— Cornell Muiversity Library AS 3 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME : FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henry W. Sane 1891 a x fp f Pir BBQ. KE. ee RETURN TO ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY ITHACA, N. Y. DATE DUE. ave Op MA Pare “DE MAR NY Bonar CPO MAY TSE nell U QK 641 crs. ! University Libr: iii Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001390115 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. FREAKS AND MARVELS Or PLANT LIFE, OR, CURIOSITIES OF VEGETATION. BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. LL.D. AUTHOR OF ‘* PONDS AND DITCHES,” “ THE WOODLANDS,” ETC. ETC. FOURTH THOUSAND. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 48, PICCADILLY, W. ; AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. New York: E. & J. B. Youne & Co. 1882. QK Gu Ci \.F3 905 CHAPTER I. II. CONTENTS, INTRODUCTION THE SUNDEWS VENUS’S FLY-TRAP . SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS PITCHER-PLANTS. MINOR CARNIVORA. GYRATION OF PLANTS IIELIOTROPES, OR SUNFLOWERS . TWINERS AND CLIMBERS SENSITIVE PLANTS. SLEEP OF PLANTS . METEORIC FLOWERS HYGROSCOPISM DISPERSION MIMICRY GIANTS : TEMPERATURE LUMINOSITY : MYSTIC PLANTS . FLOWERS OF HISTORY vi FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. FIG. - XN LS lo on SSSA ARK YO aS) bo yw eee a Ga ik v SY yb Cares b Sd Land Hr OD ONANRAW DH LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. mais PAGE. Round-leaved Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia .iiccccccsececcane 24 Section of gland of Drosera rotundifolia, magnified .. 25 Leaf with tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia, enlarged.......... 30 Venus’s Fly-trap, Dionwa muscipula .i.ceseceeeeseees rn? Leaf of Aldrovanda, enlarged oo... cceceeeeccceseetee eee eeenen eee 68 Glands on leaf of Drosophyllum, magnified .........c0s.secceeee 69 Pitchers of Sarracenia variolaris, reduced .......66.cccceeee ees 76 Pitcher of Sarracenia purpurea, reduced, with section ...... 77 Sarracenia purpurea ry [-) Pitchers of Dasdingtonta.cicascnoin ve since csuvs Casivenivauwonnsaass 1. 96 Pitcher of Wepenthes bicalcarata wicceccecccececsseseee centeeenee 102 Pitcher of Mepenthes Chelsoni ......000.. 110 Section of hood of WMepenthes Chelsoni .. TI Pitcher of Cephalotits .....ccccccscsseueseens see TIS Section of pitcher of Cephalotis ic cicccsccccccseeseesceeseneeans 116 Glands of Cephalotius, in section ........ssecssseeeserseeeeteeeoee 117 Butterwort (Pemguicoula Lrsttanicd) ...csccccsee vevvvccceevseeues 123 Leaf of Butterwort with the edges curved inwards............ 126 Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) 131 Bladder of Utricularia vulgaris, enlarged .. 132 Trifolium subterraneum fruit ........-......ccceeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeae 166 Natal Climbing Plant (Ceropegia Sandersonz) .....cscccceseeeee 192 Bitter-Sweet (Solarcam dulcamara) .1.ceseceevvecseevecsescseees 193 The Twining Polygonum (Polygonum convolvulus) ......... 195 Leaf of Bomarea Carderz, the petiole twisted in the re- ‘versal! of the leaf sicugisiiecrsionssiamanesialeeaie waa nsuamasaaneds 197 Traveller’s Joy (Clematis vitalba) ......secceeseeceeesesenseecen eee 200 Swollen petiole of Clematis vitalba ...cecccccssccesssccssssceenes 202 -Common Fumitory (Pmaria officinalis) ......ccsccccsssesneeee 204, Climbing Corydalis (Corydalis clavicilata) ...ccscecsecsecseenes 205, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii FIG, PAGE Hooked tendril, like foot of a bird, from Bignonia Tweediana. Tip of hook magnified ............... 210 Tendrils of Virginia creeper, with discs attached ............. 212 Tendrils of Virginia creeper, discs not attached ............... 212 Tendrils of Passiflova cdulis oe cieccccccsuccceeeecuusedecteuecenees 214 Cleavers (Galizemt aParime) ioc. csiecee sececssvececentescesnenseceee 215 Leaves of sensitive plant, AZimosa pudica, awake andasleep 222 Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia Palustis) .c.ecceccccccccensesuee 233 Flowers of Epilobium .........ccc.ccccssssceseeececusessensenssenacee 234 Leaves of Wood-sorrel .......cccccsesseseeeeneeeteeeeeseeeeseeanee 244 Leaflets of Clover, awake and asleep .. 247 Leaf of Acacta Farmestana, awake ....cccsccecccssecceeeesscuee 253 Leaf of Acacta Farnestana, in a sleeping condition ... 253 Scarlet Pimpernel (Avagallis arvensts)...cceccvcccceesserereeeens 263 Evening Primrose (Cimothera beennts) .iccccsecccscecvececeseune 266 Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera) .....cccseveee wae 269 Snipe Orchis..........00.ccceeeeeee eee ine (270 Flowers of Pachystoma Thomsont ages 3270 Dendrobium D Albertistd . cccccccecsee coceeeecennes ailsiitissen's 271 Zebra Orchis (Ozcedizem sebrinui) oie cecccececscecceveceesees 392 Wild oat(Avena fatia) scsi scodies. ia vesscecsasunceseevens 276 Capsules of Mesembryanthemum tripolium closed ... 283 Capsule of Mesembryanthemum tripolium open ...... jae 1283 Sand-box (Mura crepttans)...ccccccvcccevccccccceecee nessun eenaeees 284 Balsam (Lit Patiens). is icsssns caviairaearcsvaienusses veesaensimverseeatace 293 Caltrops, or fruits of 77¢belus terrestris 299 Fruits of Pedaliveme mturex vicciccsccsecevecnsccece vet ercueeaenenees 299 Burdock (Lappa Uti107) vecccccccivecsetecvenseneccsseereees saetenes 300 Hooked fruits of Martynia diandra ..... wise 302 Fruit of Proboscidea Jussieu, reduced 303 Fruit of Grapnel plant, natural size (Harpagophytum lepto- COU DuM seciaean coesaeartenge sas ian pedaadn wiCause Maraeedien ge TaLs 304. Fruit of Zrapa becovrnts c.cssvcecccccccceseee tenet eeeeceeeeeceeeen ees 305 Fruit of Zrapa dispinosd.....ccccseecicscesseveees seve 305 Fruit of Gahnia xanthophylla, suspended 307 Receptacle of the Egyptian Bean (Melembium speciosum)... 308 Monkey Pots (Lecythes Sp.) sisccrsecesvcceeeene cetteeeeeeeannees 309 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. PAGE Cannon Ball (Couroupita guianensts) .......000n evasermaaees wk 314. Euphorbia, resembling a Cactus growing amongst rocks in Damara- Land. csieccicsadiassaassavenacs vers saamsatearnomesveancis 323. Young plants of Salvinia, Jussiea repens, Phyllanthus...... 329° Ly COPOMLUM COMPACLUTIL veciivcccsnccccceecccneeren ersten tenenenuees 327 ABOK ENG SUGRO x. ve sncrianasuwsannedsarincsannsstadnseiassEcmeees sist 327 Leaf of Caltha dion folia icciccccccccecsssserccsseceeeneetieee tee 328 AOL asiciwormiawcapiancas sang sua’ 220 Rock Rose (Helianthemunt) ..... ice ata swe wc lente: Seley eh 330 Seeds of Messua ferrca, nated SIZE vias cguamisanracaaeadsadiendias 331 Samara of Securidaca tomentosa, Heter opterys laurifolia, Gallesia goranema, Seguicra floribunda sicscvccsscsceeverees 332 Samara of Ulmus campestris, Ulmus montana, Ptelea trifoliata, Hir@Q voces 333. Seed of Calosanthes indica .... 334 Seed of Zaoiia MacrOcar pa vicievcccccciversccenerseeceeseesnsnces 334 Crested seed of Sarcostemma, Echites scabra, Willow-herb (Zpilobium), Milk Thistie (SiZybame marianum) Snake nut (Ophzocaryon serpentintium) cut open Giant Arum (Amorphophallus Titanum) greatly reduced... 359 Raffesia Arnoldi, from a photograph of the living flower... 360 Flower of Aristolochia Goldieana reduced w..cceseeceeeeeeee ee 363 Wake-robin (Avzeme meaculatint) ie cascccesersceveneensencnenee 375 Egyptian Lotus (VWywiphaa stellata) ...1eccccsecteeeeeeesceneeeees 409 Lady with Lotus Flower, from Theban tomb. 41 Daffodil (Marcisses pseitdonarctssts)...sseccevee 415 Jesuitic Maracoc .......csseeceneeeeeeereneceeenees seie 432; Passion Flower (Passiflora cimctnnata)..cceccccseccccssseseeceees 436 Medicago chins ....ecccvisvcnsvercceveennnsen nance eeenie tee nnesen ees 437 Mistletoe (Viscum album) .... vere 438 Male Mandrake ........::00665 + tee 44 Female Mandrake 442 Broom (Savothamnus SCOPATIUS) vecsivscerevveees aeustreh iss se 448. Cotton Thistle (Omopordzem acanthittnt) ricecssccecceesensevees 453. Musk Thistle (Cardzsas 1201faMs)... 0000000 454 Scotch coin of 1602..... 455 Scotch Coin Of W59Qsisesssscsesae sevssenecossasanavoncrerneennsenens 455, FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. HIS work has been undertaken for the purpose of presenting in a popular form, devoid as much as possible of technical language, some of the most prominent features in the investigations which have of late years contributed so much to our knowledge of the phenomena of vegetable life. The labours especially of Mr. Darwin in this direction deserve to be more generally known than they are. Unfor- tunately, the dread which non-scientific persons exhibit at the outside of a scientific book often prevents any attempt at understanding its contents. Hence we have made an effort to summarise the results of these and similar experiments, and to present in as succinct a manner as the subjects permitted, their teachings. Some elaborate investi- gations, as, for instance, those on fertilisation, are chiefly of interest to botanists, and could be little understood or appreciated by the general public; B iS) FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. these have, therefore, not been considered as falling within the limits of this volume. On the other hand, chapters are introduced on subjects which have not yet been submitted to exhaustive examination, but which have, nevertheless, great popular interest and: fall legitimately within the scope of the title. Free use has been made of all sources of information, under the conviction that the better these experi- ments are known and understood, the greater and more general will be the appreciation of the labours of those who have contributed so much to the eluci- dation of obscure phenomena in plant-life. Text-books remind us of the importance of the vegetable world in its relationship to the animal. They also illustrate the grandeur and beauty which the plant has conferred on the world. It is difficult to form any adequate conception of the vast extent and unlimited variety of vegetable life. All we can do is to pick up here and there some object of special interest, gaze at it, marvel at it, try to com-. prehend it, if we can, and then pass on, leaving behind us a trackless ocean of wonderful things, to be picked up by our successors, and marvelled at as we have done. It will be very long before the store- house is exhausted. We learn to appreciate what has been written of wild forests only by experience. “A very similar feeling (to that of a sea-voyage) possesses the INTRODUCTION. 3 traveller as he penetrates an extensive forest. Every morning he commences his journey, patiently pur- suing the winding pathways through interminable multitudes of trees and shrubs, till, when evening arrives, he is hardly less fatigued with the mono- tony of the scene than with the exertions of the day. His feelings are the same as those at sea— he is surprised at the interminable character of the scene, and his ideas of space are measured by a greater standard. He wonders at the vast multi- tudes of vegetable beings; whence they could possibly have drawn nourishment to rear such solid structures ; he speculates on their age, and lastly on their use. In both cases the ideas of space are the same, but they have received an impulse from the novelty of the scene; perhaps assisted also by the perfect stillness, which reigns so completely in deep forests, and during the heat of the day the silence is more painful than on the wide ocean. The chief difference between the two is that one is a sea of waters, the other a sea of trees.” 1 It is a very natural inquiry, and one which may be fairly considered as a prelude to a subject such as ours, what number of different kinds, or species, of plants are supposed to be found on the surface of the globe? This is a question which has been pro- 1 Hinds in “ Annals of Nat. Hist.,” xv. (1845), p. 89. B2 4 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. pounded before, and more than once its solution has been attempted! The history of these progressive estimates it rather a curious one. It commences 390 B.c. with Theophrastus, and he enumerated 500 kinds of plants. This may be presumed to represent all that were then known. The botanical knowledge of King Solomon had, then, comparatively narrow limits, even though he discoursed on all plants from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall. Pliny (A.D. 79) increased the number of plants to double that of his predecessor. In the beginning of the seventeenth century the number had increased to 6,000. The second edition of Linnzeus’s great book included no more than 8,800. Willdenow, up to 1807, had detected 17,457 species of flowering plants. From this period the increase in the number of known species was very rapid, as a result of the stimulus given to botany by Linnzus and _ his successors, so that at the beginning of the present century Robert Brown had calculated the flowering plants at 37,000, and Humboldt all plants, flowering and non-flowering, at 44,000. Progressing still further down the stream of time, 1 R. B. Hinds on “ Geographical Botany,” “Annals of Nat. Hist.,” xv. (1845), p. 15. A. Henfrey, “Elementary Course of Botany” (1857), p. 659. Humboldt, “ Views of Nature” (1850), p: 276. INTRODUCTION. 5 in 1820, De Candolle calculated that at the least 56,000 species of plants were known. It was found that the number of species preserved in the Herbarium at the Jardin des Plantes was estimated at the same figure, and that the collection of M. Delessert contained as many as 86,000 species in 1847, although Dr. Lindley had estimated in 1835 that all the plants in the world might be included in that number. Humboldt entered upon a series of calculations, about this time, to show that all these estimates fell short of the number which might be supposed to exist. “Such considerations,’ he writes, “which 1 purpose developing more fully at the close of this illustration, seem to verify the ancient myth of the Zend-Avesta that the creating primeval force called forth 120,000 vegetable forms from the sacred blood of the bull.” In 1845 Mr. R. B. Hinds estimated the total of phanerogamic and cryptogamic plants at 134,000 species. The next estimate we meet with is in Henfrey (1857) at 213,000, but in 1855 De Candolle had, by another process of reasoning, come to the conclusion that the total could not be less than 375,000 for flowering plants. Doubtless, these calculations will go on increasing, as the highest is found to be inadequate to represent even the whole number of described species. At the present time the very lowest estimate of authentic species of 6 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. cryptogamia cannot be less than 50,000, and probably considerably exceed that number. Here, then, we have somewhat of an approximate idea, at what may be regarded a very low estimate, of the number of specics of plants scattered over the face of the earth. It is always best in such calcu- lations to under-estimate rather than over-estimate, and if we feel confidence in asserting that there are not less than 500,000 distinct and different species of vegetable organisms distributed over the globe, including land and water, it is because we feel satisfied that we have good grounds for believing that the number is in excess even of that which we have permitted ourselves to affirm. Another “curiosity” is in respect to the relative sizes of plants; some we know to be very large, and others are very small, what then is the average size? It has been calculated, in the animal world, that between the largest living animal known on the one hand, and the smallest which the microscope has revealed, the middle place, between both extremes, is occupied by the common house-fly. If we pursue a similar plan with plants, and estimate the smallest flowering plant to be the little Duckweed (Lemna minor), and the largest a Eucalyptus tree of 420 feet, the intermediate form will be, as respects length, some such an herbaceous plant as a St. John’s Wort, about 20 inches high. But if we include, as in the INTRODUCTION. 7 case of the animal world, microscopic plants, irre- spective of fructification, then, with a small cellular alga, consisting of a single cell, ‘or mm. in diameter, ‘or the one two thousand five hundredth part of an inch as the lowest extreme, we shall have, in longi- tudinal extension only, the middle place occupied by a small moss, such as Funaria hygrometrica, with a total height of less than an inch-and-a-half. In other words, the little moss would be as many times higher than the one cell of the little green alga as the tall tree of the Eucalyptus is higher than the little moss. It would be difficult to calculate bulk for bulk, and estimate size in all directions, so as to ascertain how many such little cells as those of the alga would be required to build up the trunk of such a tree ; but the number would be enormous, so far beyond human experience of numbers that the mind would fail to appreciate their relationship. The intermediate form is larger in plants than in animals, because, although there are animals as small as ‘or mm., there are none reaching 420 feet in height. Important as are the uses of plants to man, as the source of food, clothing, and medicine, it has hardly been considered as coming within the scope of this volume to refer to them in this aspect, our object being rather to present an accumulation of curious and interesting facts in the structure, habits, or 8 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. phenomena of plants which have hitherto either been scattered through journals, or presented in the pages of scientific books such as the genera! public do not take the trouble to read. By this means we have flattered ourselves that we may possibly in- fluence some to take a greater interest in botanical subjects, and in the phenomena of plant life, than they had previously done. It is a fact worth remembering that vegetation may be conducive to human health and comfort in destroying malaria in pestilential districts. The planting of any “gross feeder” in such places would .be beneficial, and the claims which have been ad- vanced on behalf of the Australian gum-tree, might, to a certain extent, be urged on behalf of many other trees. Experience has proved that the planting of any trees which will thrive well and flourish in malarious places, at once produces a marked change for the better, and hygienic plantations need not to be confined to the Eucalyptus. However this may be, it is interesting to note how speedily Eucalyptus globulus has found its way into the public news- papers, what patronage it has received in despite of its binomial appellation, and how its cultivation is becoming an article of faith and practice in Europe, Asia, and America, from Rome to Berlin, and from Calcutta to California. There are but few instances. on record of a similar vegetable success. “« * INTRODUCTION. 9 In October, 1873, Mons. Gimbert narrated in “Comptes Rendus”? the results of his experiments with the Eucalyptus? in Algeria. The tree grows rapidly and aids in destroying the malarious agency which is supposed to cause fever. It absorbs as much as ten times its weight of water from the soil, and emits camphoraceous antiseptic vapour from its leaves. A farm, some twenty miles from Algiers, was noted for its pestilential air in the spring of 1867: thirteen thousand Eucalyptus trees were planted there, since’ which time not a single case of fever had occurred. Numerous other like cases. are cited. The honour of discovering this property in the gum-tree is due to Sir W. Macarthur, of Sydney? But this is by no means the only use of the tree. It is valuable as a timber tree. The flowers also yield a large quantity of honey and are much frequented by bees. All parts of the tree are said to be useful as a febrifuge medicine, and the leaves when smoked. are efficacious in allaying pain, calming irritation, and procuring sleep. Cigars made of the leaves were 1“ Comptes Rendus,” Oct. 6 (1873), p. 764; “Gard. Chron.,” Nov. 22, 1873. 2 Eucalyptus globulus. 3 Naudin on Plantations Hygieniques in “Revue Horticole” (1861), p. 205. 10 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and recommended as being very efficient in promoting digestion. A chemist at Melbourne also prepares cigarettes from the foliage, which he urges to be employed in bronchial and asthmatic affections. In Mauritius the leaves are sold at sixpence per ounce to make an infusion which has been administered with success in malarious fevers ;! and, as a reward for all these virtues, as a return for such beneficent work on behalf of humanity, this tree is now being dis- tributed almost over the habitable globe, wherever the white man’s foot has trodden. The sunflower has a reputation similar to that of the Australian gum-tree. “The Observatory at Washington, U.S., was placed in a very unhealthy marshy situation, and at certain periods of the year fever was rife in the neighbourhdod, but after the ground was annually sown with sunflower the sanitary condition was much improved.” It is also stated by the same authority? as that of the above fact, that “a Dutch landed proprietor upon the banks of the Scheldt, planted some plots of sunflowers near his houses, and that the tenants enjoyed afterwards complete immunity from mias- } “Tancet,” April 20, 1872. 2 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” Nov. 22 (1873), pp. 15, 67. INTRODUCTION. It matic fever, although that disease continued to be prevalent in the neighbourhood. In the swampy regions of the Punjab district in India the sunflower is grown in some places in large plantations with marked success, its influence tending to remove malaria, and thus benefit the health of residents in those districts. The Agri-Horticultural Society of the Punjab, after investigating the subject, published a report in which the extension of the cultivation of this useful plant was strongly recommended. This curious subject would hardly have fallen in its place in any of the subsequent chapters and is there- fore alluded to here, in connection with another one to be presently mentioned, rather than be omitted altogether. The influence of vegetation on climate has already received attention in another place, and needs no repetition, although it has an affinity with the facts just referred to. At the same time we might have shown how, and why, such kind of vegetation, as that of the mangrove, aids in per- petrating such a malarious atmosphere as the Eucalyptus is believed to cure. As an illustration of the manner, and the extent, to which the vegeta- tion of a country may be modified and completely changed by external circumstances, we may refer to 1 “Natural History Rambles: The Woodlands,” by M. C. Cooke. 12 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. South Africa, of which Dr. John Shaw has given a graphic account, the modifying influence being in this case the introduction of the Merino sheep. After alluding to the introduction of a noxious bur-weed (Xanthium spinosun), le says that when these sheep were first introduced they fed mainly on grasses, but in a country with periodical rains and a high sun these plants had to give way and succumb. Shrubby plants were not eaten as long as the -grass was prominent. But the grass vanished rapidly, and the scrub came to be the main resource of the flocks, and the ground was given over to bush, and scrub, and obnoxious herbs. The climate then became affected, the hardy plants of the southern desert tracts spread northward, and the pleasant country was rapidly becoming an extension of dreary, scrubby, half- deserted Karoo. “Some tracts of the country,” he says, “are poisoned by the extraordinary increase of the Tripteris flexuosa, and transport riders, with their oxen, our only carrying power, have to travel through certain parts without pausing, on account of the Melice, grasses which have increased to an extent scarcely to be fancied in the last few years, and on eating which cattle become affected with intoxication to an alarming extent.” This is only one example, 1 On the changes going on in the Vegetation of South Africa, in “Linnean Journal,” vol. xiv. (1874), p. 202. INTRODUCTION. 13 out of many which might have been adduced, to show how the surface of the earth is undergoing great modification and alteration, through the disturbing influences of civilisation and colonisation, some of these, such as the destruction of forests, having produced disastrous consequences on the climate. During 1877, a paragraph went the round of the papers respecting a singular tree, which, although it did not profess to destroy miasma, was no less beneficial, inasmuch as it provided moisture in dry places, and the “Rain-tree,” it was anticipated, would convert all deserts into paradise. As there is “nothing new under the sun” the same story, or nearly so, has been found on record more than a century previously, to the following effect: “ Near the mountains of Vera Paz (Guatemala) we came out on a large plain, where were numbers of fine deer, and in the middle stood a tree of unusual size, spreading its branches over a vast compass of ground. We had perceived, at some distance off, the ground about it to be wet, at which we began to be somewhat surprised, as well knowing there had been no rain fallen for near six months past. At last, to our great amazement, we saw water dropping, or, as it were, distilling fast from the end of every leaf.”}_ The new story, on the authority of 1 “Journey Overland from the Gulf of Honduras,” by John Cockburn, London (1735), pp. 40-42. 14 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the United States Consul, related to Moyobamba in Northern Peru, where “the tree is stated to absorb and condense the humidity of the atmosphere with astonishing energy, and it is said that the water may frequently be seen to ooze from the trunk, and fall in rain from its branches, in such quantity that the ground beneath is converted into a perfect swamp. The tree is said to possess this property in the highest degree during the summer season principally, when the rivers are low, and water is scarce, whence it was suggested that the tree should be planted in the arid regions of Peru, for the benefit of the farmers there.” Thus much for the story, as it obtained currency, which requires some modification in face of the facts. The whole subject was investigated, and narrated by Mr. W. T. Thistelton Dyer, in the year 1878.1 From this we glean the following facts:—The scientific name of the “ Rain-tree” was determined as Pithecolobiun saman. The Director of the Botanic Gardens at ‘Caracas states’: “In the month of April the young leaves are still delicate and transparent. During the whole day a fine spray of rain is to be noticed under the tree, even in the driest air, so that the strongly 1 “Nature,” February 28 (1878), pp. 349, 350. 2 Professor Ernst in “ Botanische Zeitung ” (1876), pp. 35, 36. INTRODUCTION. 15 tinted iron-clay soil is distinctly moist. The phe- nomenon diminishes with the development of the leaves, and ceases when they are fully grown.” He attributes the rain to secretion from glands on the footstalk of the leaf, on which drops of liquid are found, which are rapidly renewed on being removed with blotting-paper. Another explanation, furnished by Dr. Spruce, the South American traveller, appears to set the question at rest. “The Tamia-caspi, or Rain-tree of the Eastern Peruvian Andes is not a myth, but a fact, although not exactly in the way popular rumour has lately presented it. I first witnessed the phenomenon in September, 1855, when residing at Tarapolo, a town, or large village, a few days eastward of Moyobamba. A little after seven o’clock we came under a lowish spreading tree, from which, with a perfectly clear sky overhead, a smart rain was falling. A glance upwards showed a multitude of cicadas, sucking the juices of the tender young branches and leaves, and squirting forth slender streams of limpid fluid. My two Peruvians were already familiar with the phenomenon, and they knew very well that almost any tree, when in a state to afford food to the nearly omnivorous cicada, might become a Tamia-caspi, or Rain-tree. 7 1 “Kew Gardens Report for 1878,” pp. 46, 47. 16 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. This particular tree was evidently, from its foliage, an Acacia. Among the trees on which I have seen cicada feed, is one closely allied to the Acacias, the beautiful Pithecolobium saman. Another leguminous tree visited by cicadas is Andira inermis, and there are many more of the same, and other families, which I cannot specify. Although I never heard the name, Tamia-caspi, applied to any particular kind of tree during a residence of two years in the region where it is now said to be a specialty, it is quite possible that, in the space of twenty-one years that have elapsed since I left Eastern Peru, that name may have been given to some tree, with a greater drip than ordinary ; but I expect the cicada will still be found responsible Yor the ‘moisture pouring from the leaves and branches in an abundant shower,’ the same as it was in my time.” Although, unfortunately, this explanation takes the romance out of the Rain-tree, it must be admitted that Dr. Ernst is of opinion that the rainy mist in Venezuela is produced without the intervention of insects, and that there is still some mystery to be explained. Under any circumstances, the story is of sufficient interest to warrant an allusion to it in the introduction to the subjects of the present volume, which may contain other phenomena not readily accounted for. Cicadas were great favourites with the ancient Greeks, by whom INTRODUCTION. 17 they were believed to be harmless, and to live upon dew, they were addressed by endearing epithets, and regarded as almost divine. Happy creature ! what below Can more happy live than thou ? Seated on thy leafy throne, Summer weaves thy verdant crown ; Sipping o’er the pearly lawn The fragrant nectar of the dawn. Plants, regarded in their relationship to different nations and races, have been the theme of more than one writer on botanical geography.! There are many suggestions in such a view which are of interest, and we may, in passing, allude to two or three instances. The South Sea Islands are associated with the bread- fruit tree, which is the staple food-plant to the natives of Oceania. The lower Coral Islands have the cocoa- nut palm, which grows abundantly in the Indian Islands between Asia and Australia, and on the coasts of India. The New Zealand flax (Phorimium tenax) is characteristic of the islands from which it derives its name. Amongst the Island Malays we find the clove and nutmeg. Maize was the original posses- sion of the American races. Before the time of the Europeans the maguey plant was the vine of the ! Schouw, p. 223, etc. Cc 18 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Mexicans, and in recent times another species of the same genus (Agave Americana) has acquired the name of Mexican aloe, and furnishes a well-known fibrous material. Above the limit of rye and barley, in Chili and Peru, grows another characteristic plant—the quinoa—the seeds of which are used as food. On the lower Orinoco the savage races subsist on the Mauritia palm. In Africa the date-palm is the in- heritance of the Arab. In Abyssinia the coffee appears as the characteristic plant. With the Hindoo it is rice or cotton. In China the tea-shrub is the supreme national plant. Amongst the Indo-Cauca- sian races of Western Asia and Europe the original characteristic plants are wheat, barley, rye, and oats. Southern Europe has the olive, and, together with Central Europe, the vine. The Laplanders have no characteristic plant, if we except the reindeer moss. Yet all this is being changed with increasing civilisa- tion; as the European races obtained the almond, peach, and apricot from Asia Minor, the orange from China, rice from India, and the maize and potato from America, so the colonies of the same races, established in all climates and scattered over the world, carried with them their characteristic plants, or collected around them those of all other races. In this manner maize, cotton, the vine, coffee, the orange, and even tea, travelling from their original centres, threaten every climate for which they are suitable, INTRODUCTION. 19 and characteristic plants become a legend of the past. It is scarcely half a century ago since the tea-plant was first introduced for cultivation on the slopes of the Himalayas in India, and now it has become a most important industry; and tea-gardens, formerly unknown, are a distinctive feature in the landscape. More recently, and with similar success, the fever bark, or cinchona plant, has been brought from South America and naturalised on the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, whence it is spreading to other parts of the Peninsula) To a more limited extent the hop has been introduced from England into the north-west of India, where barley was already grown, and now breweries of “bitter beer’ are established for the benefit of Europeans in the most remote regions of our Indian Empire. Not only are useful plants thus widely distributed, but with them others, such as we term “weeds” are associated. The small seeds of these plants, unintentionally mixed with the seeds of food-plants, accompany them to their new destination; thus the red Indian of North America is said to have recognised the plantain, travelling west- ward with the white man’s corn, and gave it the name of the “ white man’s foot.” Every century will make it more difficult of determination what are the really indigenous plants in countries where European races have established themselves. C2 a 20 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. We may anticipate one or two objections which may possibly be urged against this little volume. One of these may be that we have made very free use of the many researches of Dr. Charles Darwin, in certain phenomena of plant life, without adding to them, in number or in illustration. To this we plead guilty, with the excuse that by so doing we should contribute something towards the diffusion of a knowledge, and, as we hope, of a more general ap- preciation of the important additions he has made to our knowledge of vegetable life. Some there are who have been content to associate his name only with a theory which they may not comprehend, but do not fail to condemn. With that theory we are not now concerned; but there is another aspect in which we desire that this accurate and indefatigable observer should be known and remembered, outside an exclusively scientific circle; and that is, as a collector of facts, the results of paticnt observations, illustrative of the life history of plants and animals. The volumes which he has written are unequalled as. a cyclopzdia of facts; and his bitterest foe has never accused him of distorting, or misrepresenting facts, for the benefit of any theory whatever. As a biological historian, therefore, we commend him to our readers,. and, if we have added so little to the subjects which he has investigated, it is because he has done this so completely that further amplification was unnecessary.. INTRODUCTION. 21 The second objection which we may anticipate is the miscellancous character of the subjects which we have brought together within the two ends of this one book. If the object with which this was undertaken ‘be kept in view, we would fain think that such an objection is also untenable. We profess to be writing a popular volume, on a somewhat unpopular subject. We confess to a design of endeavouring to interest those who are not botanists, and do not pretend to any but a most superficial knowledge of plant life. For such we have collected together, under the headings of a certain number of chapters, ‘a quantity of what we consider curious and in- teresting phenomena and facts, in the hope that by ‘such means we might stimulate in them an interest in trees, plants, and flowers, which they never felt before. If we succeed in doing this, and, at the same time, in enlarging their views of the power and beneficence of the great Author of all these marvels, our work will have been accomplished. Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, All dyed with rainbow light, All fashioned with supremest grace, Upspringing day and night ; Springing in valleys green and low, And on the mountains high, And in the silent wilderness Where no man passes by? FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. ta iS} Our outward life requires them not— , Then wherefore had they birth? To minister delight to man, To beautify the earth ; To comfort man—to whisper hope, Whene'er his faith is dim ; For Who so careth for the flowers Will much more care for him. THE SUNDEWS. 23 CHAPTER II. CARNIVOROUS PLANTS—THE SUNDEWS. IT is very many years since we wandered about the low swampy parts of Hampstead Heath, in search of the little sundew. It had in those days an interest from its comparative rarity, since it inhabits such localities as are not to be found in every district; but it had also other interest, in the beautiful sparkling glands of the leaves, and its mysterious association with dead insects. This little plant is so incon- spicuous that it must be hunted for, amongst the bog moss, in the swampy places in which it delights to grow. The little leaves are nearly as round as a shirt button, and seldom so much as half an inch in diameter, attached at the lower edge to long slender stalks.! These stalks radiate from a central point, a short root-stock, and the leaves lie flat on the ground, like a little rosette. In the centre rises the flowering stem, sometimes from four to six inches high, with a few minute white flowers towards the top (fig. 1). The leaves and the ends of the leaf-stalks 1 Drosera rotundifolia. 24 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. are covered with curious hairs or tentacles, with clubbed ends, which sparkle in the sun, as if they bore on their extremity a minute dew-drop. These leaves, and their curious appendages, are the objects Fig. 1.—Round-leaved Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia. to which our attention must be confined, if we would comprehend why the little sundew has been called a “ carnivorous plant.” THE SUNDEWS. 25 The leaves, of which the plant seldom bears more than half a dozen, and often less, are covered on the upper surface with glandular hairs, to which the name “tentacles” has been applied. Of these, from 130 to 250 have been counted on single leaves. Those in the centre are shortest and erect, becoming longer and more oblique towards the margin. Each tentacle has a hair-like stem, and bears an expanded oblong gland at the apex. This is sur- rounded by a viscid secretion, which imparts the glistening dewy appearance that originated the name. If we remove one of these glands, and cut it down the centre, we shall see that it has an external layer of many- sided cells, which are small and filled with purple granular con- tents (fig. 2). Beneath this is another layer of different-shaped cells, with similar contents. In : Fig. 2.—Section of gland the centre is a group of elon- ¢¢ Drosera rotundifolia gated cylindrical cells, each magnified. with a spiral fibre winding round within it, and con- taining a limpid fluid. From these spiral cells a spiral vessel runs down through the centre of the stalk or pedicel of the gland. Other and more minute rudimentary hairs are found mixed with the tentacles, 4 24 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. or covering those parts from which the tentacles are absent. When any small object is placed on the glands, it causes a movement in the tentacles. The impulse is transmitted from those which are touched to others which surround them, and, one by one, the tentacles bend over towards the centre of the leaf, in order to enclose the irritating object. If the latter is a living object it is more speedily and effectively clasped than a dead one. The time required to cause all the tentacles to close over an object depends upon circumstances. The inflection is more rapid over a thin-skinned insect than a tough-coated one, and the period varies from one to four or five hours for all the tentacles to be closed down upon the captive. If the glands are only touched by a hair or thread, and nothing is left upon them, the tentacles at the margin will curve inwards. This movement may be caused by touching a gland three or four times, and in ten seconds from being touched the movement has been seen to commence.! 1 Withering states that in 1780 Mr. Whateley inspected some of these leaves (D. rotundifolia) and observed small insects imprisoned therein. On Mr. W. pressing with a pin other leaves, yet in their expanded state, he observed a remarkable sudden and elastic spring of the leaves so as to become inverted upwards, and, as it were, encircling the pin, which evidently showed the method by which the fly came into its embarrassed position. THE SUNDEWS. 27 When an insect is caught by this process, a much more remarkable phenomenon takes place, which was thoroughly examined by Mr. Darwin and de- clared in the following terms :-—* When an object, such a8 a bit of meat or an insect, is placed on the disc of a leaf, as soon as the surrounding tentacles become considerably inflected, their glands pour forth an increased amount of secretion. I ascer- tained this by selecting leaves with equal-sized drops on the two sides, and by placing bits of meat on one side of the disc; and as soon as the tentacles on this side became much inflected, but before the glands touched the meat, the drops of secretion be- came larger. This was repeatedly observed, but a record was kept of only thirteen cases, in nine of which increased secretion was plainly observed ; the four failures being due either to the leaves being rather torpid, or the bits of meat too small to cause much inflection.”