
kinds of blossoms; and Fritz Muller 
says that various species of abutilon in 
southern Brazil are sterile unless fer¬ 
tilized by tbe one kind of bird that 
frequents each one. 
One cannot enumerate many instances 
of this mutual dependence, but I would 
like to give one or two remarkable ex¬ 
amples described by Belt in Nicaragua. 
The flowers of the lofty climbing vine 
Marcgravia nepenthoides hang down in 
the form of a circular bunch of pockets 
over which the stamens curve. In early 
spring these pockets or “pitchers” are 
filled with a sweetish liquor that at¬ 
tracts insects and these in turn the hum¬ 
mingbirds. “The flowers are so dis¬ 
posed, with the stamens hanging down¬ 
wards, that the birds, to get at the 
pitchers, must brush against them and 
thus convey the pollen on their backs 
from one plant to another. 
Another species of Marcgravia “has 
the pitchers placed close to the pedicels 
of the flowers, so that the birds must 
approach them from above and anthers 
are turned upward so that the pollen is 
taken and given by the breast of the 
bird.” 
Another case is that of the palosabre 
(Erythrinia) whose large red flowers 
that appear in February, when the tree 
is leafless, are shaped like a carving 
knife. The “handle” is a thick, tough 
calyx, and the blade the single petal, 
folded double so tightly that only the 
stamens protrude a little. 
Only very minute insects can get in¬ 
side this flower, which is attended by 
two kinds of hummingbirds having long* 
curved bills. “Whilst the bird is prob¬ 
ing the flower,” Belt explains, “the 
pollen of the stamens is rubbed on to 
the lower part of its head, and thus 
carried from one flower to fecundate 
another. The bottom of the flower is 
covered by a thick calyx — an effectual 
guard against the attempts of bees or 
wasps to break through and get at the 
honey. Hummingbirds feed on minute 
insects, and the honey would only be 
wasted if larger ones could gain access 
to it; but in the flower of the palosabre 
this contingency is simply and effectual¬ 
ly guarded against.” 
It is evident that birds take an im¬ 
portant part in the proper fertilization 
of plants; and also that the flowers take 
an important part in providing insect 
fare for the smaller birds. Their inter¬ 
relations offer an interesting study. 
Furnishing the Room From Cretonne 
{Continued from page 33) 
cretonne, which, being very splashy, was 
used only at the windows, on a pillow, 
a banding of it on another pillow done 
in black velour, and on a runner for a 
tiny table. 
Seven pieces of the furniture were 
black. A chest of drawers, a bookcase, 
a desk, two wall chairs, a Windsor, and 
a tiny tip-top table. The desk was 
painted a brilliant Chinese red inside, 
and the drawers were lined with the 
same color; the tip-top had a scarlet 
edge. There was a mahogany daybed 
with a throw cover of King’s blue, and 
pillows in varying tones of rose red and 
black, one of them matching the cur¬ 
tains. An ivory wicker lounging chair 
with a blue seat and rose cushion; a 
neutrally upholstered wing chair; a ma¬ 
hogany gateleg table. A tea cart of red 
Chinese lacquer, with a brass kettle and 
flagon, cups of blue pottery, and a 
Chinese red kochi pot. A gray bean-pot 
lamp with a rose red silk shade; a ma¬ 
hogany lamp with a shade of blue; mir¬ 
rors; tall candlesticks; books, of many 
colors; some used pewter. A satisfactory 
room—and all from a bit of cretonne. 
Truly a game for the gods. 
And when perhaps more subtlety is 
desired we turn to the rich cretonne set 
forth for you really to see and called, 
delightfully. Golden Pheasants upon 
Cream. ’This cretonne is by no means 
quiet, it fairly sings with color, and I 
should call it one of the most beautiful 
that has been produced recently. On 
the background of a grayish cream, very 
nearly the actual color of putty, there 
are peacock green leaves, yellow green 
leaves, and mulberry leaves and vines. 
The pheasant is a gorgeous fellow of 
green and yellow, rose and peacock blue, 
{Continued on page 62) 
