Birds and Nature Vol. 9 No. 1 [January 1901]

A NIGHT IN THE FLOWER GARDEN

A FAIRY STORY

The day had passed and the sun had gone to sleep in a bed of crimson and gold. The wind blew softly, at which the leaves on the great trees in the garden began to murmur; though it was evening they were not sleepy like some of the flowers who thought it time to go to sleep when the sun did. Sometimes the leaves were awake all night; you could hear them moving gently in the breeze. The clover leaves were folded close in sleep long ago and the Poppies declared they could not sit up a moment longer. But the tall white Lilies, who loved the night, were wide awake; they could not sleep when the garden was full of moonlight. They said the Crickets were so noisy and the Katydids so quarrelsome that it disturbed them, so they stood fair and white gathering the dew in their silvery cups which filled the soft night air with sweet perfume. The Roses were looking pale and sad in the moonlight; they reveled in the golden sunshine and grew brilliant in the heat of day. But they were languid now and sometimes a little breeze would send their velvet petals floating to the ground to fade and die.

The Pansies nestled low with closed eyes. You would not have known where the Mignonette and Heliotrope were had you not breathed their sweet perfume, for they were fast asleep. The Nasturtiums, Hollyhocks, and Marigolds were still as bright and gay as if the sun, whom they loved, could see them and they felt like sitting up with the Four O’Clocks and Evening Primroses, who never went to sleep until very late.

But of all the flowers in the garden, the Sweet Peas were the widest awake. There they stood in rows, dainty and fair, never thinking of going to sleep, but trembling with excitement. You could see them whispering together, for they had heard that to-night the Fairy Queen was to come to the garden and would give a soul to some flower; which one they did not know but hoped it would be to them.

A little Humming Bird had brought the news and had told it only to the Sweet Peas, so they thought it must be for them that this beautiful change was to come. Had they not heard that years ago a sweet flower called Narcissus had been changed into a beautiful youth, who could wander where he wished? What delight that would be! And had they not also heard of Pansies changing into little children, and Larkspurs into larks that soared away into the bright blue sky? Of Water Lilies changing into maidens, who made their homes under the green waves? And they had always thought that myriads of brilliant flowers were changed into the daintiest of all things. The little Humming Birds must have been flowers at one time, for they were always hovering around them, kissing them and making love to them. Oh! if the Fairy Queen would only change them into birds, or velvet bees, or, better still, into the beautiful butterflies, that came to them so often and fluttered like a cloud around them. Yes, they would rather be butterflies than anything else.

Slowly the moonlight faded from the flowers, the shadows of the night deepened and the soft dew fell like a benediction. A Fairy form floated over the sweetest of blossoms, then disappeared, and all was dark and silent save a gentle flutter, as of wings.

But in the morning when the sunbeams had awakened the sleeping blossoms, a flight of bright-winged Butterflies floated in the air or lighted for a moment on the flowers, but the Sweet Peas had all disappeared and were nowhere to be seen.

Fannie Wright Dixon.

RABBIT’S CREAM

Everyone is well acquaintedWith the arts of Frosty Jack —With his etchings on the windows,With the tints that mark his track;But the quaint and merry artistHas a fancy of his ownThat is delicate and graceful,But is not so widely known.When no green is in the forest,And no bloom is in the dell,Not a flower star to twinkle,Not the smallest blossom-bell, —Here and there, an herb he singles,Brown and dry, and round its stemFastens, with his magic fingers,One great, silver-shining gem;Shell-like, delicate and dainty,White and lucent as a pearl;Just as though he took a fragmentOf the mist, and with a twirlFroze it into shape and substance —Such a fine and fragile thing,That the fairy queen might crush it,If she brushed it with her wing.Then he steals away, delighted;He has planned a morning treatFor a troop who soon will flutterThrough the wood, on dancing feet;All the little country urchinsLove to see its silver gleam —Love to fancy it a dainty,And they call it “rabbit’s cream.”– Hattie Whitney.