! This is an important fact, as it shows conclusively some relationship between the action of inflection in the hairs and the amount of viscid secretion exuded. There is, however, another important fact which must be taken into account in connexion with that just recorded. It is, that not only is the secretion increased in quantity, but it also undergoes a change 1 Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 14. 28 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. in its nature, becoming more acid. This acidulation takes place before the glands have touched the object on the leaf, and so long as the tentacles remain bent downwards does the secretion continue to exude, and continues also its acid properties. It might be shown here, as the result of experiment, that frag- ments of meat, and other substances, placed on the leaves and submitted to the action of this secretion, remained clean and free from putrefaction, whilst other fragments of equal size, placed at the same time on damp moss, became mouldy, or disintegrated, and swarming with infusoria. This fact indicates some preservative power in the acidulated secretion. ~~ It has been demonstrated that most insects are killed within a quarter of an hour from the time of their being caught. The respiration of insects is ac- complished by means of breathing pores, or trachez, on the surface of their bodies. The viscid secretion from the glands tends to close and choke up these trachez, so that the insect is killed by suffocation. Every additional gland, as it closes over the captured insect, contributes of its viscid secretion, which soon bathes and involves the little insect, so that respira- tion is impossible. The struggles of an insect when first caught only serve to touch and stimulate other tentacles, and increase the number of those which close over it,.and pour forth their viscid secretion, and thus hasten its death. THE SUNDEWS, 2, We may well assume, as experiments justify the assumption, that the acidulated secretion, which is discharged over the insect from the inflected glands, aids in the digestion by the plant of this animal food. It is abundantly certain that all these pheno- mena, the sensibility, or irritability of the tentacles when touched, their power of closing over the object on the leaf, the increase of its viscid secretion, and the acquisition of acid properties, are not performed. without a purpose, and ¢/at purpose appears to be the capture of animal food, its digestion, and ultimate absorption by the plant. There can be no doubt that the glands of the leaf do really possess the power of absorption, which may be tested by placing upon them small quantities of such substances as carbonate of ammonia, the absorp- tion of which causes a change of colour consequent. upon the aggregation of their contents. It may be assumed also from the fact that the tentacles remain closed longer over an object which contains soluble. nitrogenous matter than over one which does not. The sundew has very delicate roots, which are scarcely more than suckers for obtaining moisture which the- plant requires in great abundance. As Mr. Darwin observes, “a plant of sundew with the edges of its. leaves curled inwards, so as to form a temporary stomach, with the glands of the closely inflected tentacles pouring forth their acid secretion, which 30 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. dissolves animal matter afterwards to be absorbed, may be said to feed like an animal. But, differently from an animal, it drinks by means of its roots ; and it must drink largely so as to retain many drops of viscid fluid round the glands, sometimes as many as 260, exposed during the whole day to a glaring sun.”! Thus we have taken a cursory glance at the little sundew, and some of the phenomena which it ex- hibits, in order to com- prehend still better the more explicit details of some of the individual Fig. 3.—Leaf with tentacles of features in its history, to Drosera rotundifolia, en- which we shall have to re- tnaged. turn. We have described the leaves, which are in fact the traps by means of which living insects are caught, and, not only this, but the stomach also in which the animal food is digested. To prove that these are not fanciful notions, but have plenty of evidence in support, the important features will have to be examined in detail. A leaf studded with sparkling glandular hairs . 1 Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 18. THE SUNDEWS. 31 is not in itself very extraordinary, but when we dis- cover that these hairs, or tentacles, can be moved in a particular direction in response to some exciting cause, we have to deal with a phenomenon by no means common in plant life, and we naturally become curious to discover the cause. When any object, living or dead, comes in contact with one of these tentacles it commences to bend over towards the centre of the leaf (fig. 3). The power of responding to irritation, moreover, is not confined to the single tentacle which has been touched, for it possesses the capacity of communicating with the surrounding tentacles, and they also bend over, as if in sympathy with and to assist their companion. The minute fragment of a human hair ~4,th of an inch in length, laid upon a gland, has been shown to be sufficient to excite a tentacle to bend over. Minute particles of glass, chalk, and other inorganic substances, placed on the glands of the outer tentacles, will cause them to bend. So also will small fragments of meat, and minute drops of stimulating fluids. When a tentacle is touched three or four times it will also bend, but not when only touched once or twice, although the sustained pressure of a gnat’s foot is sufficient to produce the movement. After remaining bent down for some time the excited tentacles again slowly return to their original erect position. This return is much more speedy when an inorganic body has been 32 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the cause of the inflection, than when a small insect, or a fragment of meat, has been the exciting cause. These facts have been proved by numerous experi- ments, which place them beyond question. First, that the tentacles are sensitive (if we may use that expression) to the sustained pressure of one millionth part of a grain. That they will respond to such pressure, and bend towards the centre of the leaf. That this irritation will also be communicated to neighbouring tentacles, which will bend in the same direction. And that after this operation is performed the inflected tentacles will return to their former position. If we suppose, then, that a minute insect has fallen or alighted upon one, or more, of the outer tentacles, it will in the course of ten seconds be moving towards the centre, whither it will ultimately be carried, whilst the surrounding tentacles will also follow in the bending movement, until all are closed over the captive insect. But, it may be asked, are we assured that the first inward movement of the tentacles will not alarm the insect and cause it to take flight? It might do so if this were not provided against by the viscid secretion with which the glands are covered, and which increases in quantity with the inward movement of the tentacles. This secretion is so tenacious that it may be drawn out in strings, and if once a small insect alights upon it, it struggles in vain to get free. It is, in fact,a kind of birdlime, THE SUNDEWS. 33 prepared naturally, and exposed systematically, for the capture of little flies. The club-shaped summit of each tentacle is a manufactory and storehouse for this sticky substance, which is exuded and exposed on the surface. Although these drops glisten and sparkle in the sun, they have another and more important function to perform than only to justify the cognomen of the plant. Not only does the response of the tentacles to irritation remind us of sensibility in the animal kingdom, but the apparent power of discrimination which the tentacles possess seems surprising. It is an undoubted fact that the power does exist of distinguishing not only between inorganic and organic substances, as between a piece of glass and a piece of boiled egg, but also between a hard- skinned beetle and a soft fly, and even between different kinds of fluids. Mr. Darwin’s experiments give abundant evidence of this, and his book, like _ all other of his works, is a complete cyclopzdia of authentic facts. For instance, drops of pure water were tried on thirty or forty leaves, but no effect whatever was produced. Drops of milk were placed on sixteen leaves, and the tentacles of all became greatly inflected. Ten leaves were tried with drops of cold tea, but the tentacles did not respond. Whereas eight were tested with dissolved isinglass, as thick as milk, and all of them recognised it by D 34 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. inflecting the tentacles. Nor was the treatment of solids less remarkable. “Minute flies were placed on the discs of several leaves, and on others balls of paper, bits of moss and quill, of about the same size as the flies, and the latter (the flies) were well embraced in a few hours, whereas, after twenty-five hours, only a very few tentacles were inflected over the other objects. The bits of paper, moss and quill were then removed from these leaves, and bits of raw meat placed on them, and now all the tentacles were soon energetically inflected.” Yet another mode of recognition was manifested. Over and over again, ‘in ‘the work from whence the above is quoted, it is demonstrated that the tentacles remained for a much longer period inflected over what we should term ‘digestible substances than over such indigestible things as bits of glass and paper. The inference to be drawn from this fact is that the plant recognised the latter as indigestible, and hence that the tentacles let go their hold and returned to their previous position of expectancy, whilst in the former they remained closed in the act of digestion. It may be remarked here that as the tentacles, whilst becoming inflected, exude a larger drop of secretion than when erect, so in recovering from inflection they become drier, with little or none of the secretion exuded, 1 Darwin, “Insectivorous Plants,” p. 22. THE SUNDEWS. 35 until after they have again resumed their erect position. By the first action the capture and diges- tion of the prey has to be provided for; by the last any adhering legs or wings of dead insects are got rid of. . We have demonstrated the perfectibility of our fly-catching plant in all that relates to the securing of its prey, and, within certain limits, to its power of selection. The next question is, “ What will he do with it?” and this naturally leads us to investigate its powers of digestion and absorption. If the phenomena exhibited by the plant are analogous to those of animals during digestion, we may fairly conclude that the motive is the same. We have Stated the fact, which may be repeated in Mr. Darwin’s own language, “that the glands of the disc when irritated transmit some influence to the glands of the exterior tentacles, causing them to secrete More copiously, and the secretion to become acid, as if they had been directly excited by an object placed on them. The gastric juice of animals contains, as is well known, an acid and a ferment, both of which are indispensable for digestion, and so it is with the secretion of Drosera. When the stomach of an animal is mechanically irritated it secretes an acid, and when particles of glass or other such objects were placed on the glands of Drosera, the secretion and that of the surrounding and untouched glands D2 36 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. was increased in quantity and became acid.” It is well known how easy it is to test the presence of an acid by the application of litmus paper, and this test has been applied to the secretion of the glands of the sundew in innumerable instances. The same author says,—“ I have tried, indeed, hundreds of times, the state of the secretion on the discs of leaves which were inflected over various objects, and never failed to find it acid.” And this observation has been corroborated by others both in this plant and in the Dioncea. When the leaves have not been excited the viscid secretion is not acid, or but very slightly so, but, after the tentacles have commenced bending over any object, the secretion becomes more or less acidulated. Another property which this secretion possesses has also been alluded to—namely, its antiseptic quality. It checks the appearance of mould and minute animalcules, and for a time prevents the discoloura- tion and decay of substances over which it has been transfused. This, again, is analogous to the gastric juice of animals, which is known to arrest the putre- faction of substances under its influence. And here we have another singular coincidence, even if nothing more, which must have its weight in determining whether the glands of the Sundew possess the power of digestion. If it can be shown that, in addition to 1 Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 268. THE SUNDEW s. 37 the power of catching insects and holding them, and also of discriminating between digestible and indi- gestible substances, these leaves secrete a fluid pos- -sessing all the attributes of a digestive fluid, dissolv- ing without putrefaction just such substances as an animal would dissolve in its stomach by the ordinary process of digestion, we furnish very strong presump- tion in favour of their being called “ insectivorous.” Although his remarks were illustrative of another plant, we may better quote here the observations of Dr. Burdon Sanderson, as they apply with equal force to the sundew as to the Venus’s fly-trap. In _ his lecture at the Royal Institution, after describing the ,plant and its mechanism, he referred to its power of digestion. “When,” he says, “we call this process ‘digestion we have a definite meaning. We mean that it is of the same nature as that by which we -ourselves, and the higher animals in general, convert the food they have swallowed into a form and con- dition suitable to be absorbed, and thus available for the maintenance of bodily life. We will compare the digestion of Dioncea with that which in man and animals we call digestion proper, the process by which the nitrogenous constituents of food are ren- dered fit for absorption. This takes place in the 1 June 5th, 1874; reported in “ Gardener’s Chronicle” for June 27th, 1874. 38 | FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. stomach. It also is a fermentation, ze. a chemical change, effected by the agency of a leaven or ferment which is contained in the stomach juice, and can be, like the ferment of saliva, easily separated and pre- pared. As so separated it is called pepsin. Conse- quently, having the ferment, we can easily imitate digestion out of the body. For this experiment there are three things necessary (1) That our liquid should contain pepsin ; (2) That it should be slightly acid ; (3) That it should be kept at the temperature of incubation (about 97° Fahr.). We select for the experiment a substance which, although nutritious and containing nitrogen, is not easily digested—such,, for example, as boiled white of egg. In water con- taining a small percentage of hydrochloric acid, and a trace of pepsin, it is gradually dissolved ; but chemical examination of the liquid shows us that it has not been destroyed, but merely transformed into a new substance called peptone, which is afterwards ab- sorbed, ze., taken into the circulating blood.” “Between this process and the digestion of the Dioncea leaf the resemblance is complete. It digests exactly the same substances in exactly the same way, ze, it digests the albuminous constituents of the bodies of animals just as we digest them. In both. instances it is essential that the body to be digested should be steeped in a liquid, which in Dioncea is secreted by the red glands on the upper surface of THE SUNDEWS. 39 the leaf; in the other case by the glands of the mucous membrane. In both the act of secretion is excited by the presence of the substance to be digested. In the leaf, just as in the stomach, the secretion is not poured out unless there is something nutritious in it for it to act upon; and, finally, in both cases the secretion is acid. As regards the stomach we know what the acid is,—it is hydrochloric acid. As regards the leaf we do not know precisely as yet, but Mr. Darwin has been able to arrive at very probable conclusions.” It has been demonstrated, by experiment, that the secretion of the glands of the sundew completely dissolves albumen, muscle, fibrin, cartilage, the fibrous portion of bone, gelatin, and the casein of milk. That is to say, little cubes of hard-boiled egg, fragments of roast meat, tough cartilage from a leg-bone of mutton, small pieces of the bone of a fowl, and of a mutton- chop bone, the latter being so softened that it might be penetrated by a blunt needle, or compressed, and these became dissolved as they would have been in the stomach of some of the higher animals. It is only necessary to cite one experiment which was performed on a most unpromising substance under somewhat unfavourable conditions. “Three cubes of white translucent, extremely tough cartilage were cut from the end of a slightly-roasted. leg-bone of asheep. These were placed on three leaves, borne 40 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. by poor small plants in my greenhouse during November; and it seemed in the highest degree improbable that so hard a substance would be digested under such unfavourable circumstances. Nevertheless, after forty-eight hours, the cubes were largely dissolved, and converted into minute spheres, surrounded by transparent, very acid fluid. Two of these spheres were completely softened to their centres, whilst the third still contained a very small irregularly-shaped core of solid cartilage. Their surfaces were seen under the microscope to be curiously marked by prominent ridges, showing that the cartilage had been unequally corroded by the secretion. I need hardly say that cubes of the same cartilage, kept in water for the same length of time, were not in the least affected.”! The fact, therefore, is clearly established, that the secretion from the glands of the Sundew, under cer- tain conditions of stimulation, is capable of dissolving animal substances, in precisely the same manner as they are acted upon during the process of digestion in the stomach of animals. It remains to be seen what evidence there is in support of the absorption, and assimilation, of the substances so digested. Here it would be essential to show, in the first instance, that the glands in question possess the power of absorp- 1 Darwin, “Insectivorous Plants,” p. 104. THE SUNDEWS. 41 tion at all, Because if it can be demonstrated that they are capable of absorbing fluids, especially nitrogenous fluids, it would be easy to believe that no exception would be made to the exclusion of dissolved animal substances. All the experiments made in this direction are exceedingly interesting and instructive, some of them truly marvellous in their results. It would be some- what tedious to narrate them in detail, in a popular exposition of the reasons why certain plants have been called “carnivorous plants,” but it will be necessary to allude to one or two. Solutions of certain chemical substances, called salts of ammonia, were applied to the leaves of living plants. Some of these quickly discoloured the glands, but all caused the characteristic inflection of the tentacles. Yet these salts were applied in a very diluted state, for less than one-millionth part of a grain, absorbed by a gland of one of the exterior tentacles, was sufficient to cause it to bend. In order that some idea might be formed of what a million means, the following illustration is given in a foot-note to Mr. Darwin’s book. “Take a narrow strip of paper, eighty-three feet four inches in length, and stretch it along the wall of a large hall; then mark off at one end the tenth of an inch. This tenth will represent a hundred, and the entire strip a million.” The experi- ments alluded to were performed in three ways. 42 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Small drops were placed on the disc of the leaves ; very minute drops were gently placed on one or more of the exterior tentacles ; and whole leaves were cut off and immersed in the solutions. In all ways the results harmonised. How exceedingly sensitive the leaves were to some of these solutions may be inferred from their great dilution. As an illustration, it was stated that five thousand fluid ounces would more than fill a thirty-one gallon cask, and that to this large body of water one grain of the salt was added ; only half a drachm, or thirty minims, of the solution being poured over a leaf. “Yet this amount sufficed to cause the inflection of almost every tentacle, and often of the blade of the leaf.” The solution of many salts, acids, and alkaloids, were tried, and produced in some instances unex- pected results, inasmuch as some substances which are wholly harmless to animals were poisonous to the plant, and others which are poisonous in their effects upon animals were almost inert upon the Sundew. [Abundant evidence was supplied that the fluids must have been absorbed by the glands, and their influence transmitted to other tentacles which were not touched. In cases of poisoning, for instance, it must be conceded that the deleterious substance was absorbed, for the parts became blackened, and all the phenomena of poisoning were exhibited. It is but fair to conclude that, if deleterious substances actually THE SUNDEWS. 43 become absorbed, the result of absorption being plainly traced, that also other substances may be absorbed, which would either be neutral or beneficial to the plant, but which cannot so easily be traced in their course. There is another remarkable phenomenon in which the tentacles perform a conspicuous part, which must be briefly alluded to, as affording evidence of the great changes which take place in the internal organism of these plants under excitement. If a resting tentacle is examined, selecting one which has not been excited or inflected, the cells of the pedicel will be seen to present a completely uniform appearance, filled with a purple fluid, retaining throughout one uniform character, and a thin layer of uncoloured circulating fluid, passing along the walls of the cell. These cells, with a diffused colour, impart to the pedicel a continuous purple tint. But if a tentacle is examined after it has been excited, from whatever cause, the cells will present quite a changed appear- ance. Even to the naked eye they will not present the same uniforrn, even, purple tint, but seem to be speckled, mottled, or variegated. Examination of these cells, so changed, under the microscope will reveal the cause of the mottling, in the aggregation of the purple matter, which they contain, in variously- shaped masses, suspended in a colourless medium. Each cell, which before was suffused with a uniform 44 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. tint, now holds a clear and colourless fluid, in which floats an elongated dark-coloured body, formed by the aggregation of the colouring matter. This aggregated body, sometimes of a single mass, some- times of two, is constantly changing its form, slowly but gradually, like that curious little animal found in stagnant waters called an Ameceba. Finally, the movement ceases, the masses again dissolve, and become diffused through the contents of the .cell, which again assume a uniform tint and appearance. In this cycle we have a manifestation of a great molecular change which is wrought within the cells of the tentacles, in response to some external irritation. Whatever causes the tentacle to become inflected seems also sufficient to induce this phenomenon of the aggregation of masses within the cells. When the influence of that irritation has passed away, and the tentacle has assumed its original erect position, the contents of the cells assume also their homo- geneity, or uniform density. This aggregation commences in a tentacle at the upper end, in immediate proximity to the gland, and proceeds from above downwards. It accompanies the bending over of the tentacle, but that it neither causes the inflection, nor is caused by it, is evident from the fact that aggregation may take place when there is no inflection of the tentacle. Some acids will produce a rapid inflection but no aggregation. THE SUNDEWS. 45 Hence, then, this aggregation is neither a cause nor a consequence of inflection. Whatever its cause may be, it appears to be invariably accompanied by an increased secretion of the glands, and the dispersion ' of the masses, in like manner, indicates a diminution in the amount of viscid matter secreted by the glands. The shorter_central tentacles, which have a green pedicel, exhibit the same phenomenon, with the “exception that the aggregated masses partake of the green colour of the cells. The colour of the aggre- gated masses being of course dependent upon the colour of the contents of the cells. The experiments on the Sundews have been for the most part conducted with the little round-leaved Sundew, but the other two English species have like- wise been examined, and found to correspond in all essentials with its fellow species. This has been done both in England and America. A species with very long slender leaves,! which grows abundantly in New Jersey, has been tested in a similar manner. One person writes :* “I found it in full bloom, and growing as thick as it could well stand, on either side of an extensive cranberry plantation. This charming plant with its pretty pink blossoms, together with the dew- like substance exuding from the glands (the glands 1 Drosera filiformtis. 2 Mrs. Mary Trent in “ American Naturalist,” vii., Dec., 1873, 46 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. surmount the bristles or hairs which cover the long thread-like leaves) was one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld. From former observations I had supposed this plant caught only small insects, but now found I was mistaken; great Asilus flies were held firm prisoners, innumerable moths and butterflies, many of them two inches across, were alike held captive until they died—the bright flowers and brilliant glistening dew luring them on to sure death. But what is the use of this wholesale destruction of insect life? can the plants use them? Upon examina- tion I find that after the death of the larger insects, they fall around the roots of the plants, and so fertilise them, but the smaller flies remain sticking to the leaves.” And again, “At ten o’clock I pinned some living flies half an inch from the leaves, near the apex. In forty minutes the leaves had bent perceptibly toward the flies. At twelve o’clock the leaves had reached the flies, and their legs were entangled among the bristles and held fast. I then removed the flies three quarters of an inch further from the leaves. The leaves still remained bent away from the direction of the light toward the flies, but did not reach them at this distance.” Mr. Darwin also examined this species, which he says, “had thread-like leaves from six to twelve inches in length, with the upper surface convex and the lower flat and slightly channelled. The whole THE SUNDEWS. 47 convex surface down to the roots—for there is no distinct footstalk—is covered with short gland-bear- ing tentacles, those on the margin being the longest and reflexed. Bits of meat placed on the glands of some tentacles caused them to be slightly inflected in twenty minutes, but the plant was not in a vigorous state.” Two Australian species have also exhibited the same propensities, so that it is probable that all the Sundews, from whatever part of the world they may come, are equally fly-catchers, as well as our own species continue to be, when found flourishing in countries far remote. } 1 As, for instance, in Trinidad, where it was observed by the Rev. Charles Kingsley :—“ As I scratched and stumbled along the tussocks, ‘larding the lean earth as I stalked along,’ my kind guide put into my hand, with something of an air of triumph, a little plant, which was—there was no denying it— none other than the long-leaved Sundew, with its clammy- haired paws full of dead flies, just as they would have been in any bog in Devonshire or in Hampshire, in Wales or in Scotland. But how came it here (in Trinidad)? And, more, how has it spread, not only over the whole of Northern Europe, Canada, and the United States, but even as far south as Brazil? Its being common to North America and Europe is not surprising. It may belong to that comparatively ancient flora which existed when there was a landway between the two continents by way of Greenland, and the bison ranged from Russia to the Rocky Mountains. But its presence within the tropics is more probably explained by supposing that it has been carried on the feet or in the crop of birds.”—“ At Last,” P. 315. 48 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. In Dr. Darwin’s book all the facts resulting from observation, and experiment are brought to bear upon the theory which he advanced, that the power of catching and digesting insects is of advantage to the plants themselves. Some continental botanists have denied that the case is proved. Subsequent to the volume in question Mr. Francis Darwin instituted some experiments with the view of ascertaining what effect the indulgence in carnivorous propensities had upon the Sundew. The plants were isolated and pro- tected. Half the plants, or 91 plants, were not fed, whilst 86 plants were supplied with roast meat, cut into thin slices across the grain, and the fibre torn into fragments exceedingly minute. The first difference observed was that in August the starved plants had only produced 116 flowering stems whilst the fed plants had produced 173. Another difference observed was that the fed plants contained a larger number of healthy leaves than the starved plants, and, finally, it is stated that from these experiments “it would seem that the great advantage accruing to carnivorous plants from a supply of nitrogenous food to the leaves is the power of producing a vastly superior yield of seeds; and,” the author adds, “I venture to think that the above experiments prove beyond question that the supply of meat to Drosera is of signal advantage to the plants.” Similar experi- ments in Germany in which the plants were fed with THE SUNDEWS. 49 ‘plant-lice instead of meat resulted in a similar con- clusion, that numerous and striking advantages accrued to the fed plants.! Admitting that the case is not sufficiently proved for us confidently to affirm that these carnivorous habits are conducive to the welfare of the plant, we cannot deny its probability, because otherwise we are placed in the dilemma of assuming, either that all. this adaptation for catching and destroying animal life is wanton mischief, or that it is an expenditure of power without purpose. From experience of the ‘operations of nature we are unwilling to recognise such a departure from the usual plan. We are accustomed to trace operations performed by an economy of force, and to believe that nothing is done in vain. Wanton destruction, or wasted energy, are not the probabilities which would“suggest themselves to the mind of any one who has devoted himself to the study of the phenomena of life, nor would they elevate our conception of the All-wise Creator, of what in such a case would be undoubted failures. 1 “ Journal of Linnean Society ” (Botany), xvii., pp. 17 to 32. 50 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. CHAPTER III. CARNIVOROUS PLANTS—VENUS'S FLY-TRAP. BELONGING to the same natural order of plants as the Sundews, Venus’s Fly-trap, or, botanically, Dionea muscipula, has recently been much harassed by experiments to test its flesh-eating capacity. It is not a British native, but an inhabitant of damp places in the eastern parts of North Carolina, so that its relationship to our Sundew may be de- scribed as that of an ‘“ American cousin.” In like manner it will grow and flourish in wet. moss, without any soil, and consists of a rosette of leaves, which radiate front a centre, but both leaves and tufts are larger, and more conspicuous, than in the Sundew. The foot-stalk, of the leaves is flattened out, and leaf-like. The blade of the leaf is somewhat rounded in outline, and composed of two lobes, which are hinged down the centre, so that the lobes rise up, and apply themselves together face to face. Around the margin of the lobes stands a row of bristles, which will be more fully described shortly. With a coloured figure of this plant, published ninety years ago in “ Shaw’s VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 51 Miscellany,” is the following remark: “The surface of the leaves is irritable in the highest degree, and whatever insect is so unfortunate as to alight on it is caught as effectually as a mouse in a trap, and is even generally squeezed to death by the pressure. What particular purpose in the economy of nature is answered by the imprisoning power of this extra- Fig. 4.—Venus’s Fly-trap, Dionea muscipula. ordinary vegetable, it is extremely difficult, and perhaps impossible, to determine.” As long ago as 1768, a naturalist, named Ellis, called the attention of Linnzus to the peculiarities of the leaves of the Venus’s Fly-trap, or Dioncea, by the following remarks: “The plant shows that Nature may have some views towards its nourish- Be3. 52 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE ment, in forming the upper joint of its leaf like a machine to catch food; upon the middle of this lies the bait for the unhappy insect that becomes its prey. Many minute red glands that cover its sur- face, and which perhaps discharge sweet liquor, tempt the poor animal to taste them; and the instant these tender parts are irritated by its feet, the two lobes rise up, grasp it fast, lock the rows of spines together, and squeeze it to death. And, further, lest the strong efforts for life in the creature just taken should serve to disengage it, three small erect spines are fixed near the middle of each lobe, among the glands, that effectually put an end to all its struggles. Nor do the lobes ever open again while the dead animal continues there. But it is, nevertheless, certain that the plant cannot distinguish an animal from a vegetable or mineral substance ; for if we introduce a straw or pin between the lobes it will grasp it full as fast as if it were an insect.” Linnzus, however, only regarded these phenomena as illustrations of the extreme sensibility of the leaves. Sixty years subsequently, Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, made further and more complete examination of these leaves. “Each half of the leaf,” he says, “is a little concave on the inner side, where are placed three delicate hair-like organs, in such an order that an insect can hardly traverse it without interfering with one of them, when the two sides suddenly collapse VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 53 and enclose the prey with a force surpassing an in- sect’s efforts to escape. The fringe of hairs of the opposite sides of the leaves interlace, like the fingers of two hands clasped together. The sensitiveness resides only in these hair-like processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any other part without sensible effects.” After this, another American botanist, who was staying in the district where the “ fly-trap” flourishes, resolved upon some experiments, and by feeding the leaves with small pieces of beef he found that these were completely dissolved and absorbed ; the leaf opening again with a dry surface, and ready for another meal, though with an appetite somewhat jaded. He found that cheese disagreed horribly with the leaves, turning them black and finally killing them! The insectivorous predilictions of Dzonwa have, therefore, been suspected, if not demonstrated, .for more than a century. In the account of the plant given by Shaw, he commences by alluding to the different methods by which carnivorous animals catch their prey, and then he adds, “ What is still more ex- traordinary, there are not wanting amongst vegetables some instances in which the smaller animals meet their fate by alighting on the flowers or leaves ; being either held fast by a viscous exudation from 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” August 29th, 1874, p. 260. 54 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. ne the surface or confined by the pressure of the irritable parts of the plant.” The date attached to the plate is 1790. Sir Joseph Hooker! has given a complete summary of the history of all the observations which have been made on the plant from the earliest times, which may be consulted by any who desire a more explicit narrative of the details than our space will enable us to furnish. We direct ourselves at once to the modus operandi by means of which the plant achieves its object. This mechanism has been compared by Dr. Burdon Sanderson to a rat-trap. “When it (the leaf) is open, the lobes are at right angles to each other. When an insect comes into contact with either, at once they approach each other, but this does not occur with the sudden- ness and completeness that it occurs in a rat-trap. The lobes begin to close sharply enough, but do not come quite together, remaining for some time entr’ouvert. When the leaf is in this state of half- closure, it is easy to see what is the significance of the two sets of prongs. You see that they are set on alternately, along the opposite edges of the lobes, so that, just like the teeth of a rat-trap, they fit into each other. It is not difficult to see why this is so, zé., why the spikes are arranged alternately. The 1 Address to the British Association at Belfast in 1874. VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 55 leaf, being a trap, is made like a trap. But I should not have been able to tell you why the leaf does not at once close on its prey had not Mr. Darwin told me. After having partially closed, as I have said, one of two things may happen. The insect, having been caught, at once begins to think of es- -caping, and makes efforts to do so, which may or may not be successful. If it is small, it easily finds its way out through this wonderful grating formed by the crossing of the teeth, and in this case the leaf soon recovers, expands again, and is ready for the capture of another victim. If it is large, all its efforts to regain its liberty are futile. Repelled by its prison- bars, it is driven back upon the sensitive hairs which Stick into the interior of its cell, and again irritates them. By doing so it occasions a second and more vigorous contraction of the lobes. The result is, that the creature is not only captured, but crushed ; not only swallowed, but digested.” The minute structure of the leaves differs in many respects from that of the Sundews. The rigid marginal spines are without glands on their tips, and are not irritable. The three minute filaments which project from the upper surface of both lobes, on the contrary, are remarkable for their extreme sensitive- ness to the touch, but they also are pointed at their extremity. Besides these cuticular appendages the upper surface is thickly covered, except near the 56 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. margin, with minute reddish or purplish glands, but there are no glands on the leaf-like foot-stalk. The glands are elevated on short pedicels, and are convex above. Little stellate projections of an orange-- brown colour, with eight radiating arms, are scattered over the foot-stalk, the back of the leaves, and the basal part of the marginal spikes, and a very few on the surface of the lobes. Here and there a few minute pointed hairs may be traced on the back of the leaves. The functions of all these parts have been fairly ascertained. That of the marginal spines is of a mechanical nature, and perhaps entirely so, as they are neither sensitive nor glandular, and do not seem to possess any separate or spontaneous motion. The sensitive filaments, on the contrary, are eminently sensitive. Their apices are sometimes divided inta two or three points, and, from apex to base, it is impossible to touch them, ever so lightly, without at once acting on the lobes of the leaf and causing them to close. These sentinel filaments, although so sensi- tive to a slight touch, are less sensitive to prolonged pressure. This difference between the filaments in Dioncea and the glands of Drosera relates to the different habits of the two plants. It has been seen how a slight prolonged pressure acts on the Sundew; but in the Dioncea there is no viscid secretion to detain the insect, which must be caught at once by VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 57 the rapid closing of the lobes, simultaneously with the slightest touch; for the filaments neither secrete nor absorb, and are, in fact, purely sentinels. The tentacles of Drosera when excited become inflected and aggregated, but this property does not extend to the Dioncea filaments. Drops of water falling on them will not cause the lobes to close, nor blowing upon them strongly. Hence the sentinels are not likely to give a false alarm at a shower of rain or a gale of wind. Neither did the rays of the sun, when concentrated upon the filaments to such a degree as to cause them to be scorched and discoloured, produce any movement. The minute glands with which the surface of the leaves is studded have the power of secretion and absorption, but they do not secrete until excited by the presence of animal matter. Other objects placed upon the glands will remain quite dry; but, if a fragment of meat, or a crushed fly, is placed on the surface of the expanded lobes after a time the glands will secrete freely. If the lobes are made to close over an insect, then the glands of the whole surface secrete copiously. Two or three instances are given by Mr. Darwin in proof of this:! “On one occasion when a leaf was cut open, on which a small cube of albumen had been placed forty-five hours before, 1 Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 296. 