A number of observers were of opinion that the birds frequented the same localities until the supply of food was exhausted. On the southern slopes of the hills north of the city and of the Don ravines, the snow soon melted away, and the fallen seeds of Prunus, Crætagus and Fraxinus were abundant under the trees, and of course the birds were found feeding on the ground.

The food of this bird in Manitoba is the seeds of the box elder, Negundo aceroides, (Nash) the seeds hang on the trees during the winter and are picked off by the birds, but although many pistillate trees of this species grow on the Don flats and hill sides, which were heavily loaded with fruit, the birds were not observed to feed on them, nor did any of the dissections reveal the presence of Negundo seeds.

The range of food as shown by stomach dissections was not large. Seeds of Robinia pseudacacia, Cratagus coccinea, Fraxinus americana, Pyrus acuparia, Prunus virginiana, Prunus serotina, Acer saccharinum, Hamamelis virginiana, Juniperus communis, Juniperus virginiana, and although not shown by dissections, they were observed to feed on seeds of apples which were hanging on the trees. The birds freely entered the residential parts of the city, and fed on the seeds of the European mountain ash, an abundant ornamental tree. They were quite unsuspicious and tame, and were unmercifully and wantonly killed with clubs, catapults, revolvers, pea-rifles, and many were taken alive with a slip-noose attached to the end of a long stick. We have collected reliable information of 453 specimens, which were collected in and near Toronto, most of which were made into skins or mounted by taxidermists and students of ornithology, but the actual number killed must have exceeded 1000.

Several living pairs were collected and kept for some time in cages, but they did not pair. At this time, February 17th, 1892, we know of but one living specimen, a female, in excellent condition.-EDITING COMMITTEE.

Since last date given, no birds have been noticed at Toronto to date of going to print. November 25, 1892.

CANADIAN WILD FLOWERS.

BY D. W. BEADLE, B.A., LL.B.

(Read 9th April, 1892.)

The purpose of this paper is to awaken an increased interest in our native wild-flowers, by shewing that they are worthy of a prominent place in our flower gardens, and thereby to rescue at least some of them from impending extermination.

Hitherto the floral embellishment of our lawns has been largely confined to the annual planting of tender exotics. This necessitates a yearly expenditure in the preparation of beds, procuring and setting out of plants and subsequent care. After planting, a considerable interval must usually elapse before sufficient growth can take place to make the bed an attractive object. When at length it attains to the fullness of its display, it is the same unvarying picture, presenting no new feature throughout the season, becoming even tiresome by reason of its uniformity. And at the first sharp frost of autumn all the brightness is suddenly extinguished, so that we are fain to have the plants removed out of our sight, and content ourselves with the bare brown earth prospect, until winter covers it with a mantle of snow.

But now a tendency is being manifested towards the adoption of a more natural system of flower gardening, a system that does not demand new plants every season; in which are no bare earth prospects through the spring and fall, nor pinched and shivering look of plants waiting for weather warm enough to enable them to put forth their flowers, nor tiresome monotony of forms and color, and at the last the sudden death of all in a night. In the natural system, the early flowers will begin to appear with the first mild days of spring, and from thence forward new. forms and colors are appearing in continuous succession, so that each passing week some fresh object of interest is presented, and when the cooler days and frosty nights of autumn come, there will be no painful sense as of sudden death in the garden; Flora will but wrap her mantle of crimson and gold about her and gently sink into her winter slumber.

At this juncture, when tired of the artificial, public attention is being turned towards a system of flower gardening more consonant with nature, it seems opportune to direct attention to our wild-flowers, to shew to the general public the floral treasures of our own land, and awaken, if

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possible, a sense of the appropriateness of enriching Canadian flower gardens with the wealth of Canadian wild-wood beauty, inured to our Canadian climate, and waiting at our very doors to be employed to ornament our Canadian homes. Surely the flowers of our native land are more lovely in our eyes than those of any other. We gathered them. in childhood, twined them in our playmate's hair, and linked them with all the joyous memories of youth, so that by the very richness of their associations they speak to our hearts as can those of no other land. Have not many of you, when taking a country outing, paused in your ramble at sight of some woodland flower, and while you looked, the shadow on life's dial fled many degrees backward, and you found yourself listening again to the merry tones of young voices once familiar, and could almost feel again "the touch of a vanished hand;" and as you turned reluctantly away, that simple modest flower had for you a loveliness that the most princely exotic can never possess?

Like the Red-man of the forest our wild-flowers are passing away, and before very long many of them will be gone. The settlement of the country with its attendant industries, must necessarily destroy the conditions favorable to their existence. The axe and the plow are doing their work, and not these alone, but the careless gatherer is pulling them up by the roots, as though anxious to exterminate them as soon as possible. The burning off of the dry leaves is also destructive to those plants, the roots of which lie near the surface; and when the ground is dry and the soil of a fibrous or peaty character, the fire will penetrate to a considerable depth, quite far enough to kill out even those plants that may be called deep rooted. And even when the plants are not roasted to death, the fire consuming the leaves lying on the ground robs them of the food which the decaying leaves supply, and of the moisture which these leaves retain.