THE APPLE

Both pagan and Christian mythologies have endowed the Apple with wonderful virtues. It has possessed a symbolism for man in all stages of civilization. Standing for the type of the earthly in its contrast with the spiritual, it represented the idea of that conflict between Ormuzd and Arimanes in which the evil principle is continually victor. The stories of Eve, of Paris, the Hesperides and Atalanta all emphasize this thought, showing the Apple to have been a reward of appetite over conscience.

The allegorical tree of knowledge bore apples guarded by the serpent, and the golden fruit of the garden of Hesperides was apples protected by the sleepless dragon, which it was one of the triumphs of Hercules to slay. The Assyrian tree Gavkerena, the Persian “Jima’s Paradise,” “Indra’s heaven” and the Scandinavian ash tree Yggdrasil, all prefaced the story of Paris and the apple of discord which Ate brought to the banquet of the gods. In Greece it became the emblem of love, being dedicated to Venus. Aphrodite bore it in her hand as well as Eve, and it is said that Ulysses longed for it in the garden of Alcinous, while Tantalus vainly grasped for it in hades. The fruit was offered as a prize in the Grecian games given in honor of Apollo.

Among the heathen gods of the north there were apples fabled to possess the power of conferring immortality, which were carefully watched over by the goddess Iduna and jealously preserved for the dessert of the gods who experienced the enervation of old age. Azrael accomplished his mission by holding the apple to the nostrils of his victims, and the Scandinavian genii are said to have possessed the power of turning the fruit into gold.

The ancients better appreciated the importance of the apple than do the moderns, who treat it chiefly as “the embryonic condition of cider or as something to be metamorphosed into pies.” It is said to be indigenous to every part of the inhabited globe except South America and the islands of the Pacific. It is equally at home in the fierce heat of the equator and among the frosts of Siberia. In olden times, the fig was the index of a native civilization. Later on, the vine was king, but at the present time there are many who maintain that the Apple is the only genuine index of civilized man, and claim that it flourishes best in those regions where man’s moral and intellectual supremacy is most marked.

The Athenians made frequent mention of the cultivation of the Apple, and Pliny enumerates twenty varieties that were known in his day. It is generally supposed that the Goths and Vandals introduced the manufacture and use of cider into the Mediterranean provinces and references to it are made by Tertullian and the African Fathers. The use of cider can be traced from Africa into the Biscayan provinces of Spain, and thence to Normandy. It is supposed to have come into England at the time of the conquest, but the word “cyder” is said to be Anglo-Saxon, and there is reason to believe that it was known in the island as early as the time of Henghist. As the mistletoe grew chiefly on the apple and the oak, the former was regarded with great respect by the ancient Druids of Britain, and even to this day in some parts of England, the antique custom of saluting the apple trees in the orchards, in the hope of obtaining a good crop the next year, still lingers among the farmers of Devonshire and Herefordshire. During the middle ages, the fruit was made the pretext for massacring the oppressed tribes of Israel, as it was supposed that the Hebrews used apples to entice children into their homes to furnish their cannibal banquets.

The different varieties of apples have all descended from a species of crab found wild in most parts of Europe. Although there are two or three species of wild crab belonging to this country, yet none of our cultivated varieties have been raised from them, but rather from seeds of the species brought here by the colonists from Europe – over two hundred varieties of apples are known at the present time. As a rule, the Apple is a hardy, slow-growing tree, with an irregular head, rigid branches, roughish bark, and a close-grained wood. It thrives best in limestone soils and deep loams. It will not flourish in wet soils or on those of a peaty or sandy character. As a rule, the trees live to be fifty or eighty years of age, but there are specimens now bearing fruit in this country that are known to be over two hundred years old. The wood is often stained black and used as ebony. It is also made into shoe lasts, cog-wheels and small articles of furniture, and is greatly prized in Italy for wood carving and statuary.