58 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE, drops rolled off the leaf. On another occasion in which a leaf, with an enclosed bit of roast meat, spontaneously opened after cight days, there was so much secretion in the furrow over the midrib that it trickled down. A large crushed fly was placed on a leaf from which a small portion at the base of one lobe had previously been cut away so that an open- ing was left, and through this the secretion continued to run down the foot-stalk during nine days—that is, for as long a time as it was observed.” Aggregation, which was insisted upon in our remarks on the Sundews, may be scen to take place very quickly in the glands of the Dioncea, after contact with nitrogenous subjects, every cell having its contents aggregated, ina beautiful manner, into dark, or pale purple, or colourless, globose masses of protoplasm. The function of the little stellate projections, with eight radiating arms, not having been demonstrated can only be conjectured. From these details of the structure of the Icaves we are enabled to correlate them with their move- ments. When an insect touches one of the sentinel filaments, on an expanded leaf, the irritation is at once communicated, and the lobes close together, with the captured insect enclosed between them, its struggles, in so far as they touch the filaments, only serving to accelerate the closing. The interlocking marginal spines prevent any escape, except in the VENUS'S FLY-TRAP. 59 case of very minute insects. Contact with the glands causes them to absorb, and then the secretion of the acid-mucilaginous fluid commences, and proceeds as long as any material is left to stimulate the action of the glands. Under this treatment the insect becomes dissolved, as far as it is capable of dissolution, and is assimilated by the leaf, this action causing aggrega- tion of the protoplasm in the cells of the glands. All these steps in the process have been determined, by means of careful experiment, which we have not deemed it necessary to recount. That the captured insects were in some way made subservient to the nourishment of the plant was conjectured from the first. Dr. Curtis found them enveloped in a fluid of mucilaginous consistence,! which seemed to act as a solvent, the insects being more or less consumed by it. This was verified, and the digestive character of the liquid well-nigh demonstrated some years ago by Mr. Canby, of Wilmington, who, upon a visit to North Carolina, and afterwards at his own home, followed up Dr. Curtis’s suggestions with some capital observations and experiments, which were published in 18682 although they did not seem to have attracted the attention which they deserved. 1 Dr. Curtis in “Journal of Boston Society of Natural History,” vol. t., 1834. 3 Canby in “ Meehan’s Gardener's Monthly,” vol. x., August, 3186S (Philadelphia). 60 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. The points which Mr. Canby made out are, that this fluid is always poured out around the captured insect in due time; “if the leaf is in good condition and the prey suitable”; that it comes from the leaf itself, and not from the decomposing insect (for, when the trap caught a plum curculio, the fluid was poured out while he was still alive, though very weak, and endeavouring, ineffectually, to eat his way out); that bits of raw beef, although sometimes rejected, after awhile were generally acted upon in the same manner—ze., closed down upon tightly, slavered with liquid, dissolved mainly, and absorbed ; so that, in fine, the fluid may well be said to be analogous to the gastric juice of animals, dissolving the prey, and rendering it fit for absorption by the leaf. Many leaves remain inactive, or slowly die away, after one meal; others re-open for a second, and perhaps a third capture, and are at least capable of digesting a second meal. When the lobes close together from irritation by inanimate substances, or touching, the inner surface remains concave until the lobes expand again; but, if an insect or a piece of meat is enclosed, each lobe gradually flattens, and that apparently with consider- able force, thus pressing the enclosed object firmly against the secreting glands. When no object is caught the lobes soon expand again in from twenty- four to thirty-two hours, and even before fully ex- VENUS'S FLY-TRAP. 61 panded they are ready to act again, so that a leaf has been found to close and re-open alternately, but unsuccessfully, for four times during six days. Closing in this manner, from irritation by inanimate objects, does not, therefore, prevent the lobes from acting vigorously several times, until some suitable prey is caught, and then they remain closed for an indefinite period, or, if they open again at all, remain torpid and insensible for a considerable period. “In four instances leaves after catching insects never re- opened, but began to wither, remaining closed—in one case for fifteeen days over a fly ; in a second, for twenty-four days, though the fly was small; in a third, for twenty-four days over a woodlouse ; and in a fourth, for thirty-five days over a crane fly. In two instances, in which very small insects had been natu- rally caught, the leaf opened as quickly as if nothing had been caught.”! Dr. Canby says that the leaves remain closed for a longer period over insects than over meat. In all cases where the leaves re-opened, after having remained a long time closed over insects, or meat, or similar substances, they were so torpid during many succeeding days that touching the sensitive filaments was followed by no response whatever. In their native country, where the plants grow with vigour, Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 309. 62 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. they appear to be more capable of repeating their operations than when transplanted here. Mrs. Trent, who cultivated and watched these plants in New Jersey, which is not so far removed from their natural habitat, has stated that “several leaves caught suc- cessively three insects each, but most of them were not able to digest the third fly, but died in the attempt. Five leaves, however, digested each three flies, and closed over the fourth, but died soon after the fourth capture. Many leaves did not digest even one large insect.” The capacity for digestion is not, therefore, unlimited in the Dioncea, more than it is in higher organisms. Apoplexy from over-feeding might even here be a reasonable verdict. . As to the kind of insects which are captured by this plant we have the record of the contents of four- teen leaves, sent, with their prey, from their native country! Four of these had caught rather small in- sects, of which three were ants, and the fourth a small fly, but the other ten had caught large insects, of which eight were beetles (two chrysomelas, five elaters, and a curculio), a thick broad spider, and a scolo- pendra. Of the whole there was only one flying insect, or, rather, usually and readily progressing by flight. This hardly seems to harmonise with the statement by Dr. Canby that “as a general thing beetles and 1 Darwin, p. 312. .VENUS’S FLY-TRAP, 63 insects of that kind, though always killed, seem to be too hard shelled to serve as food, and after a short time are rejected.” ! We may here allude to that phase of the subject which was so successfully investigated and illustrated by Dr. Burdon Sanderson, and which amounted to establishing the identity of the phenomena of mus- cular contraction and contractility in Dioncea. The property of contracting when irritated, which enables the Dioncea to catch insects, was the special phase of the subject to which Dr. Burdon Sanderson directed his attention. In this phenomenon, he says, “ we have to do not merely with contractility but with irrato- contractility. The fact that the property requires two words to express it implies that there are two things to express, viz. (I) that contraction takes place, and (2) that it takes place in answer to irritation. As this is the case, not only here, but in all other in- stances of animal or vegetable active motion, we recognise in physiology these two properties as fun- damental—irritability or excitability, and contrac- tility, the former designating the property, possessed by every living structure whatever, of being excited into action (ze, of having its stored-up force dis- charged) by some motion or disturbance from out- side; the latter, that kind of discharge or action which 1 “ Gardener’s Monthly,” August, 1868, 64 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. results in change of form, and usually declares itself in the doing of mechanical work. This property of excitability, which, let me repeat, is common to all living structures, is, as we have seen, comparable in its simplest manifestations to that possessed by many chemical compounds (of explosiveness) and many mechanical contrivances (of going off or discharging when meddled with, as in the case of the rat-trap. already referred to). “In physiology, as in the other sciences of observa- tion, the process of investigation is throughout one of comparison. Not only do we proceed, from first to last, from the known towards the unknown, but what we speak of as our knowledge, or understanding, of any new fact consists simply in our being able to bring it into relation with other facts previously well ascertained and familiar, just as the geographer deter- mines the position of a new locality by ascertaining its topographical relation to others already on the chart. “The comparison we have now to make is between the contractility displayed by the leaf of Dioncea, and the contractility of muscle. I choose muscle as the standard of comparison, because it is best known, and has been investigated by the best physicists of our time, and because its properties are easily illustrated and understood. I shall be able to show that the resemblance between the contraction of muscle and VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 65 that of the leaf is so wonderfully complete, that the further we pursue the inquiry the more striking does it appear. Whether we bring the microscope to bear on the structural changes which accompany contrac- tion, or employ the still more delicate instruments of research, which you have before you this evening, in order to determine, and measure, the electrical changes which take place in connexion with it, we find that the two processes correspond in every essential particular so closely, that we can have no doubt of their identity. “ Muscle, like every other living tissue, is the seat, so long as it lives, of chemical changes, which if the tissue is mature, consist entirely in the disintegration of chemical compounds and the dissipation of the force stored up in these compounds, in the form of heat or some other kind of motion. This happens when the muscle is at rest, but much more actively when it is contracting, in which condition it not only produces more heat than it produces at other times, but also may do—and under ordinary circumstances does—mechanical work ; these effects of contraction of muscle are, of course, dependent in quantity on the chemical disintegration which goes on in its interior. “ Again, muscle, so long as it is in the living state, is electromotive. This property it probably possesses in common with other living tissues, for it is very likely that every vital act is connected with electrical F 66 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. change in the living part. But in muscle, as well as other irritable and contractile tissues in animals, the manifestation of electromotive force is inseparably connected with the special function of the tissue zé, with contraction, the connexion being of sucha nature, that the electromotive force expresses, not the work actually done at any given moment, but the capacity for work. Thus, so long as the muscle lives, its electromotive force is found to be on the whole proportioned to its vigour. As it gradually loses its vitality, its power of contracting and its electro- motive force disappear fart passu. When it contracts, the manifestation of electromotive force diminishes in proportion to the degree of contraction. But it is to be borne in mind that, although, when the muscle or the leaf contracts, electromotive force disappears and work is done, there is no reason for supposing that there is any conversion of the one effect into the other, or that the source of the force exercised by the organ in contracting is electrical.” Dr. Burdon Sanderson then proceeded by a series of experiments to demonstrate the correspondence between the electrical phenomena which accompany muscular contraction and those which are associated with the closing of the Dioncea leaf. 1 Lecture by Dr. Burdon Sanderson at Royal Institution, Jume sth, 1874 ; “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” June 27th, 1874, VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 67 With this brief and rapid summary of the main features relating to the carnivorous propensities of the Venus’s Fly-trap, we may casually refer to a few other plants belonging to the same natural order as the Sundews and Dioncea, which possess similar propensities, but to a less interesting degree, or do not differ greatly from the two preceding types. A little aquatic plant, called Aldrovanda vesiculosa is found in Europe, Australia, and India. Although inhabiting countries so remote from each other, this plant seems to be of one species in all. It has no roots, and floats like green stars in the water. The leaves are arranged in whorls in a stellate manner round the stem. Each leaf has two semicircular lobes, which are seated on broad foot-stalks. The lobes are generally found closed at the ordinary tempera- ture in Europe, but they do separate, under favour- able conditions, to about the same proportionate extent as a living mussel opens the valves of its shell. The history and mystery of this little water-plant are very imperfectly known. Stein observed that water insects were sometimes caught by it. Professor Cohn has found crustaceans and larve within the leaves.t Plants placed in water containing entomostraca were examined next morning, and found to enclose indi- viduals of these minute crustaceans still alive. In 1 Cohn, “ Beitrage,” iii,, 1875, p. 71. F 2 68 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. ene of the closed leaves of the Australian variety from Queensland a rather large beetle was found, with all the softer parts of the body dissolved. The leaves evidently are well adapted for catching living creatures. There are long sensitive hairs which are probably sensitive. There are glands which, from analogy, may se- crete a limpid fluid Altogether, however, f although kinship and analogy might point to: this as another of the carnivorous plants of the Sundew family, a sup- position which is sup- ported by a sort of circumstantial evidence,, still, so little is definitely known, that it is better: to suspend the judgment than reach at too hasty enlarged.—COHN. a conclusion. The Portuguese Fly-catcher is the name by which we may distinguish that rare little plant Drosophyllum Lusitanicum, which hitherto has only been found in Portugal and Morocco. It is plentiful in the neigh-. 1 Darwin, p. 330. VENUS'S FLY-TRAP. 69 bourhood of Oporto, where the villagers call it the “ fly-catcher,” and hang it in their cottages for that purpose. The leaves are like slender filaments, of several inches in length, with the upper surface concave and channelled down the middle, and the under surface convex. Both surfaces are covered with tentacles of a pink or purplish colour, supported on peduncles of variable lengths, with a cap-like convex head. These tentacles secrete large drops of a viscid secretion (fig. 6). Besides these tentacles are a number of very minute sessile glands, scarcely visible to the naked eye, colourless, but similar in structure to the tentacles; but with this difference in func- tion, that they do not secrete spontaneously, but must be ex- cited to do so. Both glands and tentacles speedily absorb /#- 6.—Glands on nitrogenous matter. When an ee pews e insect alights on a leaf of ree this fly-catcher, the drops of secretion, with which the tentacles are studded, at once, and readily, adhere to it; and as it moves other drops accumulate, until, at length, bathed with the viscid secretion, it becomes powerless, sinks down and dies, on the small sessile glands with which the leaves are covered. The 70 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. tentacles have no power of motion, and are not con- sequently sensitive to the touch. The fly-catching operation is performed by the secretion alone. That the tentacles are capable of absorption is shown by the aggregation of the protoplasm after contact with nitrogenous substances. "When the insect falls ex- hausted and dead, smothered with the viscid secretion of the tentacles, upon the small sessile glands, the contact stimulates the latter to secretion, and it is by their action that the prey is dissolved and assimi- lated.! The process by which the insects are captured differs therefore from that of the Sundews; but after the insect is caught, and deposited upon the small! sessile glands, the process of disintegration, and. digestion, is evidently the same in all essential par- ticulars. An allied plant, at the Cape of Good Hope (Rovi- dula dentata) probably acts in a similar manner, but no living specimens have been examined. The leaves are studded with glands, which secrete viscid matter, to which insects and other bodies adhere. The same may be said of an Australian plant, belonging to another genus (Byblis gigantea). These can only be named provisionally, as individuals. concerning whom further information is desired. The Sundew family (Droseracee) includes the six } Darwin, “ Insectivorous Plants,” p. 341. VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. Tt genera to which we have drawn attention, and of those the true Sundews (Drosera) and Venus’s Fly-trap (Dionea) are the most important. Of the true Sun- dews there are no less than one hundred species, “which range in the Old World from the Arctic regions to Southern India, to the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, and Australia; and in the New World from Canada to Terra del Fuego.” There is every reason to suppose that the same habits, and carnivorous propensities, are common to all, and that, in all this wide range, these humble little bog plants are ever exposing their glittering tentacles to the sun, and luring myriads of insects to their destruction. Bright and glorious is that revelation, Written all over this great world of ours; Making evident our own creation, In these stars of earth—these golden flowers. 72 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. CHAPTER IV. CARNIVOROUS PLANTS—SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. THE Pitcher-plants, properly so called, are natives of the Old World, their representatives in the New World are called Side-saddle flowers, or Sarracenias. In the true Pitcher-plants the curious pitchers are suspended at the ends of the leaves, of which they are prolongations, but in the Sarracenias the entire leaf is folded and modified into a kind of pitcher. The eight North American species are found in the eastern States, in bogs, and in places covered with shallow water. Their leaves, which give them a character entirely their own, are pitcher-shaped, or rather they are trumpet-shaped, standing erect, col- lected in tufts, and springing immediately from the ground. They send up at the flowering season one or more slender stems, each of which bears a single flower, which is itself of a peculiar appearance and character, with a fancied resemblance to a side- saddle, and hence the popular name. It has been shown that there are at least two different kinds, or types, of pitcher in this group of plants. In one kind the mouth is open and the lid stands erect, so that the SIDE.-SADDLE FLOWERS. 73 tube receives the rain-water in more or less abundance. In the other kind the mouth of the tube is closed with a lid, and into these the rain can hardly, if ever, find ingress.1 As long ago as the year 1815 the fly-catching propensity of these plants was observed and com- mented upon, in a communication to the President of the Linnzan Society. Many of the assertions then made have since been verified ; although at the time they excited but little notice, and perhaps did not receive implicit credence. “If,” says the writer, “in the months of May, June, or July, when the leaves of these plants perform their extraordinary functions in the greatest perfection,? some of them should be removed to a house and fixed in an erect position, it will soon be perceived that flies are attracted by them. These insects immediately approach the fauces of the leaves, and leaning over their edges appear to sip with eagerness something from their internal surface. In this position they linger, but, at length allured, as it would seem by the pleasures of taste, they enter the tubes. The fly which has thus changed its situation will be seen to stand unsteadily, it totters for a few seconds, slips and falls to the bottom of the 1 « Gardener’s Chronicle,” August 29th, 1874, p. 260. 2 These observations relate chiefly to one species, Sarracenia wariolaris. 74 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. tube, where it is either drowned, or attempts in vain to ascend against the points of the hairs. The fly seldom takes wing in its fall and escapes. In a house much infested with flies this entrapment goes on so rapidly that a tube is filled within a few hours, and it becomes necessary to add water, the natural quantity being insufficient to drown the imprisoned insects. The leaves of other species might well be employed as fly-catchers, indeed, I am credibly informed that they are in some neighbourhoods. The leaves of Sarracenia flava, although they are very capacious, and often grow to a height of three feet or more, are never found to contain so many insects as those of other species. The cause which attracts flies is evidently a sweet viscid substance resembling honey, secreted by, or exuding from, the internal surface of the tube. From the margin, where it com- mences, it does not extend lower than one fourth of an inch. The falling of the insect as soon as it enters the tube is wholly attributable to the downward or inverted position of the hairs of the internal surface of the leaf. At the bottom of a tube, split open, the hairs are plainly discernible pointing downwards ; as the eye ranges upward they gradually become shorter and attenuated, till at, or just below the surface, covered by the bait, they are no longer per- ceptible to the naked eye, nor to the most delicate touch. It is here that the fly cannot take a hold SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 75 sufficiently strong to support itself, but falls. The inability of insects to crawl up against the points of the hairs I have often tested in the most satisfactory manner.” The annexed figure represents the pitchers of the species to which these observations refer (fig. 7). It is also that on which many subsequent and confirma- tory experiments were made. The tissues of the internal, or lining, surfaces of the pitchers in Sarracenia are not identical in all the species. In some, and probably most, there are four kinds of surfaces, proceeding from the mouth down- wards to the bottom of the tube. First, there is an attractive surface, often brightly coloured, which occupies the inner face of the lid, and.this, in common with the mouth of the pitcher, is covered with minutc honey-secreting glands. Then, secondly, there is a conducting surface of glassy cells, which are elon- gated into conical processes overlapping each other, like the tiles of a house, so as to afford no foothold for an insect attempting to crawl up again. This is succeeded by a large granular surface, which is smooth and polished so as to afford no foothold. And, finally, there is a detentive surface, which occupies the lower part of the pitcher, It is studded 1 Dr. James McBride in “Transactions of the Linnean Society,” vol. xii. 76 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. with deflexed rigid hairs, which converge towards the axis of the cavity ; so that an insect, if once amongst them, is effectually detained, and its struggles have no Fig. 7.— Pitchers of Sarracenia variolaris, reduced. other result than to wedge it lower and more firmly in the pitcher. } 1 “Gardener’s Chronicle,” September 5, 1874, p. 293. SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. vi A similar structure in Sarracenia purpurea (fig. 8), is thus described by Mr. W. H. Gilburt,! in his. Fig. 8.—Pitcher of Sarracenia purpurea, reduced, with section. memoir on “ The Histology of Pitcher-Plants.” He says :—“ The interior surface of this pitcher is divided 1 W. H. Gilburt in “Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club,” November, 1880, vol. vi., p. 154. There is a characteristic figure of this Sarracenia in old Gerarde’s “ Herbal” (1597), where it is called “hollow-leaved’ sea-lavender,” and stated to be copied from Clusius, “for the strangenesse thereof, but hope that some or other that travell. into forraine parts may finde this elegant plant, and know it. by this small expression, and bring it home with them, that so- we may come to a perfecter knowledge thereof.”—P. 412. 78 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. into four zones. On the first one, or that nearest the mouth of the pitcher, are numerous stomata, and also a large number of strongly developed rigid hairs, which point downward. The second zone is characterised by the fact that each cell of the surface is prolonged downward into a short ,mammillary process, its wall being striated longitudinally. We next come to a divi- sion which is smooth, hairs are entirely ab- sent, and the cells are sinuous in outline. The fourth division is by far the longest, and is crowded with long hairs, the points of which are all di- Fig. 9.—Sarracenia purpurea. rected towards the @ Section of gland. base, but they are not 6 Hair from upper zone. ¢ Hair from lower zone.—G7lourt. so stout or strong as those found near the mouth of the pitcher.” In explanation the rigid hairs of the upper zone are shown to agree in all respects with an ordinary trichome, being simply the outgrowth of a single cell. These hairs (fig. 9) on their external surface show a few deeply- SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 79 cut longitudinal striations, in fact, so well marked are they that the hair might almost be described as fluted. Yet are they in error who have described them as made up of a bundle of rod-like cells. Again, he says, “ All these modifications of surface are, without doubt, of value to the plant, and in this direction, that while they will allow an insect to enter, and pass down the tube, it is almost impossible for it to return. Thus they become veritable insect-traps. The pitchers of many species contain fluid, but nothing corresponding . to a digestive fluid has been detected in them.” As to the fluids, we must carefully guard against misinterpretation. To this end it must be borne in mind that the honey-like, or saccharine, exuda- tion from the lip of the tube, and the fluid, con- tained in greater or less quantity at the bottom of the tube, are two quite different and distinct sub- stances. The latter will receive attention hereafter, but our present subject is the secretion which is found asa bait or lure at the mouth of the tube. This, combined with the bright colouring, may be fairly assumed to have been provided for some special purpose. Dr. McBride calls it the “cause which attracts flies,’ and Dr. Millichamp, of South Carolina, set himself to investigate this, and some other dis- puted points, upon living plants. Having discovered some advanced plants of Sarracenia, he had no difficulty in detecting, in almost every leaf, the sugary $0 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. secretion or honey-like exudation, noticed by Dr. McBride, and other observers, as being found at the mouth of the tube. “I found it,” he writes, “ precisely in the place described, save that it extended down- wards more than a quarter of an inch, generally halt an inch, or even three quarters of an inch. I also found it more sparingly under the arched lid, or upper lip of the leaf, in and among the thick and coarse hairs found there, and which, I believe, are thicker and coarser than those in the lowermost portion of the tube. Dr. McBride, however, failed to trace the continuance of the sugary exudation, which I fre- quently found glistening, and somewhat viscid, along the whole red or purple-coloured border, or edging of the broad wing, extending from the cleft in the lower lip, even to the ground. There is, therefore, a painted or honey-baited pathway, leading directly from the petiole (or the ground itself) up to the mouth, where it extends on each side, as far as the commissures of the lips, from which it runs within, and downwards, for at least half an inch.” “One can now readily understand why ants should so frequently be found among the earliest macerated insects at the base of the tube. Their fondness for saccharine juices is well known, and, while reconnoi- tring at the base of the leaf, and bent on plunder, they are doubtless soon attracted. by the sweets of the honeyed path lying right before them, along which SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 81 they may eat as they march, until the mouth is reached, where certain destruction awaits them.”! In order to determine the character of the sac- charine exudation, and whether it possessed any intoxicating properties, Dr. Millichamp collected a large number of mature, and most sugary, leaves, which he placed in vessels of water on reaching home, and sat down before them for two hours watching the result. Flies were soon attracted to the leaves, but by no means greedily, and many were entrapped, the buzzing of unfortunate prisoners being incessant. Finding that he could not see the process with the lids in their normal position, he turned back- wards the greater part of the overhanging lid, and let daylight into the prison, so that the whole region of the sugar countries could be seen, and examined, while the flies were busy at their food. “After turning back the lids of most of the leaves,” he says, “the flies would enter as before, a few alighting on the honeyed border of the wing, and walking up- ward—sipping as they went—to the meuth, and entering at the cleft of the lower lip; others would alight on the top of the lid and then walk under the roof, feeding there ; but most, it seemed to me, pre- ferred to alight just at the commissure of the lips, 1 Prof. Asa Gray in “ New York Tribune ;” also “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” June 27, 1874. G $3 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. and cither enter the tube immediately there, feed- ing downward upon the honey pastures, or would linger at the trunk, sipping along the whole edge of the lower lip and eventually enter near the cleft. After entering (which they generally do with great caution and circumspection) they begin again to feed, but their foothold, for some reason or other, seems unsecure, and they occasionally slip, as it ap- pears to me, upon this cxquisitely soft and velvety declining pubescence. The nectar is not exuded or smeared over the whole of this surface, but seems disposed in separate little drops. I have seen them regain their foothold after slipping, and continue to sip, but always moving slowly and with apparent caution, as if aware that they are treading on dan- gerous ground. After sipping their fill they fre- quently remain motionless, as if satiated with delight, and, in the usual self-congratulatory manner of flies, proceed to rub their legs together, but in reality, I suppose, to cleanse them. It is then they betake themselves to flight, strike themselves against the opposite sides of the prison-house, either upward or downward, generally the former. Obtaining no perch or foothold, they rebound off from this velvety micro- scopicchevazr-defrise, which lines the inner surface still lower, until, by a series of zigzag but generally down- ward falling flights, they finally reach the coarser and more bristly pubescence of the lower chamber, where, SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 83 entangled somewhat, they struggle frantically (but by no means drunk or stupefied), and eventually slide into the pool of death, where, once becoming slimed and saturated with these Lethean waters, they cease from their labours. And even here, although they may cease to struggle, and seem dead, like ‘ drowned flics, yet are they ‘only asphyxiated, not by the nectar but by this ‘cool and animating fluid, limpid as the morning dew. After continued asphyxia they die, and after maceration they add to the vigour and sustenance of the plant. And this seems to be the true use of the ‘limpid fluid, for it does not seem to be at all necessary to the killing of the insects (although it does possess that power), the conformation of the funnel of the fly-trap is sufficient to destroy them. They only die the sooner, and the sooner become ‘liquid manure.’ “T could never see any indication of unsteadiness or tottering in the sipping flies—nothing save an occasional slip from the uncertain hold which the peculiar pubescence would give, save once or twice while watching intently I saw a fly disappear so quickly downwards that I could not with certainty say whether it was flight or a tumble from stupor or insensibility. But on so many other occasions have I satisfied myself to the contrary, by seeing them fly upward as well as downward, with full vigour of an unhurt unintoxicated insect, that I altogether reject G2 84 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the idea of stupor. I may state that while watching I observed not a single escape when the lid was down, but after I had turned it back on most of the leaves under examination, a few, but only a few, ‘escaped. And those which escaped, after sipping to repletion, scemed in no wise inebriated.”! Pursuing these investigations still further, on an- other occasion he collected the laminze of about one hundred leaves, all sweet with the exudation. Some of these were placed on a table, after canale- light, and attracted a few hungry flies. They re- mained many minutes sipping, and would return to sip, seeming to enjoy the evening meal thus afforded them. Of course there could be no entrapment, as only the honey-bearing portions were exposed. The flies ate, and atc, but no unsteadiness, or tottering, or falling, was in a single instance to be seen; and, after having satisfied their appetites, the guests re- tired for the night. The following day the same tempting viands were placed before the flies, but there was no evidence of a single case of intoxication. If true that the exudation possessed no intoxicat- ing property, sceptics were next led to inquire how it was that insects were entrapped whilst still in possession of all their instincts and faculties unim- 1 Dr. Asa Gray in “New York Tribune,” and “ Gardener's Chronicle,” June 27, 1874, p. 819. SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 85 paired ; and to answer this the same careful observer narrated his experience as to how the flies are entrapped. “The nectar being found below the lower lip for half an inch or more, when the fly is satiated, and makes for flight, he must do so immediately upward for a very short distance, and then somewhat at right angles, to get through the outlet—a rather difficult flight, which perhaps of all insects only a fly might be capable of, but which even he probably is not. This, too, upon the supposition that his head is upward, whereas his head is, I believe, generally downward, or at least parallel with the lip. If in the first position he attempts flight, he is very apt to strike the arch overhead, and, if he escapes that, it is next to an impossibility for him to turn and strike that small space between the projecting (and down- ward projecting) lid and the lower lip. If with head downward, he is very apt in flight to strike the op- posite wall at a still lower angle, and then, from rebound to rebound, get lower and lower until he touches the pool. In almost every instance, there- fore, a fly once entering is caught.” The next point for inquiry refers to the fluid contained at the bottom of the tubes or pitchers. What is this fluid which is almost universally present, and what its purpose? Dr. Millichamp says :—“ The first point to decide seemed to be whether the watery fluid found in the leaves was a true secretion 86 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. of the plant or only rain-water. As I have two or three patches of Sarracenia! conveniently near in a neighbouring pine barren, it was no difficult matter to make the necessary examinations. On the 22nd, therefore, the sandy pine-land being very dry and thirsty —no rain having fallen for some days — I visited the plants, which were blooming freely. Many leaves were carefully examined with the throat still closed and impervious to water, and inflated, as they usually are, with air. Upon slight pressure the air would escape, thus opening the throat for inspec- tion. The leaf being tilted, there was almost in- variably an escape of fluid—from three to five drops generally— occasionally as many as ten drops, and rarely fifteen drops. It is, therefore, a true secretion, as no rain could possibly have been admitted tc the completely-closed and sealed leaf. “The taste of this secretion was bland, and some- what mucilaginous, yet seemingly leaving in the mouth a peculiar astringency, recalling very accurately the taste of the root, with which I was quite familiar. So much for the examination of the not yet matured and unopened leaves, in which I may as well remark that I could find no trace of insects, either by puncture, or eggs, or larve, nor indeed any débris of any kind 1 Sarracenia variolaris. SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 87 “T next examined a great many perfect leaves with the throat open. In almost every leaf the secretion was to be found, containing generally from ten to fifteen drops, very rarely a half drachm, Even in these ‘open leaves the admission of rain-water is next to impossible, so completely does the upper lid overhang the mouth or throat, like the projecting eaves of a house. Unless in a severe rain-storm, and perhaps not even then, would this be possible. “With very rare exceptions dead and decaying, or, more properly, macerated insects were to be found packed at the base of the tube—most frequently a large red ant—also beetles, bugs, flies, &c., and invariably within the decaying mass one or more small white worms, perhaps the larve of insects hatched within the putrefying mass.!” Accepting the explanation as satisfactory, we arrive at the conclusion that the tubes or pitchers of the Sarracenias have the power of secreting a limpid fluid, in addition to the honey-like secretion of the lip, and that this fluid is collected at the bottom of the tube, into which the captured insects fall. Having sipped the nectar which was spread at the mouth, a harmless but seductive lure, spread upon treacherous ground, we have seen that the structure of the tube was favourable to the retention of the insects, and 1 Dr. Asa Gray in “New York Tribune,” 1874, and “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” June 27, 1874, p. 818. 