GLOW-WORM CAVE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 89, 12 October 1934, Page 7

GLOW-WORM CAVE

LIKE STARRY NIGHT

• SMALL CREATURE'S UNIVERSE

The grotto-fernery at Mr. B. Sutherland's residence, "Homewood," Homewood Avenue, Karori, has been enhanced in value by the addition of a glow-worm cave, "\vhero the light-points of the insects in the roof resemble in Ihe darkness a starry sky overhead, and are reflected with equal beauty in the water at the foot of the cave. If a grotto-fernery is to be valued mainly from its grotto side, the glow-worm cave must be regarded as its most striking feature. In the fernery outside the cave the electric nightlights are mariy and brilliant, the colours and shades being alternated by revolving panels of coloured glass; all out there is light and motion, and'the sound of plashing water from fountain and stream. ■ But in the glow-worm, cave the glow-worra is king. He is his own lighting system. Neither the electricity nor, the noises of the outer world does he tblerate. You enter his abode in strict silence and guided (preferably by a lady) so that you shall keep to the narrow path, and not plunge your foot into the water. You must not speak lest the disturbed glow-worms suppress their illuminations and leave you in complete darkness. But if you move silently and carefully, you will be rewarded by a star-like picture which is peculiarly appealing. ' And the reflections in the little lake at your feet bring back the lines of Wordsworth: — . "Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birthr But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath passed away a glory; from the earth. A grotto-fernery is an effort to recapture for city people and to confine in a small space the glory of the earth as wild life has made it and as poets have glimpsed it. A grotto-fernery, with i€s concentrated lighting and water effects, takes liberties with Nature, but not more liberties than aTC necessary in order to represent on a smaller scale what wild Nature does on a larger sca^o —certainly not" more liberties than tho lighted scene-painted stage takes with the bank where the wild thyme grows or with the forest in "As You Like It." It has to be remembered that a grottofernery, though it uses light and water to make special picture-effects by night or by day, yet deals with radiant growing vegetation. And when it accomplishes a glow-worm cave it also deals with things that not merely grow but live. So close to Nature does.jt then approach that it has to provide the living conditions for the glowing worm, and the fact that the worms give off their light seems to indicate that this adaptation (no mean feat) has been successfully made. Thus, with the agency of Nature's worms and Nature's pool, the glory of tho poet's "waters on a starry night" is brought into a tiny compartment of a Karori garden. Tho glowworm cave is not actually the starrynight, any more than tho poet's couplet is; but each of them embodies tho radiant picture, richly symbolic. Seen at night tho glow-worms ar« merely points of light, but observers who have visited tho cave in the daytime report that tho "fishing-lines"— the web-like threads that the preying worms suspend to catch flying insects, which on contact adhere to tho threads ;—are clearly seen. The- worm would therefore seem to be carrying on its life-habits, and this particular way of catching insects is of unusual interest, and has helped to spread the worldfame of the Waitomo Caves glow-worms. Since the grotto-fernery was last written about in the "Evening Post," aquaria (with gold-fish) and an aviarj] (with budgerigars) have been incor* porated with it. A nook of great eharnt includes several illuminated jet-foun-tains' on which balance ping-pong balls, which seem to have acquired the peculiar skill of balancing not on the top of tho jet, but with the jet striking the side of the ball and keeping the ball in revolution. Tho mechanical principle behind this bit of balanced-ball aero« bntics is being freely guessed at. Th» night-picture (illuminated) of thfl protto-fernery •is quite different fromthe sunlight picture (sun through green . glass). Each is fascinating. There have bpen many visitors, from all parts of New Zealand, some coming as often as four times.