New and choice varieties of apples are derived from seeds planted to produce stocks. One stock in ten thousand may prove better than the original, and its virtues are perpetuated by layers, cuttings, graftings and budding. The tree is not subject to disease. Insects, notably the borer, the woolly aphis, the caterpillar, the apple moth and the bark louse, have to be guarded against, and several blights occasionally attack the foliage, but as a rule small loss is experienced from these sources.

Charles S. Raddin.Shed no tear! – O shed no tear,The flower will bloom another year.Weep no more! – O weep no more,Young buds sleep in the roots’ white core.Dry your eyes! – O dry your eyesFor I was taught in ParadiseTo ease my breast of melodies —Shed no tear!Overhead! – look overhead’Mong the blossoms white and red.Look up! Look up! – I flutter nowOn this flush pomegranate bough.See me! ’Tis this silvery billEver cures the good man’s ill.Shed no tear! – O shed no tear!The flower will bloom another year.Adieu! – adieu! – I fly, adieu —I vanish in the heaven’s blue.Adieu! – adieu!– John Keats.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF SEED-BEARING PLANTS

This is one of the most difficult and important subjects connected with the study of plants. Before it can be well organized it will be necessary to bring together very many more observations of plants in all parts of the world than is possible now. However, a few facts are known which are both interesting and suggestive. In order to make their presentation as definite as possible, this paper will be restricted to a brief account of the geographic distribution of seed plants.

One of the two great groups of seed plants is known as the Gymnosperms, a group which in our region is represented by pines, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, etc. In the tropics the group is represented by a very different type of trees, known as the Cycads. They resemble in general habit tree-ferns, or palms. The group of Gymnosperms with which we are acquainted have been called Conifers on account of the very characteristic cones which they bear. Several principles connected with geographic distribution may be illustrated by considering briefly these two groups of Gymnosperms.

The Cycads are absolutely restricted to the tropics, a few forms reaching into semi-tropical conditions, as in southern Florida. If a comparison be made between the eastern and western tropics, it will be discovered that the Cycads are almost equally divided between the two regions. For an unknown time, but certainly a very long one, these eastern and western Cycads have been separated from one another. As a consequence they have become so unlike that one kind of Cycad is never found in both hemispheres. Their long separation from one another, and their somewhat different conditions of living, have resulted in working out differences of structures which botanists recognize as species, genera, etc.

The Conifers, on the other hand, are characteristic of temperate regions. If the distribution of Conifers were indicated upon a world map, there would be shown a heavy massing of them in the northern region and a lighter massing in the southern region, the two being separated from one another by a broad tropical belt. This tropical belt is traversed in just two places; one is by means of the East Indian bridge, across which certain Australasian forms reach China and Japan; the other is the chain of the Andes mountains, along which a single northern type has worked its way into the southern part of South America. The two great masses of Conifers, therefore, lie in the northern and southern hemispheres, rather than in the eastern and western hemispheres, as is the case with the Cycads. This long separation has resulted just as it did with the Cycads; that is, the northern and southern Conifers are not any longer alike, but differ so widely from one another that botanists cannot discover any form which is common to both the northern and southern hemispheres, excepting the single one already mentioned, which has succeeded in crossing the tropics by means of the Andes bridge.

Another interesting fact in connection with the distribution of the Conifers is that their great centers of display are in regions which border the Pacific Ocean, and they have often been spoken of as a Pacific group. There are three special centers of display; one is the China-Japan region, a second is the general Australasian region, and the third is western North America. Just why this border region of the Pacific is especially favorable for this sort of plant life is a question which we do not as yet pretend to answer. Another fact which illustrates this persistent distribution in connection with the Pacific is that in the case of the Conifers which belong to the southern hemisphere, the continental masses which pair in the display of similar forms are Australia and South America.