88 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. that numbers of them gradually, but surely, found their way to the bottom. Here another secretion is stored, which doubtless possesses some properties of its own, and has some function to perform. In order to determine this, Dr. Millichamp proceeded to the investigation of the fluid secretion of the pitchers. “ By draining every leaf plucked of its few drops of juice, I collected about half an ounce of the secretion in a vial, with which I made careful experiments in testing its intoxicating effect upon insects. My subjects were chiefly house-flies. About half a drachm to a drachm of the secretion was placed in a small receptacle, and the flies thrown in from time to time, the liquor not being deep enough to immerse them completely, but enabling them to walk about in it with- out swimming and the risk of being drowned. Some twenty flies were experimented with. At first the fly makes an effort to escape, though apparently he never uses his wings in doing so—the fluid, though not seemingly very tenacious, seems quickly to saturate them, and so clings to them, and clogs them, as to render flight impossible. A fly, when thrown in water, is very apt to escape, as the fluid seems to run from its wings, but none of these escaped from the bath of the Sarracenia secretion. In their efforts to escape they soon get unsteady in their movements, and tumble sometimes on their backs ; recovering, SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 89 they make more active and frantic efforts, but, very quickly, stupor seems to overtake them, and they then turn upon their sides either dead (as I at first supposed) or in profound anesthesia. “T had no doubt, from the complete cessation of all motion, and from their soaked and saturated con- dition, that they were dead, and, like dead men they were ‘laid out,’ from time to time, as they succumbed to the powerful liquor ; but to my great surprise, after a longer or shorter interval—from a half-hour to an hour or more—they indicated signs of returning life by slight motions of the legs and wings, or body. Their recovery was very gradual, and eventually, when they crawled away, they seemed badly crippled and worsted by their truly Circean bath. After contact with the secretion, the flies which were first thrown in became still, seemingly dead, in about half a minute, but whether from exposure to the air, or exhausted by action on these insects, the liquor did not seem to be so intoxicating with those last ex- posed to its influence. , \OY 7 Fig. 22.— Natal Climbing Plant (Ceropegia Sandersoni) (from the “ Gardener’s Chronicle ”). TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 193 the Chili nettle (Loasa aurantiaca), a common green- house climber, out of eighteen plants eight revolved in opposition to the sun, five followed the course of Fig. 23.—Bitter-Sweet (Solanum dulcamara). the sun, and four turned first in one direction and then in the other. During the experiments on twining plants several oO 194 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. interesting facts were evolved which may be men- tioned incidentally. For instance, when a revolving shoot is arrested by a stick, and before it has had time to make its first circle round it, the stick is removed, the shoot springs forward, not perhaps to catch the retreating stick, but showing that it must have been pressing against it with some force. After a shoot has wound itself round a stick, if the support be withdrawn, the spiral will remain for a little time, and then the shoot will straighten itself again, and again commence revolving in search of a new support, Although our indigenous twiners are able to ascend by twining round a support as thin as a thread, they cannot twine round an object five or six inches in diameter : the honeysuckle being the only twiner that will encircle trees. Exotic twiners in tropical forests we know will, on the contrary, ascend large forest trees. In all the examples experimented upon the rotation appeared to proceed during the night precisely at the same rate as during the day, showing that light appears to have but little influence on climbing plants. Indeed, one physiologist, Mohl, has affirmed that twining plants are but little sensitive to light. The conditions under which plants rotate and twine most favourably, are the usual ones under which they would naturally perform the other func- tions of life, namely, good health and a moderate TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 195 amount of warmth, The twining Polygonum (Poly- gonum convolvulus), however, twines only during the middle of the summer ; in the autumn they will grow vigorously, but without any inclination to climb. Fig. 24.—The Twining Polygonum (Polygonum convolvulus). Most of the garden beans, of the scarlet runner kind, are excellent twiners, whilst some of the varieties exhibit no tendency to twine. The only other point to which we shall allude in 02 196 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. twining plants is the different rate of revolution in different plants. In the hop, the shortest period recorded for a revolution was two hours; in the bryony, two hours and a half; in the kidney bean, five minutes less than two hours; the white con- volvulus, one hour and forty minutes ; in the trumpet- flower (Tecoma), six hours and a half; in Ceropegia, five hours and a quarter; in a climbing fern (Lygo- deunt), five hours for one species and eight hours for another ; in Lapageria rosea, eight hours and three- quarters in a hot-house, and eleven hours in a green-. house; in a species of honeysuckle it was eight hours ; and in an exotic (Spherostema) it was eighteen hours and a half. Although these twiners are described as “those which twine spirally round a support, unaided by any other movement,” it has been seen that they possess. very remarkable movements of their own, which are intimately related to, and are indeed sufficient to account for, their spiral twining. The same kind of movement, that of rotation, or circumnutation, which we have seen in operation in the young radicle of. germinating seeds, in cotyledons, leaves, &c., here reaches a higher development, and achieves a more palpable result. A remarkable genus of twining plants, belonging to the Amaryllis family, has not yet received the attention they deserve. Passing through one of the TIVINERS AND CLIMBERS. 197 ““stoves” in Kew Gardens we remarked three or four species of these climbing Amaryllids, and were struck by the peculiar twisting of the petiole of the leaves, which led to their closer examination. In one _ species (Bomarea Carderi) the leaves are lanceolate, on short, flattened foot- stalks. Soon after they are ex- panded, and before they fall back into their places, the leaves twist over and expose the under surface to the light, so that the true under surface becomes, practically, the upper sur- face (fig. 25). The most strange circumstance connected with this reversal of the leaves, is the fact that. the under surface of the leaf, as though prepared for the twisting, is smooth, and presents the usual characteristic epidermal cells of an zpper surface, whereas the true upper surface, which by twisting becomes practically the Fig. 25.—Leaf of under surface, is furnished with Somarea Carderi, short obtuse hairs, such as might sg Banner pe ‘be expected to occur on the under tte leaf surface of a leaf. In order that 198 FREAKS ‘OF PLANT LIFE. there might be no mistake in our interpretation of these facts, we requested Mr. W. S. Gilburt, who has devoted himself successfully to the study of the minute anatomy of plants, 'to examine and favour us with his opinion. Undoubtedly, he says,. the entire structure of the leaf is reversed in order to fulfil the conditions of its reversed position.1 This seems to us quite an unique illustration of accommo- dation to circumstances. It still remains to us a puzzle why the leaves should thus reverse themselves. The plants were growing so that the leaves were constantly in contact with small objects, and if the twisting of the petiole was occasioned by effort at clasping, it must have exhibited some evidence, but not a single petiole had embraced anything, and all the leaves had turned over, topside under. The second class of climbing plants perform this act by means of the ordinary foliaccous organs, or: by supplementary ones, which are often modifications of leaves. Those which climb by means of their leaves may do this by embracing the support with the footstalk, or by elongations of the midrib. The most familiar of leaf climbers is the traveller’s joy or clematis, which belongs to a genus including many climbers, such as the splendid large-flowered kinds 1 We are in anticipation that Mr. Gilburt will soon publish the details of his examination of this strange phenomenon. TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 199 such great favourites in recent times. Some of the species of clematis retain the power of twining to a limited extent, sometimes in the direction of the sun, and with others in opposition to it. Not uncommonly the same twig will twine two or three times in one direction, then grow erect for a while, and afterwards twine again in the opposite direction. They must therefore be regarded as very inferior twiners. It would be expected, a priori, that with this twining power, the terminal joints also rotate, and this is the fact. In one species the quickest revolution was made in five hours and a half, in another in four hours and twenty minutes, in another in three hours and three- quarters, and in another in one hour and fifty minutes. The petioles, or leafstalks, are so far sensitive to the touch that after being rubbed, or otherwise irri- tated, they bend towards the point of irritation, and if a stick or twig presents itself in that direction, the leafstalk bends round, and embraces it. If no ob- ject is encountered by the bending petiole it soon straightens itself again. The petioles are most sensitive when young; in some species the older petioles lose their power of responding to irritation altogether. In one instance a fragment of thin cotton thread, weighing only one-sixteenth of a grain, caused a petiole to bend perceptibly. “ A thin stick placed so as to press lightly against 200 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. a petiole (of Clematis flammula) having a leaflet a quarter of an inch in length, caused the petiole to w P Fig. 26.—Traveller’s Joy (Clematis vitalba). end in three hours and a quarter. In another case TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 201 a petiole curled completely round a stick in twelve hours. These petioles were left curled for twenty- four hours, and the sticks were then removed, but they never straightened themselves. I took a twig thinner than the petiole itself, and with it lightly rubbed several petioles four times, up and down; these in an hour and three-quarters became slightly curled ; the curvature increased during some hours, and then began to decrease, but after twenty-five hours from the time of rubbing, a vestige of the curvature remained. Some other petioles similarly rubbed twice, that is, once up and once down, became perceptibly curved in about two hours and a half. They became straight again in about twelve hours.” ! When the petiole embraces a twig it swells per- ceptibly for two or three days, and ultimately becomes twice as thick as one which has embraced nothing. The same happens also in the case of other leaf- climbers. A section of such a swollen petiole, when examined under the microscope, exhibited an entire change of structure, whereby it had become more rigid and woody, simulating the structure of the stem. It would seem, therefore, that this change in the structure of the clasping petiole is one likely to be serviceable to the plant, by giving greater strength to the curved portion, and thus enabling 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 57. 202 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. it to hold more firmly to its support, and withstand greater shocks; in addition to which the greater thickness of the petiole would lessen its chance of being forcibly unwound again from the twig it had embraced. Several species of Zvope@olum presented somewhat similar phenomena in many respects. They climb also by means of the curvature of the petioles Fig. 27.—Swollen petiole of Clematis vitalba. of the leaves. The petioles are in some species more sensitive than those of clematis. The slightest rub caused them to bend in about three minutes in one case, and in another species the petiole, after a slight rub, became curved in six, eight, ten, and in twenty minutes. It is not unusual to see the green fruit capsules of the common nasturtium in gardens bent over abruptly upon the stem, and even occa- TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 203 sionally making a complete turn, or loop. This habit has been noticed also in other species. Two of the commonly cultivated climbing annuals are leaf-climbers. These are Maurandia Barclayana and Lophospermum scandens. No special feature neces- sary to be noted here was developed in the experi- ments on these plants, but they are mentioned chiefly on account of the facility with which they may be cultivated by those who may desire to repeat these observations for themselves, and trace all the pheno- mena of leaf-climbing. The little fumitory (Pwmaria officinalis) is also a humble example of a climber of this kind (fig. 28). Some of the petioles were determined to be sensitive to touching, and responded thereto in about an hour and a quarter. The young internodes forming the terminal shoots of the stem and branches are in constant rotation. The leaves also have their own special spontaneous movement. As this plant is a common weed there need be no difficulty in verifying, and even supplementing, the observations already made. The Corydalis is a closely allied plant, but not so common; it is intermediate between leaf- climbers and tendril-bearers, with some of the habits of both (fig. 29). The plants which climb by means of the develop- ment of the tips of the leaves into hooks, are so few, and those are exotic, that we may dismiss them with 204 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. a brief explanation of the process. The end of the leaf (in Gloriosa Plantiz) forms a narrow projec- tion, which is thickened and at first nearly straight; subsequently it bends downwards and forms a hook, which becomes strong enough and rigid enough gs fil), WO Ee bE wr» a We Ah Ne Fig. 28.—Common Fumitory (Fumaria officinalis). to catch any object and fasten the plant. The inner surface of the hook is somewhat sensitive, and, when a twig is caught by it, the extremity curves a little inwards and permanently seizes it. If nothing TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 205, is caught the hook remains open and sensitive for some time, but ultimately the extremity slowly curls inwards and forms a coil at the end of the leaf. In one leaf the hook remained open for thirty-three days. When the tip has curled into the form of a Fig. 29.—Climbing Corydalis (Corydalis claviculata). ring all sensibility is lost, but as long as it remains open some sensibility is retained.} We now pass on to tendril-bearers, premising that tendrils are in most cases modifications of leaves 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 79. 206 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. transformed into filaments, which are used wholly for climbing. In other words, a tendril may be a leaf so modified that it is reduced to the midrib and a few lateral branches, with none of the functions of leaves, but with a new and special function con- temporaneous with the modification, viz. that of enabling the plant to climb and maintaining it in that position. But a tendril may also be a modifi- cation of the flower-stalk, or of some other organ. It matters not, in so far as the present inquiry is concerned, what organs are so modified ; in fact, botanists themselves do not seem to be entirely agreed on this point. Very few plants with tendrils possess the power of climbing up an erect stick, but most of them exhibit rotation in the growing points, performing revolutions not unlike in character to those of twiners, and in like manner in different directions. This movement, though similar in its action, has a different purpose. In twiners the oscillation is evidently in search of some object around which to entwine; in tendril-bearers in order to bring the tendrils in con- tact with some support. The tendrils themselves also rotate in many species; in some the tendrils, internodes, and petioles, move in harmony together. In Cobwa scandens, a well-known climber in common cultivation, the tendrils are ten or eleven inches in length, and revolve rapidly and vigorously. Three TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 207 large circular sweeps were observed within an hour and a quarter, but the growing point does not rotate. In Echinocystis lobata, a plant of the cucumber family, the tendrils, which are from seven to nine inches in length, revolve as well as the internodes, but over a wider surface. The circles swept by the tendrils are from fifteen to sixteen inches in diameter, whilst those of the internodes are not more than about three inches. The quickest rate of motion for the comple- tion of a revolution was about one hour and three- quarters.1 In a passion-flower the internodes as well as the tendrils rotate, the former very rapidly, per- forming its revolution in an average period of about an hour. In a species of trumpet-flower (Bignonia Zittoralis) the mature tendrils rotate much slower than the internodes, the former taking six hours to per- form a revolution, and the latter two hours and three-quarters. In the Virginia creeper neither the internodes nor the tendrils possess the power of rotation. That tendrils are sensitive to a touch, one might expect from the purposes they are called upon to serve, but this faculty varies in different species. In one of the passion-flowers (Passzfiora gracilis) where the tendrils are thin, delicate, and straight, except the curved tips, a single delicate touch on the concave 1? Darwin, “ Movement of Climbing Plants,” p. 128, 208 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. surface of the tip caused it to curve immediately, so that in two minutes it formed an open spire. The movement was generally perceptible within half a minute after being touched. A tendril which curls through being touched, but does not embrace any- thing, straightens itself again, but soon becomes irritated by a second touch. In order to ascertain how often the same tendril may be excited one tendril was selected, and this alternately straightening itself, answered to the stimulus no less than twenty— one times in fifty-four hours. Professor Asa Gray has observed an equally rapid response to a touch in the tendrils of a plant of the cucumber family, but instances of such rapidity are rare. Jn some, the movement takes place after a few minutes, in others it is an hour or two, but in all some exhibition of sensibility has been observed. It is noteworthy that drops of water sprinkled with a syringe, so as to resemble falling rain, in no instance: appeared to have the least stimulating effect. In most cases a touch from another tendril seemed to have no influence, although, in the bryony and the vine other tendrils have been seen embraced. The sensibility of tendrils to light may also be illustrated by the trumpet-flower (Bignonia capreo- lata). In his experiments on these plants, Mr. Darwin observes, “In two instances, a pair of leaves stood so that one of the two tendrils was directed TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 209 towards the light, and the other to the darkest side of the house ; the latter did not move, but the oppo- site one bent itself first upwards and then right ‘over its fellow, so that the two became parallel, one above the other, both pointing to the dark. I then turned the plant half-round, and the tendril which had turned recovered its original position, and the ‘opposite one which had not before moved, now turned over to the dark side. On another plant, three pairs of tendrils were produced at the same time by three shoots, and all happened to be differently directed. I placed the pot in a box open only on one side, and obliquely facing the light. In two days all six tendrils pointed with unerring truth to the darkest corner of the box, though to do this each had to bend in a different manner. Six wind-vanes could not have more truly shown the direction of the wind than did these branched tendrils the course of the stream of light which entered the box. I left these tendrils undisturbed for about twenty-four hours, and then turned the pot half- round; but they had now lost their power of move- ment, and could not any longer avoid the light.”! The rotation in the tendrils of some plants is retarded and in others accelerated by the action of 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 98. P 210 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the light. Those of the pea, and some others, seem to be insensible to its influence. The mode by which tendrils clasp and attach them- selves to their supports is variable, even in the same genus. In some, they twine spirally, like a cork- screw; in others they grasp a projection in a manner resembling the foot of a bird; in others, again, they attach themselves by hooks or grapnels; and in others, the sharp points are in- a. en as serted in cracks / =m and fissures, or minute holes, al- though this latter in some cases, seems to be only Fig. 30.—Hooked tendril, like foot of a bird, from Bignonta Tweediana. Tip of hook magnified (a). a temporary ex- pedient. The most elaborate mode of attachment is one in which the tips of the tendrils undergo special modification, and to this kind we must advert more in detail. This curious but interesting adaptation of the ten- drils of a plant, in order the better to fulfil its function of climbing, is related of an exotic trumpet-flower (Bignonia capreolata). The tendrils are branched, having about five branches, each of which is divided again at theapex, with each point blunt but dis- TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 211 ' tinctly hooked. Having placed a piece of wood containing numerous cracks within reach of the plant, it was observed that the tips of the immature tendrils crawled like roots into the minutest crevices. In two or three days after the tips had thus crawled into the crevices, or after the hooked ends had scized on projecting points, another process commenccd. The tips of the inner surfaces of the hooks begin to swell, and in two or three days are visibly enlarged. After a few more days the hooks are converted into whitish balls, rather more than the one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, and composed of coarse cellular tissue, sometimes enveloping and concealing the hooks themselves. The surface of the balls secrete a viscid matter, to which small objects adhere. When slender fibres become attached to the balls the tissue grows round ‘and over them, and fresh fibres continuing to adhere, as many as fifty or sixty fibres of flax have been counted imbedded in one of these balls. The fibres are clasped so tightly that they cannot be withdrawn.' When two balls from adjacent extremities come into contact they will sometimes coalesce. If the hooked extremities of the tendrils do not touch anything the discs are not formed in this species, although, in an allied plant, Fritz Muller has remarked that smooth shining discs 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 101 P.2 212 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. terminate the tendrils’ without their having come into contact with any object.t The Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis hederacea) has also branched tendrils five or six inches in length. The tips of the branches are at first curved, and when they come in contact with a wall, or other flat Fig. 31.—Tendrils of Vir- Fig. 32.—Tendrils of ginia creeper, with discs at- Virginia creeper, discs tached. not attached. surface, the hooks are brought into apposition to it. In the course of two days after a tendril has arranged its tips so that they touch and press on the surface, the curvatures swell, become bright red, and form little discs or cushions on the under side. In one case the tips were swollen in 38 hours, and in another 43 hours, and in an additional 24 hours were firmly 1 Muller, “ Journal of Linnzan Society,” ix., p. 348. TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 213 attached to a smooth board. The discs are generally formed on one side of the curved tip, and never, as far as yet observed, without coming in contact with some object.1. Dr. McNab? has observed in another species that small globose discs are formed before the tips come into contact. This also corresponds with the observations on Bignonia. It seems evident that these discs possess the power of secreting some resinous cement, by means of which they adhere to the support to which they attach themselves. When a tendril does not become attached, its primary object being frustrated, in the course of a few weeks it shrinks and withers, and finally drops off. When the discs have become attached, then the tendril contracts spirally, so as to become very elastic, and at the same time thickens so as to attain increased strength. Even after the tendrils are dead they still continue to adhere, and retain strength. One single branch of a tendril, which had been dead at least for ten years, still remained elastic, and capable of supporting a weight of two pounds, so that assuming all the branches of the same tendril to have been equally attached, and equally strong, the entire tendril would be capable of enduring a strain of ten pounds. Sachs 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 145. ? Dr. McNab, in “ Transactions of Botanical Society, Edin- burgh,” xi., p. 292. 214 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. remarks, that the tendrils of different species are adapted to clasp supports of different thicknesses, @ Fig. 33-—Tendrils of Passijlora edulis. and that when a tendril has clasped its support it afterwards tightens its hold.t When a tendril does not attach itself it ultimately 1 Sachs’ “ Text-book of Botany,” p. 280. TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 215 ‘winds up into a close spiral (fig. 33, a), but if it attaches its extremity to any object it winds itself into a more open spiral for some distance, then reverses, and winds in the opposite direction (fig. 33, 0, c). The reason for this will be obvious if we attempt to twist a piece of twine with its extremity fixed ; the torsion will soon become so great that we Fig. 34.—Cleavers (Galium aparine). must cease or reverse the spiral. The latter move- ment relieves the torsion, and the twist in the second direction soon compensates the first. If any ten- dril with its extremity attached be examined, this reversal of the twist will be found of universal occur- rence. Indeed, it must be so, as a physical necessity, to which the tendril is compelled to submit. The 216 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. above figures in illustration are from a cultivated pas- sion-flower (Passiflora edulis). There remain only the two sections, of scramblers, or plants which ascend merely by hooks, and root climbers, which ascend by means of rootlets, to be described. As these do not exhibit many remarkable phenomena a few observations will suffice. The scramblers are represented by that very common weed the “cleavers” or “goosegrass” (Galium aparine), which scrambles up hedges and amongst thickets by means of the recurved hooks with which the stems are liberally provided. The young shoots appear to possess no spontaneous rotation, and the climbing habit is literally reduced to a scrambling, the lowest and most imperfect climbing with which we are acquainted. Some kinds of roses would also find a place in this section, for they will scramble up the walls of a house if there is a trellis-work to assist them. Professor Asa Gray, explaining this phenomenon, in reference especially to the Michigan rose (Rosa setigera), remarks that the summer shoots are strongly disposed to push into dark crevices and away from the light, so that in pursuance of this habit they would be sure to thrust themselves under a trellis, whilst the lateral shoots, developed in the fol- lowing spring, will emerge from the trellis in search of the light. This alternate mode of growing “ American Journal of Science,” vol. xl., p. 282. TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 217 inwards and outwards is just the process which would be mechanically adopted to secure a rose toa trellis-work. Of root-climbers our most familiar indigenous illustration is the ivy (Hedera helix), which ascends. by means of rootlets, which adhere to the wall or old trunks, and thus enable the plant to reach the summit of its ambition. Dr. Spruce, alluding to a South American plant (Marcgravia umbellata) which grows against the trunks of trees by means of claspers or roots, remarks, that when it has reached the light and the branches become free, the stems which before were flattened become rounded, and the leaves are altered in character and general appearance. Toa certain extent this is also true of the ivy, for when it has reached the top of an old trunk and the free branches are produced, they are destitute of rootlets, and the leaves are smaller, more narrowed towards the footstalk and otherwise modified. There is also a species of fig (Ficus repens) which climbs a wall in the same manner as the ivy. The rootlets of this plant, when pressed lightly on slips of glass, were found to emit minute drops of a clear fluid, which is slightly viscid. This fluid exhibited the remarkable faculty of remaining fluid during 128 days. Other rootlets, left in contact with glass for a longer period, secreted larger drops of fluid, which were more tenacious, and could be drawn out in threads. Other rootlets, left for a still longer period 218 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. in contact with glass, became firmly cemented to it, and when torn away atoms of yellowish matter were left behind. The inference from these observations, strengthened by chemical tests applied to the secretion, is that the fig has the power of transuding from the rootlets a kind of cement, similar to caoutchouc, by means of which the rootlets become attached to the supporting object. As we have intimated, the tendril-bearers seem to be the most highly organised of climbing plants. The most interesting point in their history is, as Mr. Darwin has pointed out, the varied movements they display according to their wants. The first action of a tendril is to place itself in a proper position. Secondly, if a twining plant, or tendril, gets into an inclined position accidentally it soon bends upwards again. Thirdly, climbing plants bend towards the light by a movement analogous to that which causes them to revolve so that their revolution is accelerated or retarded in travelling to or from the light. A few tendrils bend towards the dark. Fourthly, there is the spontaneous rotation which is independent of external stimulus. Fifthly, tendrils all have the power of movement when touched, and bend towards the point of irritation. If the pressure be not permanent, the part soon straightens itself again. Lastly, the tendrils soon after clasping their support, effectually contract themselves in a spiral manner. > Darwin. “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 186. ‘ TWINERS AND CLIMBERS. 219 Reflecting upon these movements we are prepared to assent to the concluding paragraph of the work in which most of the observations in this chapter have been founded. “It has often been vaguely asserted that plants are distinguished from animals by not having the power of movement. It should rather be said that plants acquire and display this power only when it is of advantage to them ; this being of com- ‘paratively rare occurrence, as they are affixed to the ground, and food is brought to them by the air and rain. We see how high in the scale of organization a plant may rise, when we look at one of the more perfect tendril-bearers. It first places its tendrils ready for action, as a polypus places its tentacula. If the tendrils be displaced it is acted on by the force of gravity and rights itself. It is acted on by the light and bends towards or from it, or disregards it, which- ever may be most advantageous. During several days the tendrils or internodes, or both, spontaneously revolve with a steady motion. The tendril strikes some object, and quickly curls round and firmly grasps it. In the course of some hours it contracts into a spire, dragging up the stem and forming an excellent spring. All movements now cease. By growth the tissues soon become wonderfully strong and durable. The tendril has done its work, and has done it in an admirable manner.” + 1 Darwin, “ Movements of Climbing Plants,” p. 206. 220 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. CHAPTER X. SENSITIVE PLANTS. CULTIVATED in green-houses as curiosities several species of exotic plants have received the name of “sensitive plants.” These are, perhaps, the most decided in their exhibition of irritability, or move- ment, when touched ; but the same phenomenon in a less degree is to be found in a vast number of plants. Poets have taken advantage of this extraordinary faculty, and invested those which possessed it with mystery and romance. A sensitive plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light And closed them beneath the kisses of night. Travellers in foreign climes have delighted to. descant on the wonderful sensitive plants. “Looked upon with such interest in our green-houses, but which here abound (Brazil) as common as wayside weeds. Most of them have purple or white globular heads of flowers. Some are very sensitive, a gentle touch causing many leaves to drop and fold up; others require a ruder hand to make them exhibit SENSITIVE PLANTS. ie} lo i their peculiar properties, while others, again, will scarcely show any signs of feeling, though ever so roughly treated. They are all more or less armed with sharp prickles, which may partly answer the purpose of guarding their delicate frames from ‘some of the numerous shocks they would otherwise receive.”? One of the best known “sensitive plants” is the one usually called the “ sensitive plant ’—that is, the Mimosa pudica of botanists, a plant of which stands on the table before us as we write. In this the leaves are bipinnate, then quadripinnate. There is a pair of pinnze at the end of a long peduncle; with maturity two others are developed. These pinnz con- sist cach of about eight to twelve pairs of opposite leaflets, the two pinne standing almost at right angles to each other. At a slight touch all the leaflets rise and close the upper surfaces together, at the same time the two pinnz approach each other so as to be nearly parallel, instead of at right angles as before. In this manner the leaves which have been touched respond, and remain closed for some time; but at length they recover gradually from the shock, and return again to their previously expanded position. The experiment may be repeated with similar results ; but if repeated again and again the movements 1 Wallace, “ Travels on the Amazon,” p. II. 222 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Fig. 35.—Leaves of sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, awake and asleep. SENSITIVE PLANTS. 22 Ww become more tardy, as if debility ensued from over- exertion. Too strong sunlight has a similar effect in causing the leaflets to close. A strong puff of the breath, or a shake of the pot, is enough to cause the movement. It is by no means a slow and gradual change, but an almost instantaneous one, sometimes of the leaflets on both sides simultaneously, and sometimes first of one side and then the other. The return movement is much more deliberate, so that it can scarcely be detected. Yet more remarkable movement takes place in another celebrated plant, without a touch being required to stimulate it. This is the “telegraph plant” (or Desmodium gyrans), a native of Bengal. The lateral leaflets keep constantly moving all day long without any external impulse being given to them. They move up and down and circularly, this last motion being performed by the twisting of the footstalks, and while one leaflet is rising its corre- sponding one opposite is generally being depressed. The motion downwards is generally quicker, or more irregular than the motion upwards, which is steady and uniform. These motions are observable for twenty-four hours in the leaves of a shoot which is lopped off from the plant, if kept in water. If from any obstacle the motion is retarded, upon its removal it is renewed with greater velocity. The motion is most evident when the sun’s rays are upon the plant. 224 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. This shrub! belongs. to the same natural order as the acacia, the furze, and the broom. Another, which belongs to the same order as our little wood-sorrel, but, on the contrary, grows to a big tree, is also remarkably sensitive. It is the camrunga-tree of India (Averrhoa carambola). The leaves are pin- nated, or feathered, with alternate leaflets, and an ‘odd one at the end. Their common position in the ‘daytime is horizontal. On being touched they move downwards, frequently in so great a degree that the two opposite leaves almost touch one another by their undersides, and the leaflets sometimes either come into contact, or even pass each other. The whole of the leaflets of one leaf move by striking the branch with the finger-nail, or each leaflet can be moved singly by making an impression which shall. not extend beyond it. Thus the leaflets of one side of the leaf may be made to move one after another, whilst the opposite ones continue as they were, or they may be made to move alternately in any order by merely touching the leaflet intended to be put in motion. After sunset the leaves go to sleep, first moving down so as to touch one another by their undersides ; they, therefore, perform a greater motion at night of themselves than they can be made to do during the day by external impressions. The 1 Hogy’s “ Vegetable Kingdom.” SENSITIVE PLANTS. 225 rays of the sun may be concentrated by a lens upon the leaflets without producing any motion ; but when directed upon the leafstalk the response is almost instantaneous. The leaves move rapidly under the influence of an electric shock.! The sensitive plant was the earliest Up-gathered into the bosom of rest ; A sweet child weary of its delight, The feeblest and yet the favourite, Cradled within the embrace of night. The leaves of the common wood-sorrel not only close in the evening, but if gathered roughly seem to shrink from the touch like the scnsitive plant. Another species of wood-sorrel (Oxalis sensttiva), which is a native of Amboyna, is said to be so delicately sensitive that it will not bear the blowing of the wind upon it, without contracting its leaves. Dr. Roxburgh said of it, that “it was like a maiden, though common on every wayside, it may be looked at but is not to be touched.” Thus much is sufficient to explain what are the most manifest phenomena of those which have re- ceived the name of “sensitive plants”: in other words, plants which exhibit irritability in a manifest degree. In these instances the leaves possess the 1 Hogg’s “‘ Vegetable Kingdom.” * Shelley. 3 Of plants which are reputed to possess this power, the following may be named :—Desmodium gyrans, Mimosa pudsca, Q 226 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. power of moving themselves in response to a touch, either by elevation or depression, such movement being independent of another motion, termed the “sleep of plants,” which is exhibited as daylight declines and night comes on, by the gradual fold- ing or closing of leaves. There is undoubtedly an intimate relationship between the phenomena of motion in leaves when touched, and in those which close spontaneously on the decline of light, and also in such plants as turn themselves towards or away from the sun. Nevertheless, for convenience, we have preferred to write separately of “sensitive plants,” of the “sleep of plants,” and “heliotropes,” or “sun-turners.” It is needless to explain that sensibility, as implied in the term “sensitive plants,” does not exist in the vegetable kingdom in the same manner as in the animal. Without brain, and without nervous system, that which we characterize as sensibility docs not exist. Yet there is an apparent sensibility to external impressions, and there is also the power of transmitting impressions from one part of the plant to the other. Who will attempt, and how is the limit to be defined to sensibility, or what M. sensitiva, M. casta, LER fig. 68.—Lycopodium compactumt. selago. selago) for comparison with one of the club-mosses (Lycopodium compactum). Other instances might have been selected from remote families, in which the same resemblance is sustained, so that from the 328 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE, figures it would scarce have been possible to deter- mine whether they were “club-mosses ”-or not. Foliage is hardly so satisfactory for comparison, except in cases where the leaves have a strongly marked character, nevertheless we may suggest two or three of the most striking. The leaves of the planes and the maples have a coincidence of type. The pinnate leaves of some of the Oxalidacee closely resemble, even in their sensitive nature, some of the mimosa family. Or, if we instance individual species, the leaves of the common holly are imitated in some of the evergreen oaks. Some of these latter, espe- cially varieties of the common Quercus ilex, are very like the olive. The trifoliate leaves of the wood-sorrel are very similar to those of the white clover, and both are represented, except that the leaves are four- lobed instead of three, in the cryptogamic genus Marsilea. There is an antarctic species of Caltha, or marsh marigold, in which the leaves strongly remind us of the Venus’s fly-trap, and this originated its specific name (Caltha dionefolia.) The digitate leaves of some of the cultivated species of Aralia might easily be mistaken for those of the castor-oil plant, Fig. yo.