What can be done to stay this destruction and preserve to us our native flowers from the extinction which threatens them? Canada has no botanic garden into which they might be gathered. "I speak this to our shame." Once the writer had hopes that a portion of the grounds of the Ontario Agricultural College would be used for an arboretum and garden, into which would be collected such trees as would thrive there, and at least the most interesting of our native plants. Such a collection was thought to be a desirable, if not an essential factor in the education of those designing to devote themselves to rural pursuits. Under the superintendence of a committee of the Fruit Growers' Association, appointed at the request of the Hon. S. C. Wood, then acting Commissioner of Agriculture, which was composed of Mr. Wm. Saunders, now

Director-in-chief of experimental farms, Mr. James Goldie, of Guelph, an enthusiastic botanist, and the writer; plans were prepared and a commencement made, thus laying the foundation of such an institution. But there came a change of ministers, and with that a change of counsels, and the discharge of the committee. There is now no prospect of such an arboretum and garden being established in our day, nor for many a day to come. Hence, the only hope of preserving to those who will come after us the beautiful plants that now are scattered in wild-wood shade, by running stream, in marshy fen, on sunny bank, and in open prairie, seems to lie in the possibility of being able now to awaken in our citizens, and especially in those who with the writer claim this as the land of their birth, an interest in these wild-flowers as a means of beautifying the grounds about their dwellings.

In order to the awakening of this interest it will be necessary to substitute a more simple and natural taste in the place of that engendered by the bedding-out system so long in vogue, which demands masses of blazing color, ribbons of red, white and blue, and formal designs in flower or foliage in which there is not one touch of nature; yet this change will come, its dawn is already breaking. Deep down in the human heart there ever lives a chord that vibrates in unison with nature. It is made apparent by the desire so very commonly cherished by busy toilers in the marts of commerce to have a country seat in which they may spend a part of each year, and to which they may retire in life's evening. Let a fair trial of a natural system of gardening be made, it will then be found that it responds to this love of nature, that it gives a satisfaction and pleasure that apparent art is powerless to confer.

more.

Further, it will be necessary to disabuse the public mind of a prevalent impression that the wild-flowers do not take kindly to civilization. One instance of their successful domestication is more potent than any argument. Fortunately such an instance is at hand, would that there were Mr. Jas. L. Hughes has 328 varieties of wild-flowers growing in his garden, and he states that "nearly every variety grows as well under cultivation as in its native locality, many of them do better." Could we have a few more such gardens, exemplifying the adaptedness of Canadian wild-flowers to the requirements of floriculture, there would be good ground to hope that such an interest might be awakened as would secure the cultivation and thereby the preservation of our most beautiful and desirable species.

The enumeration of all the wild-flowers that could well be employed in ornamental gardening would be but a wearisome repetition of names, yet it seems desirable to mention some of the most prominent, those most likely to interest the general public.

Among the very first to bloom in early spring is the trailing Arbutus, Epigaa repens, putting forth its delicately rose-colored flowers, laden with a rich spicy fragranee, even before the snows have ceased to fall. It is a shade loving plant that would thrive under the trees that skirt so many of the city lawns. In this connection we may name the pretty little Linnæa borealis, a slender creeping evergreen that loves the cool shade. Its graceful nodding flowers, purple and white, and sweetly fragrant, appear in June. It was a special favorite of the great Swedish botanist, and therefore bears his name. Also the Winter-green, Gaultheria procumbens, is most at home under the shade of evergreen trees. Its nearly white flowers appear in July, followed by bright red berries. Mitchella repens, as its name indicates, is a creeping plant, it thrives well in dry soils, is covered in June and July with white flowers that are pleasantly fragrant, followed by a profusion of bright scarlet berries which continue through the winter. This pretty plant is not only useful to hide the bare earth under trees, but its bright shining evergreen leaves set off with the scarlet berries, make it an appropriate Christmas decorative plant. We have yet another evergreen trailer bearing flesh-colored fragrant flowers in June, suitable for planting in dry soils, known by the name of Pipsissewa, Chimaphila umbellata. These and other evergreen plants, trailing in habit, and thriving best under the shade of over-spreading trees, could be made to contribute greatly to the charm of our lawns, not only by carpeting the earth beneath them, but by filling the air during their flowering season with grateful odors.

We have several very pretty Anemones. A. hepatica vies with the Epigaa in time of flowering. Its blue flowers running through many shades, sometimes white, are too well known to need description or words of praise. It is at home in partial shade. A. patens, var. Nuttalliana, has large purplish flowers in early spring. It prefers the open ground. A. parviflora gives us white flowers in May and June. A. multifida is more rare, its flowers are red, opening in June. A. Pensylvanica continues to display its white flowers from June to August.

It is quite possible that we have four varieties of Trillium, though the writer has not seen the white nodding T. cernuum, nor the painted T. erythrocarpum, (T.pictum Pursh.) The flowers of the latter are white, marked with purple stripes at the base of each petal. With T. grandiflorum, the large white flowers of which are so showy, remain so long in perfection, turning before they disappear to light rose-color; and with T. erectum, the dark purple flowers often intermingled with the white blooms of T. grandiflorum, you are all familiar. Our European cousins know how to appreciate their beauty, so much so that large numbers have been shipped to the other side of the Atlantic.