Another fact, which is true of all large groups, is that certain forms have a very extensive distribution, and others are very much restricted in their occurrence. For example, the greatest genus of Conifers is the genus made up by the pines, at least seventy kinds of which are recognized. This great genus sweeps throughout all the north temperate regions of the globe. There is a similar extensive distribution of the different kinds of spruce, larch, juniper, etc. On the other hand, the giant redwood, known as Sequoia, is restricted to certain comparatively small areas in California. In China and Japan, and also in Australia, there are numerous illustrations of forms very much restricted in their occurrence.

The other great group of seed plants is known as the Angiosperms, and to it belong all those seed plants which are most commonly met in this region. The distribution of Angiosperms is a very much more difficult question than that of Gymnosperms; for while there are only about four hundred kinds of living Gymnosperms, there are more than one hundred thousand kinds of living Angiosperms. In presenting the distribution of this great group, it will be necessary to consider its two main divisions separately, for they differ from one another very much. One of the groups is known as the Monocotyledons, to which belong such forms as the grasses, lilies, palms, orchids, etc.

Some prominent facts in reference to the geographical distribution of these Monocotyledons are as follows: They contain four great families, which include almost one-half of their number, and which have become world-wide in their distribution. These families are the grasses, the sedges, the lilies, and the irises. This world-wide distribution means that these families have succeeded in adapting themselves to every condition of soil and climate. In this world-distribution the grasses easily lead, not only among Monocotyledons, but among all seed plants.

Another fact in reference to the Monocotyledons is that they include an unusual number of families which are entirely aquatic in their habit. These aquatic families are also world-wide in their distribution, so far as fresh and brackish waters can be called world-wide. It is important to notice that while the world-families which belong to the land have worked out about ten thousand different forms, the world-families which belong to the water have worked out considerably less than two hundred different forms. This seems to indicate that the great number in the one case is due to the very diverse conditions of the land, while the small number in the latter case is due to the very uniform conditions of water life.

A third fact of importance is that the Monocotyledons are mainly massed in the tropics, and in this sense are almost an exact contrast to the Conifers we have been considering above. The same effect of separation in working out diversity in structure is shown by the Monocotyledons as was shown by the eastern and western Cycads, and the northern and southern Conifers. For example, the palms represent the great tree group of Monocotyledons, and are restricted to the tropics as rigidly as are the Cycads. They are found in about equal numbers in the eastern and western tropics, but there are no forms in common. The eastern and western forms have become so different that they might almost be regarded as different families.

The Monocotyledons are also somewhat famous for the number of air plants which they contain – that is, plants which have sometimes been called “perchers,” because they fasten themselves upon trunks and branches and supports of various kinds, and absorb what they need directly from the air. It is a notable fact that these so-called “perchers” are very much more abundant in the western tropics than in the eastern. An explanation for this is to be found in the fact that the western tropics have a very much greater rainfall; in fact, in the rainy woods of the Amazon region the air is saturated with water, and everything is dripping.

One of the facts in connection with the distribution of Monocotyledons is quite puzzling, and that is the very poor representation of the whole group in the southern hemisphere. In examining the distribution of other groups in the southern hemisphere, it is found that Australia and its general vicinity is prolific in peculiar forms. In the case of the Monocotyledons, however, the Australasian region is the most poverty-stricken one in all the southern hemisphere. Just why the southern hemisphere in general, and the Australasian region in particular, are unfavorable for Monocotyledons, it is hard to say. Of course in these cases the world-families already mentioned are represented.

The other great division of Angiosperms is known as Dicotyledons, which include such forms as our common forest trees, buttercups, roses, peas, mints, sunflowers, etc. As there are about eighty thousand of these Dicotyledons, it is impossible to state anything very definite in reference to the distribution of the group as a whole. Taking the higher forms, however, as representing the general tendency of the group, some of the facts of distribution are as follows:

It has been noticed that the Monocotyledons are massed in the tropics, and that the temperate and boreal regions have been left comparatively free by previous groups, with the exception of the Conifers, which only develop tree types. With the coming of the Dicotyledons, therefore, the vast temperate and boreal regions presented a particularly favorable field, which they have entered and taken possession of. This vast group is prominently adapted to living in the unoccupied temperate and boreal regions. This does not mean that they are not found in the tropics for they hold their own there with the other groups.