—Leaf of Caltha dionefolia. MIMICRY. 329 although the former is allied to the ivy, and the latter to the far-distant Euphorbiacee. Another striking likeness in cultivated plants may be found in two variegated leaved species, with bright crimson veins. These are an Acanthaceous plant (Gymnostachyum Verschaffetii),' and one of the Apocynaceee (Echites rubrovenosa).2 The size, form, colour, and mode of venation is almost identical. Numerous examples of pairs of plants resembling each other, chiefly in foliage, have been exhibited at " : : WW NY jt ] yi the meetings of the Linnean W N NY | ‘\ aE aes Nm jlilé My and other scientific societies. ss io The inflorescence sometimes has a puzzling resemblance in one plant, or series of plants, to others with which they have no natural affinity. Some of the large African species of Polygala might easily be mis- taken for Papilionacee. So again the Fig ~ marigolds (Mesembryanthemum) have a general likeness to the flowers of composite plants. A more extra- ordinary instance is in a genus of umbelliferous plants, of which two Australian species (Actznotus) Fig. 71.—Actinotus. 1 Figured in “ Flora de Serres,” pl. 1,581. ? Ibid., pl. 1,728. 3 For lists see “ Nature,” May 26, 1870, and May 4, 1871. 330 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. are strangely like ox-eye daisies (fig. 71). Our pretty little yellow “rock rose” (Helianthemum) reminds one of the yellow species of Potentilla, or the wood crowfoot (Ranunculus), and yet all three flowers belong to widely-sepa- rated natural orders. An instance also occurs to us in which an experienced botanist misnamed the flowers of Coffea bengal- ensis, as those of Taber- nemontana, although they , belong to families with no family connection. So also the inflorescence of Dodecathcon, nearly allied to the Cyclamen of the gardens, is not uncom- monly mistaken for that of the dog’s tooth violet (Erythronium dens canis), which it imitates in size, W Fig. 72.—Rock Rose (Heli- ; anthemum). form, colour,‘and even in the bending backwards of the petals. Many of the myrtle family are excellent imitators of the Rosaceg, and the rotate flowers of the MIMICRY. 331 fragrant white jasmins of India remind one strongly of Apocynacee. The most striking instances of recurrence of type will be found amongst fruits, and perhaps the most numerous. Before “mimicry” was thought of in animals or plants, it had been remarked, as a singular coincidence, that the seeds of an Indian tree, Mesua ferrea, were like chestnuts. These seeds are not only alike in size, form, and colour, but also in character, so that they are eaten as a dessert fruit, in a similar manner. The Indian tree belongs to Fig. 73.—Secds of Messua ferrea, natural size. the same family as the gamboge and mangosteen, ‘whilst the chestnut finds a place with the oak, in a family far removed. Somewhat alike to these, but less striking, is the seed of the horse chestnut, the fancied resemblance being perpetuated in the name. There is also great similarity between some of what are termed indehiscent legumes of the Legu- minos@, and drupes of the Rosacee ; as, for instance, 332 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the pod of the tonquin bean and the fruit of an almond. The families are too closely allied, however, to give much weight to these resemblances. Perhaps the pod-like fruits of some of the caper family (Capparidacee) and their similarity to those of some of the Leguminose is more noteworthy. The form, size, and colour of some small gourds, of the cu- cumber family, such as the colocynth and the orange .gourd, approximate to the fruit of the orange. The winged fruits of the maples, with the seed at one extremity and a veined wing at the other, is a type of “samara” which is found repeated again in other families. It occurs ina genus of Polygalacce, which is found chiefly in tropical South America. Our figure is Securidaca tomentosa (fig. 74). The Fig. 74.—Samara of Securvidaca tomentosa, Heteropterys lauri- Jolia, Gallesia goranema, Seguiera floribunda. same form is found again in Malpighiaceg, of which MIMICR \’. 233 the species are mostly South American. This is represented by Heteropterys laurifolia (fig. 74) ; and- yet again in the Phytolaccacee, the same kind of samara is found in at least two genera, of which we have illustrated Gallesta goranema and Seguiera foortbunda. These four illustrations are from three natural orders, all separate from each other and from the maples, and yet, not only is the size and form the same, but also the veining in the wings. So deceptive is the resemblance between these fruits, that only dissection and analysis could determine one from the other. Another type of samara is that of the elm, in which the seed occupies the centre, surrounded by a wing. Our common forms are those of the com- mon elm (U¢mas cam- pestris) and the wych | elm (Ul/mus montana), Ziff t the latter being the ~ ; largest. This form of Fig. 75.—Samara of (a) Ulmus cam- pestris, (6) Ulmus montana, (c) Ptelea trifoliata, (d) Hirea., fruit is imitated in Ptelea trifoliata, a tree of the Rutacee, and in a species of Hzrea, one of the Malpighiacee. 334 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. In like manner there is more than a merely superficial resemblance, but almost identity, although the families to which the trees belong have no close relationship (fig. 75). Winged seeds, as distinguished from the winged . SS SOS SSssss SSS SN nae - Fig. 76.—Seed of Calosanthes indica. Fig. 77.—Seed of Zanonia macrocarpa. fruits just alluded to, are highly developed, and of considerable size in the family of trumpet flowers MIMICRY, 335 (Bignoniacee). One of the best-known forms (Calo- santhes indica) is given in the woodcut (fig. 76). The membrane which surrounds the seed is beautifully delicate and transparent, and is a favourite object with microscopists. This type of seed is represented again in the cucumber family, in which winged seeds are rare, and is, in fact, almost an imitation of the seed of the Calosanthes. In our figure (fig. 76) it has been reduced by about one-third, so as to bring it within limits of the page. It does not differ more from the seed of one of the Bignoniacee than these seeds differ amongst themselves. In another family (Apocynacee), similar winged seeds occur (as in Aspidosperma excelsum from Guatemala), although it is not a special feature in that family for the seeds to be expanded in a membranaceous wing. Every schoolboy is acquainted with the downy crest of the achenes, or fruits, of the dandelion and thistle. This crest of delicate hairs, or pappus, is common in composite plants, but it is not confined to them. From the annexed woodcut (fig. 78) it will be seen that one of the forms, with the crest sessile, is reproduced in three other families, viz., in Sarcos- zenma (a) one of the Asclepiadacee, in Echites scabra, one of the Apocynacee (6), in the willow herb or &pilobium, one of the Onagracee (c), and in the milk thistle, Szlybum marianum, one of the Composite. There is more difference in the character of the 336 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. seeds themselves than in the crest which surmounts them. Seeds are also in some instances invested with a dense down, as in the familiar example of the cotton c d Fig. 78.—(a) Crested seed of Sarcostemma, (b) Echites scabra, (c) Willow-herb (E£gzlobium), (2) Milk Thistle (Szlydum marianumt). plant, in which the seed is covered with the substance called “cotton.” In some other plants, which are closely allied, this cotton is silky and shining (as in Bombax and Eriodendron), but this same silky sub- MIALICR Y, : 337 é stance invests the seeds in some of the A sclepiadacea, which family is far removed from the above, and also from the Conxvolvulacee, in which latter family there are instances of /fomcaa, the seeds of which are invested in one species with a substance like “silk- cotton,” and in another with a substance resembling a native Indian cotton, approaching to the texture of wool. It would not be difficult to go on repeating instances of such coincidences in fruits and seeds for many pages, but we, must rest content with another series. Most persons are aware that the prevalent type of seed in the fir tree, or coniferous family, consists in a brown hard seed, with an extension of membrane into a kind of wing. Of course, there are different forms of pine seeds, some of which have no wing; but we desire to indicate that the winged type is repeated in other families, not at all related to the Couifere. This is the case with the seeds of some of the species of Lagerstramia, which are allied to our “ purple loosestrife ;” also in Cedre/a, and some other genera in the natural order to which the mahogany tree belongs; and, to some extent, in Ailanthus, wherein there is an approach to the samara of the ash, the winged fruits being, in fact, “samara,” and not seeds. Fir cones themselves are. almost imitated in the fruits of some of the palms, in so far as appearance goes, although in structure Z 338 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. very different, and the scales are imbricated in the opposite direction; nevertheless they might pass for an imitation. If we go still deeper into the structure of plants and investigate their secretions, we shall encounter here and there coincidences of strange significance. In the lettuce is repeated the narcotic milky juice of the poppy. In the American Loasacee the stinging properties of the nettles. In the figs (Ficus) of India, the rubber trees of Para (Szphonza) and the Urceolas of Asia, we have in three different families, and to a certain extent in some others, plants. furnishing the same kind of milky juice which con- solidates into caoutchouc, or india-rubber. The acrid juice which is secreted by some of the Axacardiacee has its analogue in the Euphorbiacee. The smoke of the wood of Excecaria agallocha when burnt is said to affect the eyes with intolerable pain; and so also the manchineel, which belongs to the same family, and that of another tree, referred to the Axacar- diacee. The native in Brazil poisons his arrows with the juice of the mandioca plant, which belongs to the Euphorbiacez ; the Fiji Islanders with that of an Axztiaris, which is of the bread fruit family ; and on the Orinoco the famous curare is obtained from a Strychnos. The ancient Briton obtained his blue dye from the woad (/satzs tinctoria), the Hindoo, and other Asiatics, from the indigo plant, and the MIMICRY. 339 Assamese from a Reuellia. We do not pretend to assert that these are all instances of mimetic resem- blance, or that these, and scores of similar coinci- dences, would give any support to a theory cf natural selection and survival of the fittest. All that we are justified in proposing is, that these circumstances should be borne in remembrance in connection with the strange coincidences of form to which we have devoted the preceding pages. Amongst fungi there are also striking resemblances, which have been detailed more fully in another place Special attention was first directed to this subject by Mr. Worthington Smith, who gave several rather striking examples, although the pairs are more closely allied than those selected amongst the flowering plants. Thus, one poisonous species, Agaricus (hebeloma) fastibilis, greatly resembling the edible mushroom, Agaricus (psalliota) campestris, came up in great numbers upon a mushroom bed, and might have caused a disastrous result, had not the fact been detected by an adept. Another instance was also that of a mass of fungi which made their appearance on a mushroom bed. At first sight these closely resembled the variety of an edible species which not unusually comes up in clusters on old beds; it has white spores, with a lobed and undulated white 1“ Mimicry in Fungi, in Grevillea,” vol. ix. p. 151. Z2 4 340 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. pileus, Agaricus (clitocybe) dealbatus. The imitating fungus had the same wavy cap, white colour, and fungoid odour, but the spores were pink, and its structural features were distinctly those of quite a different species, Agaricus (clitopilus) orcella, In this instance both were quite innocuous. Two wholly distinct, but very similar fungi commonly grow together on wood ashes, or scorched places, where charcoal has been burnt ; these are Cantharellus carbonarius and Agaricus (collybia) atratus. Then, again, another pair of fungi, in which sulphur colour prevails, are found growing together on wood. These are Agaricus (hypholoma) fascicularis and Agaricus (fiammula) conissans, or, similarily Agaricus (hy- pholoma) capnoides and Agaricus ( flamimula) alnicola. In all these four the coincidence of colour, form, size, mode of growth, and even habitat, is com- plete. With any one of these, again, may be com- pared the recently discovered Agaricus (clitocybe) Sadlert, which has white spores. Here we have five yellow species found growing on wood, and so like each other that an ordinary observer would consider them all as the same species, not taking the colour of the spores into account. There is, moreover, a small agaric, which is known to the majority of mycologists on account of its strong odour of stinking fish (Agari- cus cucumis). It grows on the ground, and upon fragments of wood, and has red-brown spores. Yet MIMICRY. 341 there is an imitator in a small fungus with white spores, found in just the same localities, with the identical fishy odour. According to all authority and experience the difference in the colour of the spores is not a mere difference of species, but indicates quite a separate and distinct group of species. We might also indicate as further removed from each other such species as Agaricus (¢richoloma) nudus, a handsome violet species, which when well grown is scarce to be distinguished from Cortcnarius violaceus, except that in the former the spores are white, and in the latter rusty. Taking a still wider range we encounter equally startling resemblances between widely separated groups, such as the whole hypogceous Gasteromycetes, which in form, size, odour, habit, and all save fructi- fication imitate the truffles (Tuderacez). Or, opposing certain genera we have in Podaxon a resemblance to Coprinus, and Hypolyssus might be mistaken for an immature Crucibulum. The larger species of Pesiza sometimes approach in habit Craterellus. And in Cyphella, with its naked spores, every feature besides corresponds with the small Pegzzz, some being like the section Hymenoscypha, others that of Dasyscypha, and others Mollisza. Comparing fungi with other cryptogamia, the gela- tinous species of Zremella are just like such alge as Nostoc, Inlichens the species of Leczdea approximate 342 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. so closely that only experts can distinguish them from Patellaria amongst fungi. Baeomyces amongst lichens imitates S¢z/bum in fungi, whilst the graphi- deous lichens seem to coalesce almost with Hystercumz, and Platygrapha with Stictzs. Already our comparisons are too technical, and we must rest content with thus much allusion to a subject which presupposes too much practical knowledge for a popular volume. We may, nevertheless, urge that amongst the lower order of plants there are coinci- dences as striking as those instanced in flowering plants. Whatever the interpretation may be, the facts are worthy of remembrance, since we may here- after, subject to a wider experience, suggest reasons which would now be regarded as premature. In bringing this interesting subject to a conclusion we may briefly allude to certain fancied resemblances which are occasionally met with,reminding us strongly of members of the animal kingdom. Certain fruits and seeds are supposed to resemble beetles, bugs, &c., and some flowers to mimic bees, flies, and butterflies. In passing we have alluded to some of these, and shall now rest content with reference to the snake nut of Demerara. This fruit was discovered and made known by Sir Robert Schomburgk in 1840.1 “For several years past,’ he says, “nuts of the size 1“ Annals of Natural History,” 1840, vol., p. 202. ALTWICRY. 343 of a walnut were brought down from the interior to ‘Georgetown in Demerara, the kernel of which, when opened, and the membrane which covered it being removed, displayed the striking resemblance to a snake coiled up. There was the head, the mouth, the eyes so complete, that one unacquainted with the’ fact would have believed them to be an imitation made by human hands, and not a freak of nature. As is often the, case with the productions of the interior, the colonists were entirely unacquainted with the mode of growth of the plant which produced these strange nuts. They were generally found after the annual swelling of the Esse- -quibo had subsided along its fig. 79.—Snake nut banks, and for a length of (Ofhzocaryon serpenti- time it was pretended that 7) cut open. they grew on a creeper, and from the resemblance of its kernel to a snake it was supposed that it might prove an antidote to snake poison.” Subsequently it was found to be the produce of a large tree (Ophiocaryon serpentinum) belonging to the same family as the horse chestnut. Our figure represents a nut cut open, and the kernel exposed (fig. 79). As in some sort to counterbalance a too rigid 344 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. application of utilitarianism to forms and modifica- tions of plant structure, especially such as relate to the subject of this chapter, we shall end with a quotation from Mr. A. W. Bennett. He says, “I can- not myself get away from the conclusion that we must attribute the tendency to variation which is admitted to be the material on which natural selec- tion works, to some inherent force belonging of necessity to the functions of life, whether animal or vegetable, which is independent of, and in some sense superior to, the forces that govern the inor- ganic world. Above all, we are compelled to recur to the pre-Darwinian doctrine of Design; and to believe that nature has some general purpose in the different modes in which life is manifested, a purpose not in all cases for the immediate advantage of the individual species, but in furtherance of some design of general harmony which it may take centuries of unwearied observation and laborious toil before we discover the key by which we may be able to unlock it.? 1A, W. Bennett on “Mimicry in Plants” in “ Popular Science Review,” vol. xi. (1872), p. 10. FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 345 CHAPTER XVI. GIANTS. “THERE were giants in those days” scarcely includes those of the vegetable world, for the facts which relate to the most gigantic of plant productions are of recent date. Under the term “ giant” we do not purpose to include unusual developments of individuals, but to refer to species, of which large dimensions is an attribute. Large oaks, large elms, large forest trees of various kinds are enumerated in all books of forestry, and these have their own interest, but not the same interest as that which attaches to plants which are normally of extraordi- nary size. Literally, then, we have to deal with vegetable Titans, with “mammoth” trees, and gigantic flowers, commonly attaining dimensions far in excess of ordinary trees and flowers ; their claim to notice being their normally unusual size. It was for some time supposed that the largest of all known trees were the conifers of the western side of the North American continent. The trees known to Englishmen as Wel/ingtonia and to Americans as Seguoia were, up to a recent date, regarded as the 346 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. mammoth trees. This supremacy is now broken down in favour of the “big trees” of Australia, although it must be confessed that it is very difficult to determine what are the reliable dimensions of trees recorded in both countries. In a work of authority+ it is said that the big trees (Seguota gigantea) extend along a line of two hundred and forty miles, and moreover, that the highest yet discovered, which is in the Cala- veras Grove, is three hundred and twenty-five feet. The grizzly giant of the Mariposi Grove is ninety- three feet in circumference at the ground. These dimensions have been greatly exceeded dy report, but the sensational heights of four hundred fect and upwards are believed to be wholly unreli- able. Dr. C. F. Winslow, in “The California Farmer,” has written that “the trees of very large dimensions number considerably more. than one hundred. Mr. Blake measured one ninety-four feet in circumference at the root, the side of which had been partly burnt by contact with another tree, the head of which had fallen against it. The latter can be measured four hundred and fifty feet from its head to its root. A large portion of this fallen monster is still to be seen and examined; and, by the measurement of Mr. Lapham, it is said to be ten 1 Watson’s “ Botany of California,” vol. ii. p. 117. GIANTS. 347 feet in diameter at three hundred and fifty feet from its upturned root.”} Dr. Berthold Seemann? a most trustworthy ob- server, has given a detailed account of some of the most remarkable of the sequoias, in which the “ Hercules” is named as three hundred and twenty- five feet high, and ninety-seven in circumference at the base. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” claims to be three hundred feet high, and seventy-five feet in cir- cumference. The “big tree,” which was felled, was ninety-six feet in circumference at the base, and solid throughout. This was effected by boring holes with augers, and then connecting them by means of an axe. Twenty-five men were thus occupied for five days. When this was done, it was only by applying a wedge and strong leverage, favoured by a heavy breeze, that the overthrow was accom- plished ; stones and earth being cast up with such force that these records of the fall may be seen on surrounding trees, to the height of nearly a hundred feet. Although we have sought, and enquired dili- gently, we do not find reliable grounds for rejecting Sereno Watson’s maximum height of three hundred and twenty-five feet. The gigantic trees of Australia are gum trees, a 1 Hooker’s “Kew Garden Miscellany,” vol. xii. (1855), p. 27. 2 Dr. B, Seemann, “ Ann. Nat. Hist.,” March, 1859. 348 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. species of eucalyptus, for the details of the dimen- sions of which we are indebted to Baron F. von Mueller. Of later years, as easier tracks have been opened, increased heights have been ascertained. “The highest tree previously known was a Karri- cucalyptus (Eucalyptus colossea) in one of the glens of the Warren River of Western Australia, where it rises to approximately four hundred feet high. Into the hollow trunk of this Karri three riders, with an additional pack horse, could enter and turn without dismounting. Mr. D. Boyle measured a fallen tree (Eucalyptus amygdalina), in the deep recesses of Dandenong, and obtained for it the length of four hundred and twenty feet, with proportionate width; while Mr. G. Klein took the measurement of an eucalyptus on the Black Spur, ten miles distant from Healesville, four hundred and eighty feet high.”! Mr. G. Robinson estimated an eucalyptus in the black ranges of Berwick at five hundred feet. “It is not at all likely that in these isolated enquiries chance has led to the really highest trees, which the most secluded and the least accessible spots may still conceal. It seems, however, almost beyond dispute that the trees of Australia rival in length, though evidently not in thickness, even the renowned forest giants of California (Sequoia gigantea). We 1 Cooper’s “ Forest Culture,” p. 198. GIANTS. 349 possess a standard of comparison in the spire of the cathedral of Strasburg, the highest of any cathedral of the globe, which sends its lofty pinnacle to the height of four hundred and forty-six feet ; or in the great pyramids of Cheops, four hundred and eighty feet high, which, if raised in our ranges, would be overshadowed probably by Eucalyptus trees.” In one sense a giant, and in another sense a dwarf, there is no more remarkable plant to be found than that called after the name of its discoverer, Dr. Welwitsch (Welwitschia mirabilis). “Several miles before reaching Cape Negro the coast rises to a height of about 300 or 400 feet, forming a continuous plateau, extending over six miles inland, as flat as a table.’ Amongst the vegetation of this plateau a dwarf tree was particularly remarkable. This, “with a diameter of stem often of four feet, never rose higher above the surface than one foot, and which, through its entire duration that not unfrequently might exceed a century, always retained the two woody leaves which it threw up at the time of ger- mination, and besides these it never puts forth another. The entire plant looks like a round table, a foot high, projecting over the tolerably hard sandy soil; the two opposite leaves (often a fathom long by two to two and a half feet broad) extend on the soil to its margin, each of them split up into numerous ribbon-like segments.” The flowers of this singular 350 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. plant are produced in clusters, and have the form of crimson cones, not unlike those of the larch.! The first announcement of such a singular “ freal: of plant-life” was received with some incredulity, but . when not only drawings but the plants themselves arrived, the incredulity became changed to astonish- ment; and its whole history, unfolded in a most complete and thoroughly illustrated memoir,’ by Sir Joseph Hooker, passed into the records of science as one of the most remarkable discoveries of plant-life which the present century has been able to produce. The tree which attains the greatest lateral expan- sion is the Indian fig, or banyan, which drops down rope-like shoots from their branches, and these, when they reach the soil, enter it and take root, thus becoming in the course of time subsidiary trunks. The increase in this manner might also be supposed to be indefinite, by the addition of new trunks, as the branches extend themselves. Milton has alluded to this tree as— The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renowned ; But such as at this day, to Indians known In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillar’d shade High overarch’d, and echoing walks between. 1 Welwitsch, “ West African Botany.” “Journ. Linn. Society,” v. p. 185. ? Hooker in “ Linnzean Transactions.” GIANTS. 351 The great tree of the Nerbudda, often alluded to as the most important of these trees, covers a very large area, of which a circumference of two thousand feet is still remaining, though some has been swept away. Three hundred and twenty main trunks have been counted, while there are smaller ones to the number of some three thousand, and each of these is constantly sending forth branches and forming pendent root-stocks so as to extend and increase the colony. “Immense popular assemblies are some- times convened beneath this patriarchal fig, and it has been known to shelter seven thousand men at one time beneath its ample shadow.”! The largest forms of the strange cactus tribe are found in California and Mexico. Missionaries who visited these regions more than a century ago men- tion them as remarkable trees without leaves, but branched, and sixty feet in height. The giant cactus (Cereus giganteus) inhabits the wildest and most inhospitable regions, where “its fleshy shoots will strike root and grow to a surprising size, in chasms in heaps of stones, where the closest examination can scarcely discover a particle of vegetable soil. Its form is various, and mostly dependent on its age; the first shape it assumes is that of an immense club, standing upright in the ground, and of double the 1 Forbes’s “ Oriental Memoirs.” 352 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. circumference of the lower part at the top. This form is very striking while the plant is still only from two to six feet high, but as it grows taller the thick- ness becomes more equal, and when it attains the height of twenty-five feet it looks like a regular pillar ; after this it begins to throw out its branches. These come out at first in a globular shape, but turn upward as they elongate, and then grow parallel to the trunk, and at a certain distance from it, so that a Cereus with many branches looks like an immense candelabrum, especially as the branches are mostly symmetrically arranged round the trunk, of which the diameter is not usually more than a foot anda half, or rarely a foot more.”! They vary much in height ; some are said to be thirty-six or forty feet, and others not less than sixty. “As seen rising from the extreme point of a rock, where a surface of a few inches square forms their sole support, one can- not help wondering that the first storm does not tear them from their airy elevation.” “Wonderful as each plant is, when regarded singly, as a grand specimen of vegetable life, these solemn, silent forms which stand motionless, even in a hurricane, give a some- what dreary character to the landscape. Some look like petrified giants, stretching out their arms in speechless pain, and others stand like lonely sentinels, 1 Méllhausen’s “ Journey to the Pacific,” ii. p. 248. GIANTS: 353 keeping their watch on the edge of precipices and gazing into the abyss.” We who are accustomed to see such climbing plants in our woods as the honeysuckle and hop, have but a poor conception of what climbing plants become in a tropical forest. Kingsley alludes to a magnificent wild vine or liantasse (Schuella excisa), “so grand that its form strikes even the negro and the Indian. You see that at once by the form of its cable—six or eight inches across in one direction and three or four in another, furbelowed all down the middle into regular knots, and looking like a chain cable between two flexible iron bars. At another of the loops, about as thick as your arm, your com- panion, if you have a forester with you, will spring joyfully. With a few blows of his cutlass he will sever it as high up as he can reach, and again below some three feet down; and while you are wondering at this seemingly wanton destruction he lifts the bar on high, throws his head back, and pours down his thirsty throat a pint or more of pure cold water. This hidden treasure is, strange as it may seem, the ascending sap, or rather the ascending pure rain water, which has been taken up by the roots, and is hurrying aloft to be elaborated into sap, and leaf, and flower, and fruit, and fresh tissue for the very stem up which it originally climbed ; and therefore it is that the woodman cuts the water-vine through 2A 354 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. first at the top of the piece which he wants, and not at the bottom ; for so rapid is the ascent of the sap that if he cut the stem below, the water would have all fled upwards before he could cut it off above. Meanwhile the old story of Jack and the Bean-stalk comes into your mind.”! Such a “bean-stalk” must be that of Extada scandens, a tropical climber of the bean family, which has pods nearly two yards long and five inches broad, with beans as large as the flat- tened “ Normandy pippins,” so often seen in the grocers’ windows. Rattans, which are the terror of schoolboys, are also the dread of the traveller, but for different reasons. These palms, often with stems not thicker than the little finger, are armed with rigid pointed spines, climbing by their aid to the tops of the highest trees, then dropping their extremities to the ground, and rising again until they will attain a length of several hundred feet. In the bulk of stem they are diminutive, but in extension are worthy of note as “giants.” They are abundant in all the forests of the Malay and Philippine archipelago, and are everywhere extensively used as cordage, or for the manufacture of basket work. “These singular plants creep along the ground, or climb trees, and, according to the species, to the length of from one 1 Kingsley’s “ At Last,” p. 159. GIANTS. 355 hundred to twelve hundred feet.”1 The latter length is given on the authority of Rumphius, but it is very difficult to obtain authentic records of the length to which they will attain. It is not uncommon for the ordinary species, the common “canes” which form an article of commerce, to reach lengths varying ‘from three to five hundred feet, and yet with but little increase of thickness through the entire length. These climbing palms contribute much to produce that character of impenetrable thicket which is so peculiar to tropical forests. What, after all, are the bamboos but gigantic grasses. They belong to the same family, and possess the family likeness, growing in dense tufts, or tussocks, with seeds resembling those of oats. They are natives of tropical countries, where their uses are manifold. “The bamboo, full grown, forms usually a more or less developed stock, sometimes up to three feet high, formed chiefly of old trunks of the dead haulms and an entanglement of roots, from which ten to fifty, and even up to a hundred haulms arise of the thick- ness of one’s arm to that of the human thigh, often attaining upwards of one hundred and twenty feet in height.” ? The rapidity of the growth of bamboo shoots has 1 Crawfurd’s “ Dictionary of Indian Archipelago,” p. 364. 2 Kurz, “The Bamboo and its Use,” p. 242. 2A2 356 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. often been alluded to. The usual period during which they attain their full height varies between two and three months. A bamboo in a hothouse in Glasgow was seen to grow one foot in twenty-four hours. Mr. Fortune made various measurements of the growth of bamboos in the Chinese jungles, and has reported the growth to have been from two to two and a half feet in twenty-four hours, with the greatest growth during the night. The culms, or stems, are hollow, like a reed, with joints at regular distances, so that, except for size, they would be accepted as. reeds. Cut off at the joints they are convertible into kitchen utensils, some being large enough for pails ; and when pierced through at the joints, so as to form continuous pipes, they are employed as aque- ducts. Only those who have visited India, China, or Malayan countries could imagine the innumerable uses to which these gigantic grasses are applied. Palms are tropical trees of a peculiar growth, having usually a single erect stem without branches, only one or two species ever producing a branch. In. appearance, with their large expanded fronds, ox leaves, they have but little in common with ordinary trees. Some of the palms attain to a considerable size, although not comparable with the big trees of California or Australia, yet not less remarkable when their structure is taken into account. It is, however, the leaves to which we would allude as especially GIANTS. 357 ‘worthy of notice here. We may have the pinnate, or feathery leaf, similar to an ordinary fern frond, and the fan-shaped leaf. Of the former, the Jupati, -one of the Brazilian palms (Raphia tedigera), Wallace says, “Its comparatively short stem enables us to fully appreciate the enormous size of the leaves, . which are at the same time equally remarkable for their elegant form. They rise nearly vertically from ‘the stem, and bend out on every side in graceful ‘curves, forming a magnificent plume seventy feet in height, and forty in diameter. I have cut down and measured leaves forty-eight and fifty feet long, but could never get the largest.”1 Of another palm he writes (Waximiliana regia): “The leaves of this tree are truly gigantic. I have measured specimens which have been cut by the Indians fifty feet long; and these did not contain the entire petiole, nor were they of the largest size”? Of the fan palms the most magnificent are the leaves of the Talipat palm (Corypha umbraculifera) of Ceylon, which are used as umbrellas and for tents, a large one being suf- ficient to cover and protect fifteen persons from the sun and rain. In making tents two or three leaves .are usually sewn together. Periodically the botanical world has been as- tonished by the report of some newly-discovered * Wallace, “ Palms of the Amazon,” p. 43. ? Ibid., p. 121, 358 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. giant. At one time it was the great Rafflesia, then the royal water-lily, and last, but not least, the monster arum of Beccari. The one solitary example of this family which belongs to our climate is the little “wake-robin,” or “lords and ladies” of our hedgerows. In the centre of the tuft of glossy leaves rises the singular flower, or what is commonly designated as the flower, but which really is a large colony of minute flowers, surrounding the base of an erect club-shaped column called a spadix, and enclosed in a sheath or envelope, rising to a sharp point and opening on one side so as to expose but a glimpse of the column within. The root is a small tuber, or corm, containing a quantity of starch, which, during the time of Queen Elizabeth, was collected for starching the “ruffles” of the court. Just such a plant, on an enlarged scale, was discovered by the Italian botanist in Sumatra. The tuber in this species was five feet in circumference. The leaves, on foot stalks ten feet in length, were much divided, and covered an area of forty-five feet in circumfer- ence The spadix, or central column, was nearly six feet in height. The diameter of the spathe was nearly three feet, of a bell shape, with crumpled and deeply-toothed edges, of a pale greenish colour within, and externally of a bright blackish purple. 1 6 Gardener’s Chronicle,” vol. x. (1878), p. 788. GIANTS. 359 In the accompanying woodcut, the central spadix rising out of the bell-shaped cup should be:near six feet, so that the figure is reduced to one twenty- fifth of the height of the original, which has been named Amorpho- phallus Titanum. The monarch of flowers, in respect to size, is that first dis-- covered by Sir Stam- ford Raffles, and named after him, Rafflesia. It is a large fleshy para- site, growing on the roots of other plants, without leaves, and consisting entirely of a single enormous flower, “of a very thick sub- stance, the petals: and nectary being but in a few places less than a fyg.-80,—Giant Arum (Amorpho- quarter of an inch phallus Titanum) greatly reduced. 360 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE, thick, and in some places three quarters of an inch: the substance of it was very succulent. When I first saw it, a swarm of flies were hovering over the mouth of the nectary, and apparently laying their eggs in the substance of it. It had precisely the smell of tainted beef. It measured a full yard Fig. 81.—Rafflesia Arnoldi, reduced from photograph of living flower. across ; the petals, which were subrotund, being twelve inches from the base to the apex, and it being about a foot from the insertion of the one petal to the opposite one. The nectary, in the opinion of all of us, would hold twelve pints, and GIANTS. 361 the weight of this prodigy we calculated to be fifteen pounds,” } The flower was first discovered in 1818, on the Manna River in Sumatra, where it is said to be known by the name of the “ Devil’s Siri box!” Dr. . Arnold says that when he first saw it in the jungle it made a powerful impression on him. “To tell the truth, had I been alone, and had there been no wit- nesses, I should, I think, have been fearful of men- tioning the dimensions of this flower, so much does it exceed every flower I have ever seen or heard of.” Another species has been found in Java, but not quite of such an enormous size. Second in size are the flowers of one of the birthworts, climbing aristolochias of tropical forests. Humboldt gave the first intimation of the existence of these giants in these words: “ On the shady banks of the Magdalena River, in South America, grows a climbing aristolochia, whose blossoms, measuring four feet in circumference, the Indian children spor- tively draw on their heads as caps.”! This species (Aristolochia grandiflora), or what is believed to be the same species, is called “ pelican flower” in the West Indies, from the resemblance of its young and ' Hooker’s “ Companion to Botanical Magazine,” i. (183 5), p. 262. “Transactions of Linnzean Society,” vol. xiii. * Humboldt, “ Views of Nature” (1850), p. 230. “ Botanical Magazine,” pl. 4,368. 362 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. unopened flower to the head of a pelican at rest. Miers states that he had often seen it in Brazil, where he was led to compare the large flaccid blossoms on the bushes with coloured pocket-handkerchiefs laid out to dry. Lunan remarks that the odour is so abominably foetid that it is detested and shunned by most animals; and when hogs venture, through necessity, to eat of it, it destroys them.1 Tussac, noting the same plant in the Antilles, says that a whole herd of swine, having been driven into the woods where this plant was common, had entirely perished from eating the roots and young stems. Another species, which has now flowered two or three times in this country (Aristolochia Goldieana), comes from Old Calabar River and Sierra Leone. The flowers reach to twenty-six inches in length and eleven inches in diameter at the mouth, when grown here. Like the other, it has a strong and powerful odour as of putrid meat. Our figure of this species is very considerably reduced, but it represents the form, and from the measurements of its diameter 1 “ Transactions Linnzeean Society,” xxv., p. 185, pl. 14. 