NOTES

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 59

NOTES

Specimens of a West Australian Umbelliferous shrub, Siebera reflexa, have recently been exhibited before the Linnean Society, London, and have excited much interest. They were sent to Ivew by Mr A. Morrison, of the Agricultural Department, Perth, but they were obtained from the Fitzgerald River. It is a most curious plant, as although it produces large woody stocks, from which annual Steins spring, it produces strings of tubers of a dirty yellow colour, which resemble a misshapen lemon. These tubers are eaten by the aborigines both raw and roasted, and they are not disdained by some colonists.

Arbor and Bird Days have become a very popular institution in many parts of the United States, and have proved most successful in interesting the children and teachers of schools in birds, bird protection, and the planting of trees. The Society for the Protection of Birds in England is this year offering two prizes, of £lO and £5 respectively, for papers on the best means of establishing a “Bird and Arbor Day” in England. If such an institution is necessary in the Mother Country, it is doubly so here, where the value of shade trees is so great, and the necessity for preserving our insectivorous birds is so important to the fruit-grower.

The secret of the growth of dwarf trees by Japanese aboriculturists is of a very “open” character. One method is to scoop out the interior of an orange, and fill the skin with rich mould, into seed is put, an aperture being left at the top through which the seed may sprout. The roots in time break

through the orange skin, hut are shaved off continually. The vitality of the plant being thus hindered, a dwarf is the result. When the roots cease to grow the ends are varnished over, and the orange skin, with its contents, is embedded in a pot or vase. It is predicted that America will ship