Dicotyledons, however, succeeded in working out but three world-families: Composites, to which the sunflowers, dandelions, etc., belong; the Mints; and the Plantains. There are other large families which characterize certain great areas, but they are not world-wide in their distribution.

Another fact, which might indicate that the Dicotyledons have taken possession of comparatively unoccupied regions only, is that they are very poorly represented, so far as higher groups are concerned, in aquatic conditions. It would seem as though the conditions of life in the water had been fairly well taken up by other groups. In looking over the display of Dicotyledons in the tropics of the eastern and western hemispheres, it becomes evident that there is no such difference between the forms of the two regions as in the groups previously mentioned. It will be remembered, however, that in the case of the Cycads and palms, which were used as illustrations, they are restricted to the tropics, and their eastern and western forms are separated from one another, not merely by oceans, but by temperate and boreal lands. In the case of Dicotyledons this is different, for while they are found in the tropics, they are found in the other regions as well, and have better chances for intermingling than the other groups.

This tropical display of Dicotyledons further shows the great prominence of America in the display of forms. This appears not merely in the greater number of peculiar forms and often families which appear in tropical America; but whenever the continents are paired in the display of forms, America is always one of the pair, Asia or Africa being the other member.

It will be recognized from what has been said that the whole subject of geographic distribution is a very extensive one, and that it will be a long time before the important facts are recorded. The importance of the subject rests not so much upon the mere presence of certain plants in certain regions, but it has to do with explaining just why the conditions are suited to the plants, and also just how the plants have come to be what they are and where they are.

John Merle Coulter.

VANILLA

(Vanilla planifolia, Andrews.)

You flavor everything; you are the vanille of society.

– Sydney Smith: Works, p. 329.

Vanilla planifolia belongs to the Orchid family (Orchidaceae), though it has many characteristics not common to most members of the family. It is a fleshy, dark-green perennial climber, adhering to trees by its aerial roots, which are produced at the nodes. The stem attains a length of many feet, reaching to the very tops of the supporting trees. The young plant roots in the ground, but as the stem grows in length, winding about its support and clinging to it by the aerial roots, it loses the subterranean roots and the plant establishes itself as a saprophyte or partial parasite, life habits common to orchids. The leaves are entire, dark-green, and sessile. Inflorescence consists of eight to ten flowers sessile upon axillary spikes. The flowers are a pale greenish yellow, perianth rather fleshy and soon falls away from the ovary or young fruit, which is a pod, and by the casual observer would be taken for the flower stalk. The mature fruit is a brown curved pod six to eight inches long, smooth, splitting lengthwise in two unequal parts, thus liberating the numerous, very small, oval or lenticular seeds.

There are several species of vanilla indigenous to Eastern Mexico, growing in warm, moist, shaded forests. It is now extensively cultivated in Mexico; also in Mauritius, Bourbon, Madagascar and Java. It is extensively grown in hot-houses of England and other temperate countries. The wild growing plants no doubt depended upon certain insects for pollination, but with the cultivated plants this is effected artificially by means of a small brush.

The word vanilla is derived from the Spanish vainilla, the diminutive of vaina, meaning a sheath or pod, in reference to the fruit. There is little doubt that the natives of Mexico employed vanilla as a flavor for cocoa long before the discovery of America. We received our first description of the plant from the Spanish physician Hernandez, who, during 1571-1577 explored New Spain or Mexico. In 1602, Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, sent specimens of the fruit to Clusius, who described it independently of Hernandez. In 1694 vanilla was imported to Europe by way of Spain. In France it was much used for flavoring chocolate and tobacco. During the first half of the eighteenth century it was extensively used in Europe, particularly in England, after which it seems to have gradually disappeared. Now it is, however, again very abundantly employed in nearly all countries.