2 “The largest flowers in the world, besides those belonging to the Composite (the Mexican Helianthus annuus), are pro- duced by Rafflesia Arnoldi, Aristolochia, Datura, Barringtonia, Gustavia, Carolinea, Lecythis, Nymphaea, Nelumbium, Victoria vegia, Magnolia, Cactus, the Orchidee, and the Liliaceous forms.”—Humboldt, “ Views of Nature,” p. 348. GIANTS. Hit 14 a Fig. 82.—Flower of Aristolochia Goldieana reduced. 364 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. at the funnel-like mouth, it must be conceded that it is no exaggeration to say that it may be placed like a cap on the head of a very broad-headed adult. The flowers of the night-blooming cereus (Cereus grandifiorus) are very different in character, and inferior in size; they have, however, the merit of possessing a very grateful fragrance. It is alluded to here as one of the largest of blossoms, attaining, it is said, when fully expanded, a diameter of a foot, but as this measurement is taken from tip to tip of the petals, it does not seem so large as a cup-shaped flower would be. Amongst lilies there are two or three magnificent species which deserve remembrance. Such, for ex- ample, is Lelium giganteum, of which a dried stem is preserved in one of the museums at Kew. Let the imagination strive to picture a gorgeous white lily, with a flower stem eleven and a half inches in cir- cumference at the base, and rising to a height of thirteen feet, bearing blossoms as large as tumbler glasses. It might be said literally that “ Solo- mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one cf these.” No allusion to extraordinary flowers would be considered as complete without reference to the royal water-lily (Victoria regia), dedicated to the Queen, and made the subject of two entire volumes, GIANTS. 365 one on each side of the Atlantic, which, for size of page, are almost the largest of modern books. The oft-repeated account of its discovery on New Year's Day, 1837, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, whilst on his way up the River Berbice, has become a historic record, and is the basis of all detailed chronicles. “There were,” he says, “gigantic leaves, five to six feet across, flat, with a broad rim, lighter green above, and vivid crimson below, floating upon the water; while in character with the wonderful foliage I saw luxuriant flowers, each consisting of numerous petals, passing in alternate tints, from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with the blossoms, and as I rowed-from one to the other I. always found something new to admire. The flower- stalk is an inch thick near the calyx, and studded. with elastic prickles about three quarters of an inch long. When expanded the four-leaved calyx mea- sures a foot in diameter, but is concealed by the expansion of the hundred-petaled corolla. This beautiful flower, when it first unfolds, is white with a. pink centre; the colour spreads as the bloom in- creases in age; and ata day old the whole is rose- coloured. As if to add to the charm of this noble water-lily, it diffuses a sweet scent. Ascending the river we found this plant frequently, and the higher we advanced the more gigantic did the specimens become; one leaf we measured was six feet five 366 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. inches in diameter, the rim five and a half inches high, and the flowers a foot and a quarter across.”? If one were asked to determine the largest fruit hitherto known, it is probable that the answer must be some species of gourd or “ pumpkin,” the dried xternal portion of one such specimen being sus- pended in one of the museums of the royal gardens, Kew, with a diameter of about two feet. This far exceeds the largest “double cocoa-nut” (Lodoicea seychellarum) of which we have any experience. As far as we know, the full dimensions of the largest gourds have not been recorded, since they may attain, in their native and warmer climes, a much greater diameter than in cultivation. If individual seeds are the subject of inquiry, then we are assured that the largest seeds of which we have hitherto any experience are the beans of a Mora tree (or as it is now called Dimorphandra oleifera) from Panama. ‘These seeds are as much as six inches long, five inches broad, and four inches thick. If edible, such beans would not be requisite in any great numbers for an ordinary meal. Justification might almost be found for an allusion to such large starchy roots as the elephant’s foot, and yams of various species, in which great bulk is com- 1 “ Botanical Magazine,” pl. 4,275 : “ Annals of Natural His- tory” (1838), p. 65. GIANTS. 367 bined with farinaceous qualities, which render them available, after the manner of gigantic potatoes, as articles of animal food. Those truly elegant plants the Ferns, as popular as any of the members of ‘the vegetable kingdom, have also their giants in the tree ferns of tropical climates. The “silver king” (Cyathea dealbata) has leaves, or fronds, from five to seven feet in length; and Dieffen- bach found it growing in New Zealand with trunks upwards of forty-two feet in height. Another, which might be called the “monarch” (Dicksonia antarc- zica), has fronds from six to twelve feet in length, or more. One plant, cultivated in this country, and hence probably inferior in size to those growing in its native home, is said to have produced fronds eleven feet in length and three feet two inches in width. This plant had altogether fifty fronds, which covered an area of eighteen and a half feet!: In Tasmania this fern forms the great feature in the fern valley. Humboldt considers it singular that no mention'is made of arborescent ferns in the classic authors of antiquity, the first distinct reference being by Oviedo, in the early part of the sixteenth century. However graceful and elegant some of the palms may be in their foliage and the grandeur of their crested forms, these cannot 1 Lowe’s “ Ferns, British and Foreign,” vol. viii. pl. 126. 368 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. be compared for beauty with the deeply-cut and infinitely diversified and subdivided fronds of the larger ferns. All that the palms may claim for excess in height, or bulk of trunk, over the tree ferns, is amply compensated in the latter by the beauty and grace of their crown of feathery fronds. Seaweeds are the most gigantic of cryptogamic plants, and of these the most noteworthy is the large Macrocystis of the antarctic seas (Macrocystes pyri- Jera). D’Urville says that it grows in eight, ten, and even fifteen brasses of water, from which depth it ascends obliquely, and floats along the surface nearly as far; this gives a length of 200 feet. Dr. Hooker (now Sir Joseph) says: “In the Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, and Kerguelen’s Land; where all the harbours are so belted with its masses that a boat can hardly be forced through, it generally rises from eight to twelve fathom water, and the fronds extend upwards of one hundred feet upon the surface. We seldom, however, had opportunities of measuring the largest specimens, though washed up entire on the shore; for on the outer coasts of the Falkland Islands, where the beach is lined for miles with entangled cables of Macrocystzs, much thicker than the human body, and twined of innumerable strands of stems coiled together by the rolling action of the surf, no one succeeded in unravelling from the mass any one piece upwards of seventy or eighty feet GIANTS. 369 Jong; as well might we attempt to ascertain the length of hemp fibre by unlaying a cable. In Ker- guelen’s Land the length of some pieces which grew in the middle of Christmas Harbour was estimated at more than three hundred feet.”’ He afterwards alludes to what he considered the largest specimens seen, in what is believed to be forty fathoms water, and streaming along the surface, to a probable total length of about 7oo feet. The report that this sea- weed sometimes attains a length of fifteen hundred feet is probably exaggerated, although it may be true that “it grows up from a depth of forty-five fathoms to the surface, at a very oblique angle, and even when of no great breadth, make excellent natural floating breakwaters.” None of the remaining cryptogamia attain to any extraordinary size. Neither floating mosses nor dendritic forms exceed two or three feet ; and lichens only extend to about the same dimensions in the most exaggerated examples. Fungi have not yet produced a Titanic species, for the largest agaric yet known is inferior in expanse to a lady’s parasol ; and the great puff ball (Lycoperdon giganteum) has not yet attained the dimensions of a som- nolent sheep. Amongst the lower cryptogamia we 1 “ Cryptogamia Antarctica,” p. 158. 2B FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. have many examples of. the infinitely little, but not of the infinitely great. Whether we study plant life in its largest or its most minute manifestations, in its simplest or most eccentric forms, through its normal development or exhibiting strange phenomena, we are induced to join with Horatio Smith in his exquisite hymn— *Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingest And rolls its perfume on the passing air, Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringest A call to prayer. Not to the domes, where crumbling arch and column Attest the feebleness of mortal hand, But to the fane, most catholic and solemn, Which God hath planned. To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply ; Its choir the wind and waves, its organ thunder, Its dome the sky. There, as in solitude and shade I wander, Through the green aisles, or stretched upon the sod, Awed by the silence, reverently ponder The ways of God. FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 371 CHAPTER XVIL TEMPERATURE. WITHOUT concerning ourselves greatly as to the general temperature of plants, we may premise that the accepted opinion is in favour of the conclusion that it is more equable than that of the surrounding. air; that at night, or in winter, it is above, and in mid- day, or in summer, it is below the atmospheric tem- perature. Most of those who have made experiments have come to the conclusion that trees with thick trunks have a temperature lower than that of the air during great heat, and higher during extreme cold. Dr. Hooker made some observations in India, and was of opinion that the temperature of the fluids in a plant coincided with that of the soil at the spot whence the largest absorption was derived. That a shaddock fruit maintained the same temperature at mid-day with the atmosphere at 110°, as at mid- night with the thermometer at 68°. He remarked that, “when the surface sand in the Soane Valley was heated to 110° the fresh juice of Calotropis plant was only 72°. This latter temperature he found at fifteen inches depth in the soil where the plant grew. The power which the plant has in maintaining a low 2B. 2 372 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. temperature of 72°, though the main portion, which is subterranean, is surrounded by a soil heated between go° and 100°, is remarkable, and is no doubt proxi- mately due to the rapidity of evaporation from the foliage, and consequent activity of the circulation, Its exposed leaves maintained a temperature of 80°, nearly 25° lower than the similarly exposed sand and alluvium.” The inference is, that the liquids taken up by the roots, being at the degree of heat which the soil possesses, at that depth tends to warm the tree in the cold season, and to cool it, in comparison with the air, in the warm season. Apart from this question of general temperature we are concerned chiefly with the great increase of heat evolved by plants under certain conditions, especially at germination, and during flowering. That is, the phenomena of increased temperature under special circumstances. In animals the heat of the body is maintained by a process analogous to combustion. Oxygen combines with carbon and forms carbonic acid, which latter is thrown off, the change or oxidation being accompanied by the evolution of heat. As it is in the combustion of carbon so is it in the conversion of carbon in the animal body, and so also in plants, under special conditions, when oxidation is greatly increased heat is evolved, chemical changes take place, and the burning log, the breathing animal, and germinating TEMPERATURE. 373 plant all exhibit the same phenomenon of carbon in combustion. A familiar example of the evolution of heat during germination is furnished in the process of “ malting” the grain of barley. Growth is stimulated by moisture, and a large number of seeds being collected together it is easy to experience the increase of temperature caused during the process. The chemical change which the seeds undergo, the absorption of oxygen, the state of slow combustion, the amount of heat evolved, are all easily demonstrated. Thus we ascertain that the change is a chemical one, the starch of the seed by acquiring oxygen becomes soluble and saccharine, this kind of decomposition being accompanied by increase of temperature. The process is essential to the growth of the plant. The starch was insoluble, and therefore incapable of nourishing the young embryo. By acquiring oxygen it becomes soluble and growth proceeds, until checked artificially by drying, and the starchy “barley” is converted into the sugary “malt.” That which is here effected artificially is simply the ordinary course of nature. From this process we learn that there is a chemical change, accompanied by evolution of heat, to a greater or less extent, in all seeds during germination. So, also, at a subsequent period, namely, that of flowering, certain chemical changes take place, which 374 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. are equivalent to decomposition, in which oxidation takes place, and heat is evolved during the process. We are chiefly concerned here in the phenomenon of the evolution of heat at the time of flowering, for although, as in the case of germination, it undoubtedly takes place, more or less, in all plants, it is only under favourable conditions that the temperature is raised to an appreciable extent. The most suitable condition for observing the heat evolved during germination is when a large number of seeds are collected together; so, also, the most favourable condition for the determination of the amount of heat evolved at the period of flowering is when a large number of flowers are associated together. This will account for the high temperature determined in certain plants to be presently alluded to, the results being proportioned to the number of associated flowers. The evolution of heat at the time of flowering has been observed most frequently, and with the greatest satisfaction, in plants of the arum family, in which a large number of flowers are collected together at the base of the spadix, and these are surrounded by and enclosed within an envelope, or spathe, which prevents the rapid dissemination of the heat engendered. This structure is sufficiently represented in our common indigenous Avum maculatum, called “Lords and Ladies,” for illustration (fig. 83). This phenomenon TEMPERATURE. 375 was first observed by Lamarck, in 1777, but without any precise determination of the heat experienced. In 1800, Sennebrier measured with a thermometer the heat evolved in the common arum, and found it 86’ cent. In the early part of the same century Hubert states that a thermo- meter placed in the centre of five spadices of Arum cordifolium, in the Isle of France, stood at 131° Fahr., and in twelve at 1424° Fahr., while the temperature of the air was only 74-75°. This showed an elevation of 56° and 68°! Schultz observed the flowers of Caladium pinnatifolium, at Berlin, in 1828, and M. Treviranus published Fig, 83.—Wake-robin (Arum maculatuim). the results of investigations on several species of Arum, in 1829. Geepperd, in 1832, found the tem- perature of the spadix of Arum dracunculus rose to * Hubert, in “ Bory de St. Vincent Voyage,” ii., p. 68. 376 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 31°, Fahr., above the temperature of the surrounding air. In 1834 M. Brongniart observed the elevation of temperature in Colocasia odora as 19'8°, Fahr., above that of the conservatory in which it was growing. Van Beek and Bergsma examined the same species. in 1828, and found an elevation of 50°, Fahr., above the surrounding air, by means of a thermo-electric apparatus.? In 4839 Vrolik and Vriese made numerous obser- vations, and found that the maximum of several hun- dreds of experiments was from 48° to 57° Fahr® These bring us to the memoir of Dutrochet, in which, after recounting the labours of his predecessors, he narrates his own experiences up to 1840, chiefly on the common wild Arum,? in which he found an ele- vation of temperature of from 25° to 27° Fahr. From all these experiments, made by different individuals and in diverse ways, we ascertain that there is a great elevation of temperature in the plants of the Arum family at the period of flowering, but the precise amount varies with the observers, the highest being from 50° to 68° Fahr. for the larger species, and pro- portionately less for the smaller ones. The greatest 1 Brongniart “ Nouv. Ann. du Mus.,” iii., 145. 2 Ann. des Sci. Nat.,” 2nd ser., xi, p. 65. 3 “Ann. des Sci. Nat.,” 2nd ser., xiii., pp. 5 and 65 (1840). 4 For a summary of these observations, see Balfour’s “ Class. Book of Botany,” p. 520. TEMPERATURE. 377 heat was obtained at or shortly after the opening of the spathe, or the climax of flowering. Tempe- ratures ascertained at different periods of the day would necessarily be influenced more by the con- dition of the flowers than by the precise hour. This will account for the maximum being fixed at different hours by different observers. Subsequent experi- ments conducted by M. Garreau at Lille demon- strated the great consumption of oxygen which accompanied the elevation of heat and its propor- tionate increase. When the mean heat was seven degrees, sixteen volumes of oxygen were consumed per hour; when the mean heat rose to twelve, the consumption of oxygen increased to twenty-one volumes; and when the mean heat had attained seventeen and a half, the volumes of oxygen con- sumed exceeded twenty-seven. The quantity of carbonic acid evolved is in direct proportion to the oxygen absorbed, and the degree of chemical action which takes place determines the amount of heat. We shall be prepared to concede that, after all, it is not so remarkable that here and there we meet with records of an elevation of temperature at the time of flowering, in plants where the natural condi- tions are favourable, as that these records are not more numerous and explicit. Mr. N. E. Brown states that on one occasion the living spadix of P/dloden- dron Williamsii, which had flowered at Kew, was 378 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. brought to him in a condition in which it was un- comfortably hot to the hand, but he had no ready means of ascertaining the precise temperature. Mr. Nicholson has observed Philodendron sagittafolium with the anthers nearly ready to dehisce, and which exhibited a rise of temperature from 69°, that of the stove, to 81° Fahr. Also of Philodendron eximium, when the house was at 82°, showed an clevation of 92°. Seeing that the latter are aroids, in which numerous flowers are associated, the rise of tempera- ture was comparatively small. Somewhat more striking results were shown some years ago by Mr. W. H. Tillet, of Norwich, on an aroid growing in his conservatory, in which he observed a manifest increase of temperature, and found, by testing with a thermometer, that the eleva- tion exceeded those above alluded to. It may be accepted as a general rcsult of numerous experi- ments, that, in the large aroids, an increase of tem- perature of fully 30° Fahr. may be anticipated, which, under exceptionally favourable circumstances, may reach as much as 50° In palms and their allies the flowers are produced in dense masses, and these are often wholly or par- tially surrounded by an envelope, so that the physical conditions are very similar to those of the aroids; yet opportunities do not often arise for determining the heat evolved during the flowering. Mr. Nicholson TEMPERATURE. 379 determined recently the elevation of temperature in the ivory-palm (Phytelephas macrocarpa) at Kew. “On April 20th, at one p.m., the temperature of the house was 68° Fahr., the bulb of a thermometer, which had been suspended for some time near the plant in question, was placed in the centre of the cream-coloured inflorescence, and the mercury almost instantly rose to 92°, showing an increase in tempe- rature of 24°. The following day, at the same hour, the thermometer registered 72° in the house, and, when placed in the same position in the centre of the inflorescence, only rose to the same height as that reached the preceding day, viz., 92%. As the drawn- out end of.the bulb prevented it from actually touch- ing the convex ovaries, a small incision was made in one of these, and the thermometer then rose to 94°.” The same observer also tested another allied plant (Carludovica pluimieri) and found the thermometer rise from 73° to 90°, but the plant was not in good condition, for “the long barren stamens had already changed from creamy white to cinnamon colour, and the spathe had commenced to decompose, although not three hours had elapsed since the flowers had opened.” “Development of Heat in Phytelephas,” “ Journ. Bot.,” x. (1881), p. 154. 380 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Dr. De Vriese has also referred to a high tempe- rature obtained at Burtenzorg, in the male cones of Cycas circinalis, but does not state the precise amount ; he says that the elevation always took place between six and ten p.m., and was accompanied by a strong smell The evolution of heat in other plants, where the flowers are produced singly, and not enclosed in a spathe or envelope, is not only less, but more diffi- cult of determination than in agglomerated flowers. Wherever a number of flowers approximate, as in composite plants, greater heat has been detected. Amongst the species which have been tested may be mentioned the flowers of a Cistus, in which three degrees were registered above the surrounding air. In geranium as much as six degrees are said to have been determined. Saussure found by a thermometer —scarcely a satisfactory medium—that the tuberose rose half a degree, the flowers of a gourd from 1° to 3° Fahr., and a Bzgnonia only 1° The flowers of Victoria regia were tested at Hamburg when the temperature of the house was 70° 7’ Fahr., and the flowers found to be 80° 3’. On another occasion, when the air was 72° 5’, the flower had risen to 105° 1’, or the rather extraordinary increase of about 33°2 If this determination is an accurate one 1 Hooker’s “ Kew Gardens Miscellany,” iii., p. 186. 2 Balfours “ Class Book of Botany,” p. 519. TEMPERATURE. 381 it becomes almost inexplicable, and should at least receive some corroboration, especially when compared with the results of an examination of the flowers of Nymphea stellata, another water-lily, in which the maximum elevation was little over 1° Fahr. Of the flowering heads of composite plants we have accounts of but two, the capitulum of the cotton- thistle (Oxopordum acanthium), in which about 1° 5’ Fahr. is recorded, and in a number of flower-buds of Axthemis chrysoleuca, the temperature rose to 2° 4’ Fahr. One result of the great stimulus which electrical science has recently received, it may be hoped, will be an extensive series of observations, with delicate appliances, to determine the variations of temperature at different periods in a large number of plants. Chemical change takes place so rapidly in the fleshy fungi that we should have been quite prepared to find that under certain conditions an appreciable elevation of temperature has been ascertained. It seems to us surprising rather that so small a rise in temperature has been observed, than that such changes have been recorded. The larger species of Lycoperdon, when quite mature, will become sensibly warmer to the hand when they exhibit signs of decomposition. The finger thrust into a decaying cluster of Agaricus melleus will obtain decided evidence of increase of temperature. In these cases 382 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. it will be the necessary accompaniment of decompo- sition. Dutrochet examined growing fungi of five species, and found in all a slight elevation of temperature, but in none so much as one degree, and in some not one fifth of a degree. Probably the most favourable period was not selected, at least the subject requires further investigation Dr. McNab has also recorded his observations on Lycoperdon giganteum, but in this instance the rise was not so much as would have been expected, although in excess of the amount determined by Dutrochet. It can hardly be sup- posed that so large a mass, undergoing rapid chemical change, does not exceed about one degree per cent. in rise of temperature. FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE 383 CHAPTER XVIII. LUMINOSITY, THE phenomena of “luminosity” in plants are evidently variable in their causes, as predicated by the variability of the results, We have brought together examples of these manifestations from flowering and cryptogamic plants, associated some- what in accordance with their apparent relationship, but without any effort at explanation. There is strong presumption that some of the supposed cases, of flashes of light from bright coloured flowers, may be explained optically. Others can be accounted for by no such hypothesis. The different facts seem to group themselves thus:— Flowers exhibiting electrical flashes of light on sultry evenings; plants becoming surrounded by the vapour of essential oil, which readily takes fire; roots, or rhizomes, which, under certain conditions are luminous ; and fungi which are either luminous in their imperfect, or “mycelium” condition, or when fully matured. The luminosity of flowers, under certain conditions, 384 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. has many times been affirmed, by different and inde- pendent observers, and yet still remains the subject of some doubt and uncertainty. The earliest instance is that of the daughter of Linnaeus, who observed a “lightning-like phosphorescence” in the flowers of the nasturtium during a sultry tempestuous night. Another instance was recorded’in 1843, when Mr. Dowden mentioned a luminous appearance in the double variety of the common marigold. This circumstance was noticed on the 4th August, 1842, at 8 o’clock p.m., after a week of very dry weather. Four persons observed the phenomenon. By shading off the declining day-light, a gold-coloured lambent light appeared to play from petal to petal of the flowers, so as to make a more or less interrupted corona around the disc. It seemed as if this emana- tion grew less vivid as the light declined ; it was not examined in darkness Dr. Edwin Lankester was strongly in favour of the verity of such exhibitions. Another contributor says, “I have observed it fre- quently, and have looked for it on each succeeding summer on the double marigold, and more especially the hairy red poppy (Papaver pilosum), in my garden at Mosely, in Worcestershire.”3 Many years after, and another instance was recorded: “We witnessed 1 “ Proceedings of the British Association for 1843.” 2 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” 1843, p. 691. 3 Ibid. LUMINOSITY. 385 (June to, 1858) this evening, a little before 9 o'clock, a very curious phenomenon. There are three scarlet verbenas, each about nine inches high, and about a foot apart, planted in front of the greenhouse. As I was standing a few yards from them and looking at them, my attention was arrested by faint flashes of light passing backwards and forwards from one plant to the other. I immediately called the gar- dener and several members of my family, who all witnessed the extraordinary sight, which lasted for about a quarter of an hour, gradually becoming fainter, till at last it ceased altogether. There was a smoky appearance after each flash, which we all particularly remarked. The ground under the plants was very dry, the air was sultry and seemed charged with electricity. The flashes had the exact appear- ance of summer lightning in miniature. This was the first time I had seen anything of the kind, and having never heard of such appearances, I could hardly believe my eyes. Afterwards, however, when the day had been hot and the ground was dry, the same phenomenon was constantly observed at about sunset, and equally on the scarlet geraniums and verbenas. In 1859 it was again seen. On Sunday evening, July 10th of that year, my children came running in to say that the “lightning” was again playing on the flowers. We all saw it, and again, on July 11th, I thought that the flashes of light were 2 ¢ 386 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. brighter than I had ever seen them before. The weather was very sultry.”! The tuberose has also the reputation of being luminous in a similar manner. It has been observed, so it is said, of a sultry evening, after thunder, to dart small sparks in abundance from such of its flowers as were fading? The sunflower has also a like reputation, and so has the martagon lily and the evening primrose. Altogether a number of different plants have been seen to present a similar phe- nomenon, and the facts are attested by a long list of different individuals. Two theories have been propounded with respect to this class of luminosity ; one that it is an optical illusion, the other that the light is electric. For the former it is contended that bright flowers are always the subjects, and this exhibition takes place in the evening. On behalf of this view, it is quoted from Goethe: “On the 19th June, 1799, late in the evening, when the twilight was passing into a clear night, as I was walking up and down with a friend in the garden, we remarked very plainly about the flowers of the oriental poppy, which were distinguishable above everything else by their brilliant red, some- thing like flame. We placed ourselves before the 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” July 16, 1859, p. 604. 3 “Science Gossip,” 1871, p. 122. LUMINOSITY. 387 plant and looked steadfastly at it, but could not see the flash again, till we chanced in passing and re- passing to look at it obliquely, and we could then repeat the phenomenon at pleasure. It appeared to be an optical illusion, and that the apparent flash of light was merely the spectral representation of the blossoms of a blue-green.” On behalf of the elec- trical view it is urged that the occurrences have been observed at times when the air has been dry and charged with electricity. A second class of luminous appearances are of the type of an experience also of the daughter of" Linnzus with the dittany. When the daughter of Linnzus one evening approached the flowers of Dictamnus albus with a light, a little flame was kindled without in any way injuring them. The experiment was afterwards frequently repeated, but it never suc- ceeded ; and whilst some scientific men regarded the whole as a faulty observation, or simply a delusion, others endeavoured to explain it on various hypo- theses. One of them especially which tried to account for the phenomenon by assuming that the plant developed hydrogen found much favour. At present, when this hypothesis has become untenable, the inflammability of the plant is mentioned more as a curiosum, and accounted for by the presence of etheric oil in the flowers, Being in the habit of visiting a garden in which strong healthy plants of 262 388 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Dictamnus albus were cultivated, I often repeated. the experiment, but always without success, and I already began to doubt the correctness of the observ-- ation made by the daughter of Linnzus, when, during the dry and hot summer of 1857 I repeated! the experiment once more, fancying that the warm. weather might possibly have exercised a more than ordinary effect upon the plant. I held a lighted’ match close to an open flower, but again without result ; in bringing, however, the match close to some other blossoms, it approached a nearly faded one, and suddenly was seen a reddish, crackling, strongly shooting flame, which left a powerful aromatic smell, and did not injure the peduncle. Since then I have repeated the experiment during several seasons, and even during wet cold summers; it has always suc- ceeded, thus clearly proving that it is not influenced by the state of the weather. In doing so I observed the following results, which fully explain the pheno- menon. On the pedicels and peduncles are a number of minute reddish brown glands, secreting etheric oil. These glands ‘are but little developed when the flowers begin to open, and they are fully grown shortly after the blossoms begin to fade, shrivelling up when the fruit begins to form. For this reason the experiment can succeed only at that limited period when the flowers are fading. The radius is uninjured, being too green to take fire, and because LUMINOSITY. 389 the flame runs along almost as quick as lightning, becoming extinguished at the top, and diffusing a powerful incense-like smell.+ Possibly some of the “burning bushes” of oriental story might have a similar explanation. Vague ideas of the existence of luminous plants in India and the neighbouring countries still float about as in the days of the old Hindoos and Greeks. One of these is that in Afghanistan, to the north of Nalwo, is a moun- tain called Sufed Koh, in which the natives believe gold and silver to exist, and in which, they say, in the spring is a bush which at night, from a distance, appears on fire, but on approaching it the delusion vanishes. In 1845 the natives of Simla were filled with a rumour that the mountains near Syree were illuminated nightly by some magical herb. It has been suggested that this might be a species of Dictamnus, which abounds near Gungotree and jJumnotree. A third class of examples of luminosity consists of those mythic and uncertain legends of roots which can only be recorded and not explained, possibly in many cases due only to decomposition. Josephus says “There is a certain place called Baaras, which produces a root of the same name with itself; its colour is like to that of flame, and towards evening it 1 Dr. Hahn in “Journal of Botany,” 1863. 390 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. sends out a certain ray like lightning ; it is not easily taken by such as would do it, but recedes from their hands.”! The only virtue this root possesses is its sup- posed power in the expulsion of demons. The root-stock of a plant from the Ooraghum jungles is said to possess the peculiar property of re- gaining its phosphorescent appearance when a dricd fragment of it was submitted to moisture, “gleaming in the dark with all the vividness of the glow-worm, or the electric scolopendra, after having been moist- ened with a wet cloth applicd to its surface for an hour or two, and did not sccm to lose the property by use, becoming lustreless when dry, and lighting up again whenever moistened.” # This, or a similar plant has long been known to the Brahmins under the name of Jyotismati, and said to be produced by a species of Cardiospermum. Sanscrit authoritics say that it is found in the Himalayas ; and Major Madden found upon enquiry at Almora that there was a luminous plant well known there as Jyotismati or Jwalla-mat, which names imply the possession of’ light or fire. ‘Ihe Almora plant proved to be the roots of the fragrant khus-khus grass, of which only one in a hundred is suid to be luminous at night in the rainy season. The roots 1 “Wars of the Jews,” book vii., cap. vi. % “Proc, Royal Asiatic Society,” April, 1845. LUMINOSITY. 391 of other grasses are reputed to possess the same properties. If we except the milky juice or sap of two or three species, such as Huphorbia phosphorea, said to be luminous, this catalogue will exhaust the principal recorded cases of luminosity in flowering plants; our . last class, which consists of luminous fungi, furnishes numerous well authenticated instances, which might be placed in two classes, of which one would include mycelium, or the root-like filaments of fungi in an imperfect state, and the other perfect or complete fungi. Schoolboys nearly half a century ago had a strong belief in “touchwood ” and perhaps the belief still lingers. This “touchwood,” consisted of very rotten wood, usually from the heart of a tree, deeply penetrated with the mycelium of fungi, and luminous inthe dark. We remember many a cherished morsel which was carried in the pocket, for nocturnal exhi- bition in the dormitory, until “the light of other days had faded,” which followed after a few days. One of the most extraordinary manifestations of this class of fungi is recorded by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, “A quantity of wood had been purchased in a neigh- bouring parish, which was dragged up a very steep hill to its destination. Amongst them was a log of larch, or spruce, it is not quite certain which, 24 fect long and a foot in diameter. Some young friends happened to pass up the hill at night, and 392 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. were surprised to find the road scattered with luminous patches, which, when more closely examined, proved to be portions of bark, or little fragments of wood, Following the track they came to a blaze of white light which was perfectly surprising ; on exa- mination it appeared that the whole of the inside of the bark of the log was covered with a white byssoid mycelium of a peculiarly strong smell, but unfor- tunately in such a state that the perfect form could not be ascertained. This was luminous, but the light was by no means so bright as in those parts of the wood where the spawn had penetrated more deeply, and where it was so intense that the roughest treatment scarcely seemed to check it. If any at- tempt was made to rub off the luminous matter it only shone the more brightly, and when wrapped up in five folds of paper the light penetrated through all the folds on either side as brightly as if the specimen was exposed ; when, again, the specimens were placed in the pocket, the pocket when opened was amass of light. The luminosity had now been going on for three days. Unfortunately we did not see it ourselves till the third day, when it had, possibly from a change in the state of electricity, been somewhat impaired, but it was still most interesting, and we have merely recorded what we saw ourselves. It was almost possible to read the time on the face of a watch, even in its less luminous condition. We LUMINOSITY. 393 do not fora moment suppose that the mycelium is essentially luminous, but are rather inclined to be- lieve that a peculiar occurrence of climatic condi- tions is necessary for the production of the pheno- menon, which is certainly one of great rarity. Observers as we have been of fungi in their native haunts for fifty years, it has never fallen to our lot to witness a similar case before, though Professor Churchill Babington once sent us specimens of luminous wood, which had, however, lost their luminosity before they arrived. It should be observed that the parts of the wood which were most luminous were not only deeply penetrated by the more delicate parts of the mycelium, but were those which were most decomposed. It is pro- bable, therefore, that this fact is an element in the case as well as the presence of fungoid matter.” + Another incomplete fungus growth is that called Rhizomorpha subterranea, which extends underneath the soil in long strings in the neighbourhood of old tree stumps, those of oak especially, which are be- coming rotten, and upon these it is fixed by its branches. These are cylindrical, very flexible, branch- ing and clothed with a hard bark, encrusting and fragile, at first smooth and brown, becoming later 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” 1872, p. 1,258. 394 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. very rough and black. The interior tissue, at first whitish, afterwards of a more or less deep brown colour, is formed of long parallel filaments. The phenomena of luminosity in these fungi have been made the subject of investigation by M. Tulasne. “On the evening of the day when I received the specimens,” he writes, “the temperature being about 22° C., all the young branches brightened with an uniform phosphoric light the whole of their length ; it was the same with the surface of some of the older branches, the greater number of which were still brilliant in some parts, and only on their surface. I split and lacerated many of these twigs, but their internal substance remained dull. The next evening, on the contrary, this substance having been exposed to contact with the air, exhibited at its surface the same brightness as the bark of the branches. Pro- longed friction of the luminous surfaces reduced the brightness and dried them to a certain degree, but did not leave on the fingers any phosphorescent matter.”! And again: “By preserving these Rhizo- morphe in an adequate state of humidity, I have been able for many evenings to renew the examina- tion of their phosphorescence; the commencement of dessication, long before they really perish, deprives 1 “Tulasne sur la Phosphorescence,” “Ann. des Sci. Nat.” (1848), vol. ix., p. 340, &c. LUMINOSITY. 395 them of the faculty of giving light.” The luminosity of this kind of fungus is well known to miners, and Humboldt, as well as others, have written of it in glowing terms. Different names have been given to different varieties, some of which have occurred in almost all parts of the world of which the lower vegetable productions are known. The second group of luminous fungi are those exhibited by perfect and properly-developed species. These are, for the most part, agarics with white spores growing habitually on wood; and it is a remarkable fact, that although many other kinds with coloured spores grow on wood, all the known luminous species are referred to the same sub- genus (Pleurotus) in which the stem is eccentric, or obsolete, and the spores white. One of the earliest known exotic species (Agaricus Gardneri) was first made known by Mr. Gardner -in 1840. “One dark night about the beginning of December, while passing along the streets of the Villa de Natividate, Goyaz, Brazil, I observed some boys amusing themselves with some luminous object which I at first supposed to be a kind of large fire-fly ; but, on making inquiry, I found it to be "a beautiful phosphorescent species of Agaricus, and was told that it grew abundantly in the neighbour- hood on the decaying fronds of a dwarf palm. The whole plant gives out at night a bright phosphorescent 396 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. light, somewhat similar to that emitted by the larger fire-flies, having a pale greenish hue. From this cir- ‘cumstance, and from growing on a palm, it is called by the inhabitants ‘ Flor de Coco.’” Dr. Cuthbert Collingwood has given his experience of the same, or a closely-allied species, in Borneo. “The night being dark, the fungi could be very dis- tinctly seen, though not at any great distance, shining with a soft pale greenish light. Here and there spots of much more intense light were visible, and these proved to be very young and minute specimens. The older specimens may more properly be described as possessing a greenish luminous glow like the glow of the electric discharge, which, however, was quite sufficient to define its shape, and when closely examined, the chief details of its form and appear- ance. The luminosity did not impart itself to the hand, and did not appear to be affected by the separation from the root on which it grew, at least not for some hours. I think it probable that the mycelium of this fungus is also luminous, for, upon turning up the ground in search of small luminous worms, minute spots of light were observed which could not be referred to any particular object, or body, when brought to the light and examined, and were probably due to some minute portions of its 1 Hooker’s “ Journal of Botany,” 1840, ii., p. 426. LUMINOSITY. 397 mycelium.”! Mr. Hugh Low has affirmed that “he saw the jungle all in a blaze of light, by which he could see to read, as some years ago he was riding across the island by the jungle road, and that this luminosity was produced by an agaric.” - Similar experiences are furnished from Australia, where several species of luminous agarics have been found. Drummond, writing from the Swan River? speaks of two species growing parasitically on the stumps of trees, with nothing particular in their appearance by day, but by night emitting a most curious light, such as he had never seen described in any book. The first species was about two inches: across, and was growing in clusters on the stump of a Banksia tree. “The stump was at the time surrounded by water, when I happened to be passing on a dark night, and was surprised to see what appeared to be a light in such a spot. When this. fungus was laid on a newspaper it emitted by night a phosphorescent light, enabling us to read the words. round it, and it continued to do so for several nights with gradually decreasing intensity as the plant dried up.” Subsequently he found a second species, six- teen inches in diameter, and a foot in height, weighing about five pounds. “This specimen was 1 “Journal of Linnzean Society,” vol. x., p. 469. 2 Hooker’s “ Journal of Botany,” April, 1842. 398 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. hung up inside the chimney of our sitting-room to dry, and, on passing through the apartment in the dark, I observed the fungus giving out a most remarkable light, similar to that described above. No light is so white as this, at least none that I have ever seen. The luminous property continued, though gradually diminishing, for four or five nights, when it ceased on the plant becoming dry. We called some of the natives and showed them this fungus when emitting light; the room was dark, ‘for the fire was very low and the candles extin- guished, and the poor creatures cried out ‘Chinga, their name for a spirit, and seemed afraid of it.” The agaric of the olive-tree (Agaricus olearius) is found in the south of Europe, and has been subjected to an exhaustive examination.! It is of itself very yellow, reflects a strong brilliant light, and remains endowed with this remarkable faculty whilst it grows, or at least while it appears to pre- serve an active life, and remains fresh. Tulasne was of opinion that it was really phosphorescent of itself, and not indebted to any foreign production for the light it emits. It is unnecessary to multiply examples, in which the phenomena are uniform in their cha- racter. There is not the slightest ground for sup- posing that any hallucination, or optical illusion, 1 Tulasne, “Annales des Sci. Nat.” (1848), ix., p. 340. LUMINOSITY. 399 can be pleaded here, the manifestations being so decided, so numerous, so well authenticated, and so widely distributed. One of the most recent additions has been a small species from the Andaman Islands ; several species have now been recorded from different parts of the Australian colonies; Gaudichaud found one in Manilla, and Rumphius another in Amboyna. Dr. Hooker believes them to exist in the Sikkim Himalayas; and we have already mentioned their occurrence in Brazil and the Indian Archipelago. We might add to these the species of Polyporus, mentioned by Mr. Worthington Smith, such as Poly- porus annosus, found in the Cardiff coal-mines, the light of which was sufficient for the men to “see their hands by,” and could be detected at a distance “of twenty yards. Polyporus sulfureus, which the same observer has seen exhibiting the phenomenon.! Perhaps, also, some others, of which the records are uncertain, as Cortecoum ceruleum, and the unusual circumstance of a luminous myxogaster, recorded by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in the “Gardener's Chronicle.” From these examples it will be clear that fungi exhibit luminous properties, both in their imperfect and perfect conditions. That the light is of that ? See also “ Fungi, their Nature, Uses,” &c., by M. C. Cooke, Pp. 105. 400 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. peculiar character which is observed in the slow combustion of phosphorus, and from this resem- blance it has been termed phosphorescent. It may be that some hypercritical quibbler has disputed publicly the applicability of the term “ phosphores- cence” to the light emitted by fungi, on the ground that “no phosphorus has been detected.” Perhaps his student-life was passed so much abroad that he has forgotten much of his mother tongue. “ Phos- phorescence” implies no presence of phosphorus, but simply “luminous, or shining with a faint light, un- accompanied by sensible heat,” hence no apology is. necessary for the use of a perfectly legitimate term with its general and acknowledged interpretation. The phenomena of light and heat in plants have not as yet received all the investigation which the subject demands. As to the latter, it becomes a question whether the luminosity is an inherent quality of certain species, since it has only been observed in a few, or whether it is an electric condi- tion, depending largely on the atmosphere at the time. The facts at present ascertained do not permit us to suggest any theory, all we can do is to take note of the circumstances, and trust to the future for their elucidation. FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE, 401 CHAPTER XIX. MYSTIC PLANTS. MANY plants were in former times, and especially in superstitious eras, and amongst imaginative people, invested with a mystical importance, and often held ‘in veneration as sacred. We have preferred to class them as “mystic,” though sometimes they better deserve denomination as “sacred.” Some have doubted whether flowers were ever worshipped, although no one has doubted their having been regarded as symbols, and introduced as such in religious ceremonies. Of our own customs there are some which may be attributed to a similar origin. No one would dispute that the use of evergreens in church decorations were symbolic of everlasting life. That white flowers at weddings were to be held as types of purity. That the planting of the yew in churchyards had a symbolic intent. In fact, that we still have our mystic plants. In oriental countries flowers have a deeper mean- ing, and a more emphatic language, than with us. Imagination may run riot in Persia and India, but the love of flowers is beautifully exemplified amongst these people. Sir George Birdwood has given an 2D 402 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. illustration when, in writing of the Victoria Garden, Bombay; he says, “Presently, a true Persian, in flowing robe of blue, and on his head his sheepskin hat, ‘black, glossy, curled, the fleece of kar-kul,’ would saunter in, and stand and meditate over every flower he saw, and always as if half in vision. And when at last the vision was fulfilled, and the ideal flower he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit before it until the setting of the sun, and then pray before it, and fold up his mat again and go home. And the next night, and night after night, until that particular flower faded away, he would return to it, and bring his friends in ever- increasing troops to it, and sit and sing and play the guitar or lute before it, and they would altogether pray there, and after prayer still sit before it, sipping sherbet, and talking the most hilarious and shocking scandal, late into the moonlight ; and so again and again every evening until the flower died. Some- times, by way of a grand finale, the whole company would suddenly rise before the flower, and serenade it together, with an ode from Hafiz, and depart.” In the Hindu religion bright-coloured or fragrant flowers take a prominent place as offerings to the gods, whilst the leaves or flowers of other plants are held sacred for special reasons, either historical, or Sir G. C. M. Birdwood, in “ Athenzeum.” MYSTIC PLANTS. 403 for their fancied resemblances to mystical objects. The Trimurti, or representative of the Trinity, has two plants dedicated to it, the bael tree (4gle marmelos) and the crateva (Crateva religiosa)} Both these trees have trifoliate leaves, and, like the shamrock, may be held to represent the Trinity. The national legend of Krishna is popular all over India, and a kind of basil (Ocymum sanctum) is sacred to him as well as to Vishnu. This is also a white-flowered aromatic plant, receiving special attention, and worshipped daily.? According to the story, this hero is said to have gambolled with the milkmaids of Brindabun under the kadamba tree (Nauclea cadamba), and the ball-shaped yellow flowers are held to be particularly sacred to him. It is held to be the holiest flower in India, and is exten- sively imitated in the native jewellery ornaments. The same hero is reported to have fascinated the milkmaids by playing on his celebrated flute under a bakula tree (AZimusops elengt), and the small yellow fragrant flowers are now dedicated to him as well as to Siva. The parejati (Evythrina indica) may be regarded as a mystical, though not a sacred, tree. 1 See also on this subject, “ The Industrial Arts of India,” by Sir G. C. M. Birdwood, C.S.1. (1880), p. 85, &c. 2 The Malays strew this plant with reverence over the graves of their dead. 2D2 404 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. This flower was supposed to bloom in the garden of Indra, in Heaven, and the two wives of Krishna are said to have quarrelled for the exclusive possession of this flower, which their husband had stolen from the celestial garden. Since it was stolen by Krishna it has been under a curse, and dwells upon the earth as one of the least of the flowers, and is never used for worship. This accounts for its absence from the long catalogue of sacred flowers. In the Hindu mythology, Kamadeva is the god of love, the analogue of Cupid, and is represented with his bow and arrows. The myth alleges that these arrows were tipped with five flowers, all of which are therefore held sacred to this god. They are (1) the champa (Michelia champaca),a tulip-shaped yellow flower, with a strong aromatic smell, of the magnolia family, supposed by some to have been introduced into India from China: (2) the mango flower (Mangi- Sera Indica): (3) the bulla (Pavonia odorata), a sweet- scented flower of the mallow family: (4) the flower of the clearing-nut (Strychnos potatorum): and (5) the nagkesur (MJesua ferrea), with flowers white externally, and yellow filaments inside the corolla, having an odour resembling that of the wild briar. Some other authorities exclude the clearing-nut flower, and substitute that of the bela (Jasminum sambac), with beautifully fragrant white flowers. The screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus) is also, for some MYSTIC PLANTS. 405 reason, sacred to Kamadeva. The pollen of the flowers is most profuse, and has a faint peculiar odour. It is collected, and sold at the bazaars, being scattered over the bride at marriage cere- monies. This custom seems partly to prevail on account of the odour, and partly on account of its mystic relationship to the god of love. Attar of Keora flowers and Keora water are favourite Indian perfumes. The brilliant asoca (Saraca Indica), with its large clusters of orange-red flowers, is dedicated to Siva, to whom also other and mostly yellow flowers are offered, such as the “chandra malika” (Chrysanthemum Indicum), the cadamba, already alluded to, and the bakula, as well as the superb crimson flowers of the bandhuca (Lrora bandhuca), and the fragrant jasmines (Jasminum sambac and Jasminum undulatum), the gunda (Gardenia florida), oleander (Verium odorum), and some others. It can be readily imagined that flowers, remarkable for their beauty, bright colouring, or fragrance, would present themselves to the minds of an oriental people as fitting tributes to be laid on the shrines of their gods. Such as do not conform to these features are usually connected in some manner with the his- tory of the mythical being to whom they are sacred, or are supposed to retain in their flowers, fruits, or leaves, some mystical resemblance to well-known 406 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. symbols of the attributes of the god to whom they are dedicated. To avoid tedium we shall omit reference to all the remaining flowers, which are dedicated to members of the Hindu pantheon, with the exception of the water lilies, and these both in ancient India and ancient Egypt occupied a prominent place in myth- ology. The plants themselves were, in all probability, common to both countries nearly at the same time, and if we have come to the conclusion that the pre- eminence was given to one kind in India and to another in Egypt, this resulted probably from local circumstances and local traditions. The intimate relationship between the two has necessitated a parallel history of both, commencing with the Egyptian lotos to avoid repetition. The lotos (Nymphea), writes Sir G. Wilkinson, was the favourite for wreaths and chaplets. But it is singular that, while the lotos is so often represented, no instance occurs on the monuments of the Indian lotos, or Nelumbium, though the Roman Egyptian sculp- tures point it out as a peculiar plant of Egypt, placing it about the figure of the god Nile; and it is stated by Latin writers to have been common in the country.1 The distinction between these two 1 Wilkinson’s “Popular Account of Ancient Egyptians,” vol. i., p. 56. MYSTIC PLANTS. 407 sacred plants will be better understood by a brief general description of both, so liable to confusion by applying the name of lotos in each instance. The sacred lotos of the Nile figures conspicuously on the monuments, enters largely into the decora- tion, and seems to have been interwoven with the religious faith of the ancient Egyptians. This lotos is mentioned by the old writers as an herbaceous plant of aquatic habits, and from their combined de- scription it is evident that some kind of water lily is intended. “When the river is full, and the plains are inundated, there grow in the water numbers of lilies which the Egyptians call lotos.”! “The lotos so-called, grows chiefly in the plains when the country is inundated. The flower is white, the petals are narrow, as those of the lily, and numerous, as of a very double flower. When the sun sets they cover the seed-vessel, and as scon as the sun rises the flowers open, and appear above the water; and this is repeated until the seed vessel is ripe and the petals fall off. It is said that in the Euphrates both the seed-vessel and the petals sink down into the water from the evening until midnight, to a great depth, so that the hand cannot reach them; at daybreak they emerge, and as the day comes on they rise above the water; at sunrise the flowers open, and when fully 1 Herodotus. 408 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. expanded they rise up still higher, and present the appearance of a very double flower.”! “The flower is small and white like the lily, which is said to expand at sunrise, and to close at sunset. It is also said that the seed-vessel is then entirely hid in the water, and that at sunrise it emerges again.”? “When the inundating waters of the Nile retire, it comes up with the stem like the Egyptian bean, with the petals ‘crowded thick and close, only shorter and narrower. There is a further circumstance related concerning this plant of a very remarkable nature, that the poppy-like flowers close up with the setting sun, the petals entirely covering the seed vessel; but at sun- ‘rise they open again, and so on, till they become ripe, and the blossom, which is white, falls off.”’3 “They grow in the lakes in the neighbourhood of Alex- andria. I know that in that fine city they have a crown called Antindean, made of the plant which is there named lotos, which plant grows in the lakes in the heat of summer; and there are two colours of it: one of them is the colour of a rose, of which the Antindean crown is made, the other is called lotinos, and has a blue flower.”* From the foregoing we arrive at the following particulars of the lotos. That it is an aquatic plant, with double poppy-like 1 Theophrastus. 2 Dioscorides. 3 Pliny. 4 Athenzeus, MYSTIC PLANTS. 409 flowers, expanding in the morning and closing at night— Those virgin lilies all the night Bathing their beauties in the lake, That they may rise more fresh and bright When their beloved sun’s awake, Fig. 84.—Egyptian Lotus (Wymphea stellata), Either white, blue, or rose-coloured, for there are the latter two varieties, as expressly mentioned by one author. All these features are quite consistent with the presumption that the lotos was of a kindred to 410 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE, our own white water lily, which is further strengthened by what is recorded of the fruit. “The size of the seed-vessel is equal to that of the largest poppy head, and it is divided by separations in the same manner as the seed-vessel of the poppy, but the seed, which is like millet, is more condensed. The Egyptians lay these seed-vessels in heaps to perish, and when they are rotten, the mass is washed in the river, and the seed taken out and dried, and is afterwards made into loaves, baked, and used for food.”! In the prin- cipal features, all the other authorities agree. The fruit, therefore, corresponds with that of a water lily, and, moreover, it is said to possess a farinaceous root, which was eaten. From these descriptions it is evident, as more fully discussed elsewhere,? that the sacred lotos of the Nile was a species of Vymphea, or water lily, common in the waters of that river. When Savigny returned from Egypt after the French in- vasion of 1798, he brought home a d/ue Nymphea, which corresponds closely in habit to the conven- tional lotos so common on Egyptian monuments. It seems very probable that the lotos-flower, which is represented in the hands of guests at Egyptian banquets (fig. 85), and those presented as offerings to } Theophrastus. 2 M. C. Cooke on the “ Lotus of the Ancients,” in “ Popular Science Review,” vol. x. (1871), p. 260. MYSTIC PLANTS. 411 the deities, were fragrant. The manner in which they are held strengthens this probability, as there is no other reason why they should be brought into such close proximity to the nose. Savigny’s blue water lily (Vymphaa cerulea) has just the habit and the narrow acute petals of the lotos on the monu- ments. The white lotos was evidently Vymphea lotus, which is common to India and Egypt. Like others of its kindred, it is liable to variation, and there is a red variety, which some have called a distinct species, but Roxburgh has declared that he could see no difference between them except the colour of the flowers. The blue lotos of Sa- vigny, which he called Fig. 85.—Lady with lotus flower, Nymphaea cerulea,seems from Theban tomb (Wilkinson). to be the Vymphea stel- Zataof modern botanists. Messrs. Hooker and Thomson have pronounced the opinion that “the blue water lily of the Nile and India are (like their white congener WV. Jofus) specifically the same, the most prominent difference to be found between them being the sweet scent of the African plant, and its usually more numerous petals and stamens.” The fragrant blue lotos seems to be the most common one repre- Ar2 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. sented on the monuments, but the white one is chiefly alluded to by ancient authors. The tamara, or lotos of India, was described by ancient authors under the name of kyamos, or Egyptian bean. These descriptions are so substan- tial that there is not the slightest doubt of the plant being the Nelumbium speciosum. Nothing can be more explicit than the account given by Theophrastus: He says that “it is produced in marshes and in stagnant waters, the length of the stem, at the longest, four cubits, and the thickness of a finger, like the smooth jointless reed. The inner texture of the stem is perforated throughout like a honeycomb, and upon the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, in circumference and appearance like a wasp’s nest. In each of the cells there is a bean projecting a little above the surface of the seed-vessel, which usually contains about thirty of these beans or seeds. The flower is twice the size of a poppy, of the colour of a full-blown rose, and elevated above the water; about each flower are produced large leaves, of the size of a Thessalian hat, having the same kind of stem as the flower-stem. In each bean, when broken, may be seen the embryo plant, out of which the leaf grows, So much for the fruit. The root is thicker than the 1 M. C. Cooke on the “ Lotos of the Ancients,” in “ Popular Science Keview,” vol. x., p. 262. MYSTIC PLANTS. 413 thickest reed, and cellular, like the stem ; and those who live about the marshes eat it as food, either raw, boiled, or roasted. These plants are produced spon- taneously, but they are.cultivated in beds,” &c. This plant has a sacred character amongst the Hindoos, and also in China and Ceylon. It was at one time plentiful in Egypt, whence it has now totally vanished. The representations given of it upon the monuments of ancient Egypt are far less common than those of the Vymphea, equally with which it is to be found on the monuments of India. It serves for the floating shell of Vishnu and the seat of Brahma. Sir W. Jones writes of it, that “ the Thibetans embellish their temples and altars with it ; and a native of Nepal made prostration before it on entering my study, where the fine plant and beautiful flowers lay for examination.” Thunberg affirms that the Japanese regard the plant as pleasing to the gods, the images of their idols being often represented sitting on its large leaves. In China the Shing-moo, or holy mother, is generally represented with a flower of it in her hand, and few temples are without some representation of the plant. Undoubtedly two plants are sculptured on the monuments and paintings in India, but they are easily distinguished from each other by their form. The one is a lotus, or Vymphea, and the other is the Melumbium. The former is dedicated to Soma, the latter to Lakshmi, the Indian 414 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Venus, the goddess of beauty, and, as the most sacred flower, may be offered to all the gods. The conclu- sion to be arrived at from close investigation is, that the sacred lotos of Egypt was the Vymphea, whilst the sacred lotos of India was, and still is, the Nelumbium. The latter was the symbol of fertility in Egypt as in India, and the god Horus, the personi- fication of the rising sun, was decorated with a wreath of its flowers and buds, and was sometimes figu- ratively represented as a lotus springing from the waters! There are few plants richer in association than water lilies. Their flowers are yellow in the ponds of Northern Europe, white or yellow in England, blue and fragrant in Persia and Cashmere, and red in Southern India. The Egyptian lily is white, tinted with rose, and that of India is said to have been similar, till it was stained by the blood of Siva, wounded by the Hindoo Cupid Kamadeva. It is the latter that is alluded to in Lalla Rookh:— As bards have seen him in their dreams Down the blue Ganges laughing glide Upon a rosy Lotos wreath. From Egypt and India we pass to Greece and Rome, yet it is not our intention to linger here, as but little importance can be attached.to the flowers of Greek and Roman mythology. They never held 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” July 1, 1876, p. 7. MYSTIC PLANTS. 415 the same position as in the former countries, and the majority of allusions are only such as relate to the legendary origin of certain plants. This may be SEER SESS illustrated by the beautiful youth Narcissus, who saw his image reflected in a fountain, and became 416 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. -enamoured of it, but finding that he could not reach it, grew desperate, and killed himself. His blood was changed into the flower which still bears his name. The nymphs raised a pile to burn his body, but only found a beautiful flower. Daphne fleeing from Apollo, and fearful of being caught, implored the assistance of the gods, who changed her into a laurel. Apollo crowned his head with the leaves, and for ever ordered that the tree should be sacred to his divinity. At a festival in honour of Apollo, which was held every ninth year, laurel boughs were carried in procession. Adonis, the favourite of Venus, was fond of hunting, and in an encounter with a wild boar was so wounded that he died. The legend states that the grief of Venus was so great, that, as she wept over his dead ‘body, the blood was transformed into roses, and the tears of the goddess herself into the anemone or “ wind-flower.” Alas the Paphian ! fair Adonis slain, Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain. But gentle flowers are born, and bloom around From every drop that pours upon the ground ; Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the rose, And, where a tear has dropped, a wind-flower blows.? In the sacred rites of Ceres, the Athenian matrons 1 Ovid “ Metamorphoses,” iii., v. 346. 2 Bion, Idyl I., 62. MYSTIC PLANTS. 417 strewed their couches with the leaves of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus castus) for the purpose of banishing impure thoughts, and hence the tree is said to have derived its name. It is added that the ancient physicians regarded the plant as an agent in securing chastity. The dedication of the fruits of the earth to the gods in the numerous festivals, of the vine to Bacchus, and even of flowers, offer so few points of interest that we may leave their investigation to more loving hands. There is, nevertheless, an illustration of an old mythic story, which, whilst it demolishes all the poetry of the Promethean legend, exemplifies how a very simple circumstance could be transformed by the imagination into a romance. The Ferula of the ancients was the Ferula com- munis of Crete, an umbelliferous plant, which may be compared with our wood angelica, or hog-weed Tournefort writes: “ The hollow of the stem is occu- pied by pith, which, being well dried, takes fire like a match, without injuring the outer portion, and is therefore much used for carrying fire from place to place. Our sailors laid in a storeof it. This custom is of the highest antiquity, and may. explain a pas- sage in Hesiod, where, speaking of the fire that Prometheus stole from heaven, he -says that he brought it in a Ferula, the fact being probably that Prometheus invented the steel that strikes fire from 2E 418 ‘ FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. flint, and used the pith of the Feru/a for a match, teaching mén how to preserve fire in these stalks,” Alluding to this passage, Sir Wm. Hooker says— “that is, Prometheus invented the tinder-box.” Un- poetical as such an explanation is, it undoubtedly comes very near the truth, and reduces a very romantic story to the poor level of an ordinary mechanical invention. The transition from Greece and Rome to the early monkish legends associated with the Christian faith is not a very abrupt one, and if in some cases they may seem trivial, they will serve to show how minds but partially relieved from paganism exhibited a ten- dency to revert to the old mythical stories, and invest plain facts or simple precepts with the accessories of a pagan age. Teaching by fable or parable is a privilege which orientals have ever taken advantage of, and against it no just complaint can be made, provided that the fables are taught as fables, and not as absolute fact. This may be illustrated by a legend of the Cedar of Lebanon, which is thus recorded :— “When Seth, the son of Adam, was sent by his dying parent to fetch the ‘oil of mercy’ from Paradise, he saw from the gate of that glorious garden, which an angel opened for him without permitting him to enter, a Cedar of Lebanon, with branches borne high towards Heaven. The tree seemed to typify the great disaster of Adam’s early career. It stood there MYSTIC PLANTS. 419 stricken and leafless, and yet suggesting hope—for the . legend is of Christian origin—since a child in glitter- ing raiment was seated on its top, the symbol of hope for all future generations.” This ancient legend—the dream, perhaps, of a Syrian hermit—shows that the cedar of Lebanon, the timber-tree of the temple built on Zion, was held in high estimation, and exercised the fancy. The story proceeds that Seth received from the angel three seeds of that tree which he beheld still standing upon the spot where sin had been first committed, but standing there blasted and dead. He carried the seeds home, placed them in the mouth of the dead Adam, and so buried them. And here the natural history of the legend is at fault, for the three seeds, ripened on the same tree in Paradise, produced three trees of different kinds. The truth is, the cedar of Lebanon, the cypress, and the pine, which grew from those seeds, were held in equal estimation by the recluse who dreamt this legend, and therefore the same marvellous, though inconsistent origin, was claimed for them all. Their future history is curious. Growing on the grave of Adam, in Hebron, they were afterwards most carefully protected by Abraham, Moses, and David. After their removal to Jerusalem, the Psalms were composed beneath them; and in due time, when they had grown together and united into one giant tree, they or it—for it was now one 2E 2 420 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. tree, a cedar of Lebanon—was felled by Solomon for the purpose of being preserved for ever as a beam in the Temple. But the design failed; the king’s car- penters found themselves utterly unable to manage- the mighty beam. They raised it to its intended position, and found it too long; they sawed it, and’ it then proved too short; they spliced it, and again found it wrong: It was evidently intended for another, perhaps a more sacred office, and they laid it aside in the Temple to bide its time. While waiting for its appointed hour, the beam was on one occasion impro- perly made use of by a woman named Maximella, who took the liberty of sitting on it, and presently found her garments on fire. Instantly she raised a cry, and, feeling the flames severely, she invoked the aid of Christ, and was immediately driven from the city and stoned, becoming in her death a pro-Christian martyr. In the course of an eventful history the predestined beam became a bridge over Cedron, and, being thrown into the Pool of Bethesda, it proved the cause of its healing virtues. Finally, it became the Cross, was buried in Calvary, exhumed by the Empress Helena, chopped up by a corrupt church, and distributed. Little more can be said for this than that it reads like a wild dream, and, like most dreams, with very little 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” January 13, 1877. MYSTIC PLANTS. 421 “moral” at the end of it. Undoubtedly both Jews and Christians look upon the cedar of Lebanon with feelings very much akin to veneration, as the Hindoos look upon their own cedar, the deodar (Cedrus deodara), but veneration is one thing, and adoration is another, neither being improved by an admixture of superstition. The apple has a widely extended mystical history, “The myths concerning it,” as Mr. Conway has indi- cated, “meet us in every age and country. Aphrodite bears it in her hand as well as Eve. The serpent guards it, the dragon watches it. It is celebrated by Solomon; it is the healing fruit of Arabian tales, Ulysses longs for it in the gardens of Alcinous; Tantalus grasps vainly for it in Hades. In the prose Edda it is written that Iduna keeps in a box apples which the gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste to become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in renovated youth until the general destruction. Azrael, the Angel of Death, accomplished his mission by holding it to his nostril; and, in the folklore, Snowdrop is tempted to her death by an apple, half of which a crone has poisoned, but recovers life when the apple falls from her lips. The golden bird seeks the golden apples in many a Norse story, and when the tree bears no more, ‘Frau Bertha’ reveals to her favourite that it is because a mouse gnaws at the tree’s root. Indeed, 422 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. the kind mother-goddess is sometimes personified as an apple-tree. But oftener the apple is the tempter in Northern mythology also, and sometimes makes the nose grow so that the pear ‘alone can bring it again to moderate size.”! The association of the temptation of Eve with the apple is traditional, and not scriptural. The concep- tion of a divinely-endowed tree guarded by a serpent makes its appearance in the myths of many ancient races? In Russia the vine is sometimes represented as the Tree of Knowledge. In India it is also a climbing plant, the soma (Sarcostemma viminale), which is identical with the homa of the Persians. He who drinks of its juice never dies. Some authors have identified it with the “Tree of Life which grew in Paradise.” The sanctity of the oak has a remote antiquity. From the oracular oak of Dodona to the sacred oaks of the Druids it was held profoundly sacred. “The tree under which Abraham was said to have received his heavenly visitors, the “oak of mourning” under which Deborah was buried, the oak under which Jacob hid the idols at Shechem—the same probably with that near the sanctuary under which Joshua 1 “Mystic Trees and Flowers” in “Fraser’s Magazine,” Nov., 1870, p. 590. : 2 See “Tree and Serpent Worship,” by W. Ferguson, F.R.S, MYSTIC PLANTS. 423 set up a stone—the oak of Ophra under which the angel sat that spoke with Gideon, the oak on which Absolom hung, that under which Saul and his sons were buried—all preceded the period when Isaiah had to rebuke those who carved idols from oak, and when Ezekiel proclaimed the wrath of Jehovah' against the idols standing under every thick oak.”! The cypress, of which idols were carved, was sacred as an evergreen. It received respect in Persia, and amongst the American Indians it is recorded that an aged cypress was held sacred and loaded with offerings. In Greece the cypresses were the daughters of Eteocles, hated by the goddesses they rivalled. The myrtle has a sanctity that precedes that of any Christian saint. It was the emblem of Mars, and afterwards became the wreath of Aphrodite, because, after rising from the sea, she was pursued by satyrs and found refuge in a myrtle thicket. It is still sacred in the east. The Jews gather it for their feast of Tabernacles, and the Arabs say it is one of the three things that Adam brought with him out of Paradise. The ash, in northern mythology, was the “tree of the universe.” In Germany the linden, or lime, was the tree of the resurrection. The fir and the 1 “ Mystic Trees and Flowers,” p. 592. 424 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. pine were held sacred by many races. In France, when St. Martin was permitted to destroy the temples, he was compelled to spare the holy fir groves. The olive has become inseparably connected with one of the earliest records of the human race, and repeated references are made in the scriptures to its beauty. It probably needs an educated eye to ap- preciate the effect of its silver-like leaf, but it must be refreshing to ride through one of these groves when clothed with flowers, or when bowed down with fat and oily berries. Of all fruit-bearing trees the olive is the most prodigal of its flowers, but not one in a hundred comes to maturity. The tree is of slow growth, and except under peculiarly favour- able circumstances, it bears no berries until the seventh year, nor is the crop worth much until the tree is ten or fifteen years old; then it is ex- tremely profitable, and continues to yield fruit to extreme old age. There is little labour or care of any kind required, and, if long neglected, it will revive when the ground is dug or ploughed, and begin afresh to yield as before. The fruit is indis- pensable for the comfort, and. even the existence, of the mass of the community in such places as Pales- tine, where the berry, pickled, forms the general relish to the dry bread. Early in the autumn the berries begin to fall. They are allowed to remain MYSTIC PLANTS. 425 under the trees for some time, guarded by a watch- man of the town. Then a proclamation is made by the governor that all who have trees should go out and pick what has fallen. Previous to this not even the owners are allowed to gather olives in the groves. The proclamation is repeated once or twice, ac- cording to the season. In November comes the final summons, when no olives are safe unless the owner looks after them, for the watchmen are removed, and the orchards become alive with men, women, and children. The shaking of the olive, which is always accompanied with much noise and merriment, is the severest operation of Syrian husbandry, par- ticularly in the mountainous regions! The olive undoubtedly stimulates in the mind of Israelite and Christian thoughts of momentous times and events ; it is equally venerated by them for its history, but is so little a sacred or a mystic tree that perhaps even this passing allusion can scarcely be justified. The same may be said of flowers and plants alluded to in our Lord’s teachings, or associated with His journeys. They have an interest, but not a super- stitious interest, although in times past some of them have come to be regarded as mystic flowers. As several species of true lilies and allied flowers grow in the plains around the Mount of Beatitudes, 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” Sept. 18, 1875. 426 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. £ westward of Gennesaret, we cannot be sure what. flower of deepest interest our Lord pointed to when He bade His hearers “ consider the lilies of the field.” Sir J. E. Smith, the great botanist, suggested that it was the amaryllis (Sternbergia lutea), whose golden flowers outshone “ Solomon in all his glory ;” others have preferred to award the honour of having sug- gested the famous comparison to the “lily of Byzantium,” or scarlet martagon lily, which de- corates the plains of Galilee in early summer, when the Sermon on the Mount is believed to have been delivered, with floral pyramids of scarlet which are beautiful and conspicuous even at a distance.”! It matters but little which particular flower, or whether both were alluded to, in the injunction; but it is some satisfaction to know that there are two flowers. to be found at the spot, either of which would answer all the purposes of an illustration. The monks in the middle ages were in the habit of carefully tending the lily of the valley, in the belief that it was the true “ flower of the field,” and it has always been in the folklore of England an emblem of purity, and connected in some way with holiness, as, for instance, in the legend of St. Leonard, who fought with a dragon for three days, and lost much blood in the encounter, and wherever the blood 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” July 1, 1876, p. 7. MYSTIC PLANTS. 427 of the saint fell lilies of the valley sprang up, where they still grow wild in the forest of St. Leonard. The lily of the valley was introduced early into England from Southern Europe, and was largely employed in the decoration of churches in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. When the devotion of the rosary was instituted by St. Dominic, the “Lady Chapels” erected in honour of the Virgin Mary were adorned in the season with lilies of the valley.1 The “Rose of Sharon” was not the rose of Eng- land, but the yellow-flowered Narcissus, common in Palestine and in the East generally, of which Mahomet said, “He that hath two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them for some flowers of Narcissus, for bread is the food of the body, but Narcissus is the food of the soul.” It had been the flower-crown of the goddesses long before the period of its fame and high esteem. The Scripture “rose” is some- times the oleander, sometimes the rhododendron? There is a curious monkish legend extant of the origin of the rose, although there is a prior one which dates from classic times. Sir John Mandeville relates that “a Christian maid of Bethlehem, blamed with wrong and slandered, and about to be martyred, prayed the Lord to spare her, and immediately red roses grew from the burning brands, and white roses 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” July 1, 1876, p. 7. ? Ibid, p. 8. 428 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. from the wood which was not on fire, and these,” says Sir John, “were the first rosaries and roses, both white and red, that ever man saw,” and henceforth the rose was the flower of martyrs, as well as an emblem of the Virgin. It has also been claimed for Mahomet that he created the rose. Apropos of monkish legends, there is one, of Spanish origin, associated with a singular flower, current in Central America, of which Mr. J. K. Lord? has given the following graphic account. He says: “One of the most singular flowers growing in this pretty garden (of the Panama Railway Company) was an orchid (Peristeria), called by the natives “Flor del Espiritu Santo, or the ‘Flower of the Holy Ghost.’ The blossom, white as Parian marble, somewhat resembles the tulip in form; its perfume is not unlike that of the magnolia, but more intense. Neither its beauty nor fragrance begat for it the high reverence in which it is held,.but the image of a dove placed in its centre. Gathering the freshly-opened flower, and pulling apart its alabaster petals, there sits the dove ; its slender pinions droop listlessly by its side; the head inclining gently forward, as if bowed in humble submission, brings the delicate beak, just blushed with carmine, in contact with the 1 J. K. Lord, Naturalist in Vancouver's Island. MYSTIC PLANTS. 429. snowy breast. Meekness and innocence seem em- bodied in this singular freak of nature; and who can marvel that crafty priests, ever watchful for any phenomenon convertible into the miraculous, should have knelt before this wondrous flower, and trained the minds of the superstitious natives to accept the title, the ‘Flower of the Holy Ghost, to gaze upon it with awe and reverence, sanctifying even the rotten wood from which it springs, and the air laden with its. exquisite perfume? But it is the flower alone I fear they worship; their minds ascend not from ‘nature up to nature’s God ;’ the image only is bowed down to, not He who made it. The stalks of the plant are jointed, and attain a height of from six to seven feet, and from each joint spring two lanceolate leaves ; the time of flowering is in June and July.” The “ snipe orchis”” will at once recur to us in this connection, as reminding us of a flying bird, repre- sented in the centre of the flower, but, in this instance, without any mystical association (see fig. 45 ante). We may allude, also, to the flowers which have been associated with the dead. The Greeks used amaranth, polyanthus, parsley, and myrtle to decorate tombs, and roses were prominent amongst funereal flowers. The latter also are planted on graves by the Chinese. In Upper Germany the graves are often covered with Dzanthus Carthu- 430 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. sianorum, whilst in France the box is common in graveyards. In Switzerland and Tuscany the peri- winkle (Vinca minor) is associated with the dead, and in many parts of Italy is called the “flower of death.” In Goethe’s “ Faust,’ Margaret plucks a flower, and picks off the petals, one by one, saying mean- while, “He loves me, he loves me not!” This custom is a revival of an old one recorded by Theo. critus, who says that the Greeks took the petal of a corn poppy, and laying it on the thumb and fore- finger of one hand, slapped it with the other. If it gave a crack, it was a sign that their lovers loved them, but if it failed, they were disappointed. This was called a telephion, and a goatherd laments that he had tried whether his Amaryllis loved him, but “the telephion gave no crack.” ; The association of passion flowers with the passion of our Lord (as the name indicates) dates from monkish times. Dr. Masters is of opinion! that the species called Passiflora incarnata “is the one in which the semblance of the parts of the flower to the instrument of our Lord’s passion was first observed. The cross, the scourge, the hammer, the nails, the crown of thorns, even ten of the apostles —Judas, who betrayed, and Peter who denied, being absent—all 1 “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” 1870, p. 1,214. MYSTIC PLANTS. 431 may be seen by the imaginative in these flowers, Monardes (1593) was the first to call attention to this peculiarity. Soon afterwards the plant was in cultivation at Bologna and at'Rome. There is some little confusion as to the exact date, but it may safely be said to have been in cultivation in Italy before 1609. Thence it probably was introduced into Belgium, and is known to have been grown in this country in 1629. Parkinson figures it under the name of “Maracoc sive clematis virginiana—the Virginia climber.’ He associates it with clematis, because, as he says, “unto what other family or kindred I might better conjoin it I know not.” He calls it the “surpassing delight of all flowers ;” but he had very little sympathy with the imaginary description of Monardes, as will be seen from the following extract : “Some superstitious Jesuite would fain make men beleeve that in the flower of this plant are to be seene all the markes of our Saviour’s passion, and therefore call it ‘flos passionis, and to that end have caused figures to be drawne and printed, with all the parts proportioned. out, as thornes, nails, speare, whippe, pillar, &c., in it and all as true as the sea burnes, which you may well perceive by the true figure, taken to the life of the plant, compared with the figures set forth by the Jesuites, which I have placed here likewise for every one to see; but these bee their advantageous lies 432 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. f Ss wy q arm , Wy (fiw b in Bit Lu if ‘= Un Fig. 87.—Jesuitic Maracoc, after Parkinson. MYSTIC PLANTS. 433 (which with them are tolerable, or rather, pious and meretorious) wherewith they used to instruct their people ; but I dare say God never willed his Priests to instruct his people with lyes, for they come from the Divell the author of them. . . . . In regard whereof I could not but speake (the occasion being thus offered) against such an erroneous opinion (which even Dr. Aldine, at Rome, disproved and contraried both the said figures, and the name), and seek to disprove it, as doth (I say not almost, but I am afraid altogether) leade many to adore the very picture of such things, as are but the fictions of superstitious brains ; for the flower itself is far differ- ing from their figure, as both Aldine, in the aforesaid booke, and Robinus, at Paris, in his ‘Theatrum Flore’ doe set forth ; the flowers and leaves being drawne to the life, and there exhibited, which I hope may satisfie all men that will not be perpetually obstinate and contentious.” After this quotation Dr. Masters proceeds to criticise the Jesuitic figure, for he says Parkinson gives an excellent figure of Puassiflora incarnata, “but he seems to have overlooked the fact that ‘the Jesuites’ figure of the Maracoc,’ as copied by him, does not represent P. zzcarnata at all, but some other species, more nearly resembling Passiflora glandulosa, of which it has the simple leaves and the glandular footstalks. Certainly the flower in this wonderful 2F 434 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. specimen is a‘make up.’ Supposing the ‘corona’ of threads to represent the crown of thorns, and the stamens the five nails, the Jesuit artist has just reversed their natural position ; the five stamens— nails—are at the base of the column, while a terribly material crown of thorns occupies the proper place of the stamens at the top of the column. The three stigmas, too, are certainly unusually like spear-heads, so that there can be no question that Aldinus was quite correct when he stated that with the aid of a little straining of the imagination the emblems of the Passion might be as well found in a great many other flowers. It must also be remembered that no two of the older authors agree, one with the other, as to the precise significance of the several parts. By some the coronet is the type of the crown of thorns, while others see in it the ‘parted vesture.” The ovary is for some the sportge dipped in gall; the stamens represent with some the nails, with others the five wounds, each author giving a slightly different version ; and Ferrari compares the ‘column’ to the pillar to which Christ was attached, and not to the cross, because the gentle nature of the flower did not admit of its reproducing the emblem of the gibbet !”1 1 Subsequent critical observations by Mr. A. Forsyth, in “ Gardener’s Chronicle” (1870), p. 1,409, do not controvert these remarks, : MYSTIC PLANTS. 435 I saw him as he mused one day Beneath a forest bower, With clasp’d hands stand, and upturn’d eyes, Before a Passion flower; Exclaiming with a fervent joy, “T have found the Passion flower !” The passion of our blessed Lord, With all his pangs and pain, Set forth within a beauteous flower, In shape and colours plain. Up, I will forth into the world And take this flower with me, To preach the death of Christ to all As it was preached to me. The gathering of willow catkins on Palm Sunday is the remains of a custom of the early Church in remembrance of the palm branches strewed in the way of Christ as he went up to Jerusalem. Sprigs of boxwood are still used in Catholic countries, and the willow collected on Palm Sunday is called palm by many who gather it. Why the willow should have come into use for such a purpose, has been explained in various ways. Thus, “because willow was in an- cient days a badge of mourning, as may be collected from the several expressions of Virgil, where the nymphs and herdsmen are introduced sitting under a willow mourning their loves.” This is hardly satis- factory, because the original palm branches were not emblems of mourning, but of triumph. A less elabo- rate reasoning is that “these seem to have been 2F 2 436 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Fig. 88,—Passion Flower (Passiflora cincinnata). ; “ Gardener’s Chronicle.” MYSTIC PLANTS. 437 selected as substitutes for the real palm, because they are generally the only things, at this season, which can be easily procured, in which the power of vege- tation can be discovered.” Box was evidently in use in this country in the middle of the sixteenth century and it is possible that the use of box was discontinued on the plea that it was a Romish superstition ; although the bearing of palms was de- clared in 1536 “not to be ¢ contemned and cast away ;” yet in Stow’s Chronicle (1548) it is stated that “this yeere the ceremony of bearing palmes on Palme Sonday was left off, and not used as be- fore.” The ceremony of “blessing the box” is still continued in some of the Fig. 89. — Medicago countries of the continent. echénus. — “ Gardener's Another, and more humble Sava plant, a kind of clover (Medicago echinus), found in the Levant, is held in reverence as a supposed 1 See “ Gardener’s Chronicle” for a résumé of a sermon on one of these occasions, in which the symbolism of the box is insisted upon, April 19, 1873, p. 543. 438 FREAKS OF PLANT .LIFE. memento of the Passion, with the symbol of the wounds on the leaves, and the crown of thorns in its spiny fruits. Of other customs which remain as simple cere- monies, with little meaning, it may safely be predi- cated that they had in past times a mystic association, now forgotten. The use of holly, ivy, and mistletoe, as Christmas decorations, are of this kind, in the latter case with a date anterior to the introduction of Christianity. Whatever may be its position now, the mistletoe was in for- y mer times a mystic plant; and, as Schouw says, “It is not a matter of surprise that a plant of such peculiar A) aspect, and which occurs in Tgp cD, such a remarkable position i i) as the mistletoe, should have Fig. 90-—Mistletoe awakened the attention of (Viscum alum). various races, and exerted influence over their religious ideas. It played an especially important part among the Gauls. The oak was sacred with them ; their priests abode in oak forests ; oak boughs and oak leaves were used in every religious ceremony, and their sacrifices were made beneath an oak tree; but the mistletoe, when MYSTIC PLANTS. 439 it grew upon the oak, was peculiarly sacred, and re- garded as a divine gift. It was gathered, with great ceremony, on the sixth day after the first new moon of the year: two white oxen, which were then for the first time placed in yoke, were brought beneath the tree ; the sacrificing priest (Druid), clothed in white garments, ascended it, and cut off the mistletoe with a golden sickle ; it was caught in a white cloth held beneath, and then distributed amongst the bystanders, The oxen were sacrificed, with prayers for the happy effects of the mistletoe. A beverage was prepared from this, and used as a remedy for all poisons and diseases, and which was supposed to favour fertility. A remnant of this seems to exist still in France; for the peasant boys use the expression, ‘au gui l’an neuf, as a new year’s greeting. It is also a custom in Britain to hang the mistletoe to the roof on Christ- mas eve; the men lead the women under it, and wish a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Perhaps the mistletoe was taken as a symbol of the new year, on account of its leaves giving the bare tree the ap- pearance of having regained its foliage.” + One of the strangest of mystic plants is the “Mandrake.” Some belief in its power was evidently current amongst the Hebrews. Josephus gives an account of the custom in Jewish villages of pulling 1 Schouw, “ Earth Plants and Man,” p. 218. 440 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Fig. 91.—Male Mandrake. MYSTIC PLANTS. 441 up the root by means of a dog, which is killed by its shriek. This is the salient feature of the superstition, “To procure it, one must cut away all rootlets to the main root ; to pull up that would cause death to any creature hearing it. So one must stop his ears care- fully, and, having tied a dog to the root, run away. The dog is then called, and pulling up the root, is instantly killed.” It was believed in France and Germany that the mandrake sprang up where the presence of a criminal had polluted the ground, and was sure to be found near a gallows. Having got the root, it must be bathed every Friday, kept in a white cloth in a box, and then it would procure manifold benefits. A letter, written by a burgess of Leipsic to his brother in Riga (in 1675), has been preserved, and this contains the popular notion of the time as to the virtues of the mannikin, earth-man, or mandrake. It recites that the writer had heard of his brother that in “thy home affairs hast suffered great sorrow; that thy children, cows, swine, sheep, and horses, have all died; thy wine and beer soured in thy cellar, and thy provender destroyed ; and that thou dwellest with thy wife in great contention.” He then proceeds to say that he went to those who understood such things, and they told him that these evils proceeded not from God, but from wicked people, and this was the remedy. ‘If thou hast a mandrake, and bring it into thy 442 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. house, thou shalt have good fortune.” So he had one purchased for him for sixty-four thalers, and sent it to him as a present, with these instructions : “When Fig. 92.—Female Mandrake. thou hast the mandrake in thy house, let it rest three days without approaching it; then place it in warm water, With the water afterwards sprinkle the animals MYSTIC PLANTS. 443 and sills of the house, going over all, and soon it shall go better with thee, and thou shalt come to thy own if thou serve the mandrake right. Bathe it four times every year, and as often wrap it in silk cloths and lay it among thy best things, and thou need do no more. The bath in which it has been bathed is specially good. When thou goest to law, put the mannikin under thy right arm, and thou shalt succeed, whether right or wrong.” Curious old figures of the traditional mandrake are extant, of which we give copies. Stories of its potency, and of marvels associated with its possession, are numerous in Britain, France, and Germany. Or teach me where that wondrous mandrake grows Whose magic root, torn from the earth with groans At midnight hour, can scare the fiends away, And make the mind prolific in its fancies.? In a French work (dated 1718) a peasant is said to have possessed a bryony root of human shape, which he received from a gipsy. He buried it at a lucky conjunction of the moon with Venus, in spring, and on a Monday, in a grave, and sprinkled it with milk in which three field-mice had been drowned. Ina ) “Mystic Trees and Flowers,” in “ Fraser’s Magazine,” December, 1870. 2 Longfellow’s “ Spanish Student,” p. 92. 444. FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE.. month it became more human-like than ever; then he placed it in an oven with vervain, wrapped it after- wards in a dead man’s shroud ; and so long as he kept it he never failed in luck at: games or work. The root of the white bryony has, during later times, been designated the “ mandrake,” but the precise time or history of its substitution for the genuine mandrake is obscure. In different parts of Europe fragments: of the old superstition still linger, and bits of the root are cherished as charms, love-tokens, as a pre- ventive from night-mare, or a protection from bad men and evil spirits, or even for the old: virtues attributed to it by the Jews. It would not be difficult to occupy an entire chapter with allusions to flowers and plants, or some of their parts, which have had a reputation in times past of being associated with the world of spirits, as philtres or love-charms, as a protection against witchcraft, or as possessing some mysterious virtue. Such was the Saint John’s Wort (Aypericum perforatum), gathered on the eve of St. John the Baptist Day, and hung over doors and windows as a charm against storms, thunder, and evil spirits, or carried on the person as a protection against witchcraft and enchantment, the gathering of fern-seed on Midsummer’s Eve and many others, curious enough in themselves, but which have become “ popular antiquities.” A somewhat kindred subject, which has never been MYSTIC PLANTS. 445 exhaustively treated, is the “language of flowers,” in its broadest and most philosophical aspect. It is more true of such countries as Persia and India than of England and France, that every indigenous flower has become the symbol of some attribute or idea, and hence it speaks a language to the natives of those countries of which we have not learnt the alphabet. The Hindoo or the Parsee sees a symbol in every object and in every act of his life; ovr in- terest in flowers is more sensual; we admire their colour, their form, their odour, and, if these gratify us, we are content. Perhaps we might with profit study the language of flowers in the East, and find some- thing to learn from the Parsee or the Hindoo. Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer, They are nature’s offering, their place is there ; They speak of hope to the fainting heart ; With a voice of promise they come and part ; They sleep in dust, through the wintry hours ; They break forth in glory—bring flowers, bright flowers ! 446 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. CHAPTER XX. FLOWERS OF HISTORY. SOME little latitude for gossip may perhaps be ac- corded to us for a final chapter, even if it should not concern itself much with scientific fact. Confessedly, we are proposing to enter the regions of tradition and romance, with no design of illuminating dark pages of history, or giving a new rendering to old myths, Tales of the nursery, and similar juvenile eras, are apt to cling about one,in spite of more serious studies, through many a decade. After a long journey a traveller may be permitted to describe an adventure or two, and narrate some of the legends of the country through which he has passed. It will not be wholly trivial to ascertain, if it can be done, what are the plants which as emblems or myths are associated with old stories. The rose, thistle, and shamrock may be familiar enough in name, but it will be seen that it is not quite so easy to determine which -is the thistle and what is the shamrock, as might at first be imagined. Little national predilections are apt to come in the way, so that what reason might be disposed to accept, prejudice is fain to dispute. FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 447 Reasonably and loyally we commence with the rose, which old Gerarde says “doth deserve the chiefest and most principa] place among all flowers whatsoever, being not only esteemed for his beautie, vertues, and his fragrant and odoriferous smell, but also because it is the honor and ornament of our English scepter, as by the conjunction appeereth in the uniting of those two most royal houses of Lancaster and York.” The emblematic rose of England is not involved in much obscurity, and the period of its first assump- tion seems to be contained in the following record :— “The roses of England were first publicly assumed as devices by the sons of Edward III. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, used the red rose for the badge of his family, and his brother Edward, who was created Duke of York in 1385, took a white rose for his device, which the followers of them and their heirs afterwards bore for distinction in that bloody war between the two Houses of York and Lancaster. The two families being happily united by Henry VII. the male heir of the house of Lan- caster marrying Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter and heiress of Edward IV. of the House of York, 1486, the two roses were united in one, and became the royal badge of England.”! 1 Hugh Clark’s “Introduction to Heraldry,” 13th ed. (1840), p. 172. 448 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Before the adoption of the rose, the broom was the badge of the House of Plantagenet. Tradition says that the name is derived from this circumstance, Planta and genista being combined. The latter (Gen-. zsta) was the bo- tanical name for the “broom” be- fore the present one (Sarothamnus) was adopted. The name of “ Planta- genet,’ another account says, was first assumed by Geoffrey, Earl of Anjou, the hus- band of Matilda, Empress of Ger- many, who, having placed a sprig of the “broom” in his helmet on the day of battle, originated the surname, which was bequeathed to his descendants. . fig. 93.—Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius). FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 449 The hawthorn is associated also with the Royal House of England, and was the badge of the Tudors, On the authority of Miss Strickland, this was its origin. When the body of Richard III., who was slain at Redmore Heath, was plundered of its armour and ornaments, the crown was hidden by a soldier in a hawthorn bush. It was soon found and carried back to Lord Stanley, who placed it on the head of his son-in-law, saluting him by the title of Henry VII., whilst the victorious army sang the “ Te Deum.” In memory of this event it is said that the House of Tudor assumed as a device a crown in a bush of fruiting hawthorn. There is an old proverb :— Cleave to the crown, though it hang in a bush, which appears to allude to this tradition. Stow gives an account of King Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine riding a-Maying from Green- wich to the high ground of Shooter's Hill, accom- panied by many lords and ladies, but we doubt if this had any relation to the tradition above quoted. In all the old May-day customs gathering the hawthorn had a prominent place. Brand, in his “ Antiquities,” 1 gives a long account of the customs in vogue on May- day, and their supposed relationship to the ancient floralia, and subsequent association with Robin 1 Brand, “ Antiquities,” vol. i., pp. 212 to 270, 2G 450 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. Hood and his merry men. The first of May was also called Robin Hood’s day, and even Bishop Latimer failed to secure an audience on that day, for all the parish had gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood, so that he “was fain to give place to Robin Hood and his men.” We have been rambling all this night, And almost all this day ; And now returned back again, We have brought you a branch of May. The historical associations of the “ forget-me-not ” (or Myosotis arvensis) are narrated to the following effect. Miss Strickland, writing of Henry of Lan- caster, says, this royal adventurer, the banished and aspiring Lancaster, appears to have been the person who gave to the “forget-me-not” its emblematical and poetical meaning, by uniting it, at the period of his exile, in his collar of SS., with the initial letter of his szo¢ or watchword, “ souveigne, vous de moy,” thus rendering it the symbol of remembrance. Henry is said to have exchanged this token of goodwill and remembrance with his hostess, who was at that time wife of the Duke of Bretagne. If this be a true tradition, then we must bid farewell to the poetical romance of the drowned knight, who being carried by the stream, as he gathered some of these flowers for his lady, made use of the expression since asso- ciated as its name. ! FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 451 Many other trees and flowers have from time to time been associated, historically, with events which have transpired in this country ; but Boscobel Oak and Glastonbury thorn, and such mementoes must be passed over, as our limits are reached, and we must hasten to the final page. There has been continued controversy as to the plant with three leaflets which furnished St. Patrick with his familiar illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity. Some have affirmed that this, the Irish sham- rock, is the plant we call wood-sorrel,? whilst others, with whom most Irishmen agree, maintain that it is the white clover. The visit of the saint to the Emerald Isle is supposed to have taken place about the year 433, whereas the white clover is of comparatively recent introduction into Ireland, so that it could not have been zat plant which apparently was so ready at hand to illustrate the saint’s discourse. In Mori- son’s history, written at the commencement of the seventeenth century, it is said that “ the Irish willingly eat the herb shamrock, being of a sharp taste, which they snatch out of the ditches. This description, however applicable it may be to the wood-sorrel, is not equally so to the white clover. The Irish sham- ’ Oxalis acetosella. * Trifolium repens. 3 Fynis Morison’s “History of the Civil Wars in Ireland,. between 1599 and 1603.” 2G 2 452 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. rock was certainly a plant having leaves composed of three leaflets, and as a four-leaved shamrock was: supposed to possess magical virtues, it may be as- sumed that it was not common. This would be true also of the wood-sorrel, but it is not true of the white clover, for a leaf possessed of a supplementary leaflet is by no means uncommon. In fact, if one of these two plants is to be regarded as the veritable shamrock, the evidence is very strongly in favour of the wood- sorrel, notwithstanding the national predilection for the clover. ; The Scotch emblem the thistle, has been the subject of much controversy, both as to its origin and the particular species which is symbolical. The tradition has often been cited which carries its origin back to the time of the Danish invasion. “In a night assault, a bare-footed Dane trod on a thistle, and uttering a cry from the sudden pain, the sleeping Scotch were timeously aroused, and succeeded in defeating the enemy. Henceforth the thistle was elevated to its present distinction.”! Sir Harris Nicholas traces the badge to James III, for, in an inventory of his jewels, thistles are mentioned as part of the ornaments. ? According to Pinkerton, the first authentic mention of the thistle as the badge of Scotland is in Dunbar’s poem entitled “The Thrissell and the Rois,” written 1 “ Notes and Queries,” v., p. 281. 2 Ibid., i, p. go. FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 453 in 1503, on the occasion of the marriage of James IV. with Margaret Tudor. pressly states that the plant was the *“Monarch’schoice,”? and Sir D. Lindsey in 1537, mentions it as the emblem of James V. The botanical question, “which is the true Scotch thistle ?” was inves- tigated by Dr. G. Johnston,? and his conclusions are those now generally accepted. What is denominated by gardeners the “Scotch Thistle 3 is an introduced Hamilton of Bargowe ex- Fig. 94.—Cotton Thistle (Onopordum acanthium). plant, and not a native, and, though it has had advocates, and is planted round the grave of Burns 1 Notes in Dunbar’s Poems, vol. ii, p. 219. 2 Johnston’s “ Botany of the Eastern Borders,” p. 130. 3 Onopordum acanthium. 454 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. in Dumfries, it could scarcely have been the tradi- tionary thistle of Scotland. A young chieftain in the Hebrides pointed out another plant (Carduus eviphorus) as the Scotch thistle. Fig. 95.~Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans). kings of Scotland. At Inverness Sir JamesGrantsaidthat the Scotch thistle was the only one that drooped (Carduus nutans) ; and, finally, Sir William Drum- mond maintained that no particular thistle, but any thistle the poet or painter chose, was the national flower of Scotland. Whether it was a thistle armed with spines or not was contested, and this induced Dr. Johnston to seek a solution by an ex- amination of the figures impressed on the money of the “Now, the first who so marked his money was James V., and on the coins of FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 455 his reign (1514 to 1542) the head or flower of a thistle only is represented. On a coin of James VI., of 1599, there are three thistles grouped and united at the base, whence two leaves spread laterally, and the stalk of the plant is spinous. On later coins, as on one of 1602, there is only a single head, while the leaves and spines are retained, and this figure is the same given on all subsequent coins, the form of the flower itself having suffered no change from its first adoption. “This evidence,’ says Johnston, “seems Fig. 96.—Scotch coin of 1602. F%g. 97.—Scotch coin of 1599. to me to put Carduus nutans out of court, and the greater number of species, and very much to invali- date the claims of the Oxofordum, but greatly to strengthen our belief that Carduus marianus was the chosen emblem of the national pride and character, although it must be admitted that the resemblance between the plant and the picture of the artist is somewhat postulatory. The bold motto, “nemo me impune lacessit, was the addition of 456 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. James VI., and Carduus marianus is almost the only species that would naturally suggest it, or that really deserves it, but I suspect that the reason for the preference of this species as the emblem was the fact of its dedication to the mother of Our Saviour, a drop of whose milk having fallen on the leaves, imprinted the accident in those white veins which so remarkably distinguished them. The period at which the thistle was emblazoned was rife in those religious associations and adoptions.”? In favour of this view an argument may be derived from the fact of the “Blessed thistle” having been cultivated in the neigh- bourhood of castles in Scotland, about whose ruins it is now found. The simple daisy, with all its aie is very nearly a royal flower. It was once of great renown, and was called in England “Herb Margaret,” or day’s eye, but in France it was Marguerite, a name it still bears. It was the device of the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou, and when this queen was in ' “The purple-flowered Lady’s Thistle, the leaves of which are beautifully diversified with numerous white spots like drops of milk, is vulgarly thought to have been originally marked by the falling of some drops of the Virgin Mary’s milk on it, whence, no doubt, its name Lady’s—ze., Our Lady’s Thistle. —Brand’s “ Popular Antiquities,” i., p. 48. 2 Johnston’s “ Botany of the Eastern Borders,” p. 131. 3 Professor Balfour, ‘‘ The Bass Rock” (1848), p. 419. FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 457 prosperity her nobles wore wreaths of this flower, and had it embroidered on their robes. Another Margaret, the friend of Erasmus, Margaret of Valois, had the daisy flower worn in her honour. It is said that she was called by her brother, Francis I, his “ Marguerite of Marguerites.” The Lily of France, viz, the heraldic lily, is evidently one of those corruptions which are not uncommon when the origin or meaning of an emblem is forgotten or hasbecome corrupted. It is generally considered that the Fleur-de-lys is a corruption of Fleur-de-Luce, which, again, was in itself the repre- sentative of Fleur-de-Louis. The flower itself was the common purple iris, and not a white lily, and the whole history is apparently summed up in the tradi- tion that when Louis VII, King of France was setting out on his crusade to the Holy Land, he chose the purple iris as his heraldic emblem. Thenceforth it became the Flower of Louis, or Fleur-de-Louis, subsequently Fleur-de-Luce, and in more degenerate times it settled into Fleur- de-lys. The similarity of colouring in the purple iris of Louis and Napoleonic violet is a strange coincidence. It has been believed that the association of the violet with the Bonaparte dynasty originated in this wise. When Napoleon I. left France for Elba it is 458 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. generally understood that he said that he would return again in the violet season. During his absence, in the villages about Paris, as well as on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, the violet was the secret symbol by which the people denoted their favourite chief and recognised each other. They also wore rings of a violet colour, with the device—“It will appear again in spring” (Elle reparoitra au printemps). When asked, “Do you like the violet?” If the answer was “Qui” (yes), the inference was that the answerer was not a confederate; but if the answer was “Eh bien!” (well), they recognised a brother conspirator, and completed his sentence, “It will appear again in spring.” The friends of Bonaparte generally wore watch- ribbons, &c., of a violet colour, and he was toasted by the name of General or Corporal Violet among his adherents from the time of his quitting France until his return. When Napoleon I. re-entered the Tuileries on March 20, 1815, after his escape from Elba, his friends saluted his return with the flower of the season—violets—in token of welcome. From that time it continued the Napoleonic flower, so much so that after Waterloo, and the replacement of Louis XVIII. on the throne, violets became sedi- tious wear—dangerous to sport in your button-hole. The white terror waged implacable war against the purple violet. The later Empire could hardly avoid FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 459 reviving the traditions of the first, and with them violets. . Farewell to thee, France ! but when Liberty rallies Once more in thy regions, remember me then— The violet still grows in the depths of thy vallies, Though withered thy tears will unfold it again. (Byron.) The pseudo-historical Lotophagi, or Lotos-eaters, when stripped of the romance which enveloped them, became resolved into very matter-of-fact vege- tarians, living on the jujube. According to Homer they were A hospitable race ; ‘ Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest, They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast ; The trees around:-them all their fruit produce ; Lotos the name ; divine nectareous juice ! (Thence called Lotophagi) which whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts, Nor other home, nor other care intends, But quits his house, his country, and his friends. By comparison of the ancient authors who have mentioned the subject, we find that the Lotos was a sweet pulpy fruit of variable size, but not larger than an olive, with a hard stone (and a stoneless variety from which wine was made). There is no allusion whatever to any peculiar effects resulting from the eating of this fruit of the kind indicated by Homer, so that this portion of the story may be eliminated as poetical. Nor is there any foundation for the 460 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. romance of our own Laureate of “the mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters” to whom The gushing of the wave Far away did seem to mourn and rave On alien shores ; and if his fellow spake, His voice was thin, as voices from the grave ; And deep asleep he seemed, yet all awake, And music in his ears his beating heart did make. We have discussed this subject in another place, and only need to mention here the conclusion arrived at, that the Lote-bush, which gave its name to the ancient Lotophagi to this day, furnishes its fruit as food to the Arabs of Barbary, and is the Zizyphus Jotus of botanists, 1M. C. Cooke on the “ Lotos of the Ancients,” in “ Popular Science Review,” vol. x. p. 256. INDEX, ——tOe AsiEes Nordmanniana, 159 Acacia Farnesiana, 252 Actinotus, 329 Aldrovandra vesiculosa, 67 Amorphophallus Titanum, 359 Ampelopsis hederacea, 212 Anastatica hierochuntina, 281 Apocynum androszemifolium, 120 Arachis hypogza, 168 Arenaria rubra, 263 Aristolochia glauca, 119 Aristolochia goldieana, 362 Aristolochia grandiflora, 361 Arum maculatum, 374 Asplenium trichomanes, 163 Avena fatua, 275 Averrhoa bilimbi, 245 BALSAM, or Impatiens, 293 Bamboos, 355 Bee orchis, 269 Bertholletia excelsa, 312 Bignonia capreolata, 208 Bignonia littoralis, 207 Bignonia Tweediana, 210 Bomarea Carderi, 197 Broom plant, 448 Byblis gigantea, 70 Byttneria aspera, 292 CALTHA dionzfolia, 328 Camrunga, Averrhoa carambola, 224 Carludovica Plumieri, 379 Carnivorous plants, 23 Carpels of Erodium, 280 Centaurea calcitrapa, 299 Centaurea cyanea, 297 Cephalotus follicularis, 115 Cereus giganteus, 351 Ceropegia Gardneri, 191 Ceropegia Sandersoni, 192 Change of vegetation, 112 Christian origin of rose, 427 Cleavers, Galium aparine, 216 Clematis flammula, 200 Clematis vitalba, 200 Cobzea scandens, 206 Colocasia esculenta, 238 Coronilla rosea, 254 Corydalis claviculata, 203 Couroupita guianensis, 313 Crambe maritima, 162 Cyclamen, 180 DARLINGTONIA, 95 Dendrobium D’Albertisii, 269 Desmodium gyrans, 223 Dictamnus albus, 387 Dielytra spectabilis, 274 Digestion by Sundews, 35 Discoid samarze, 333 Dispersion, 291 Dispersion by Birds, 315 Drosophyllum Lusitanicum, 68 ECCENTRICITIES of flowers, 267 Echinocystis lobata, 207 Entada scandens, 354 Eucalyptus globulus, 8 Eucalyptus or gum trees, 348 Euphorbia resembling cactus, 322 462 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. FERULA of the ancients, 417 Ficus repens, 217 Floating imitators, 325 Floral clock, 260 Flowers of History, 446 Flower of the Holy Ghost, 428 Flowers of willow-herb, 234 Forget-me-not, 450 Fumaria officinalis, 203 Funaria hygrometrica, 288 Gaunia xanthophylla, 306 Giants, 345 Gyration of plants, 150 HAMAMELIS virginica, 294 Hand-plant of Mexico, 273 Harpagophytum leptocarpum, 302 Heat and germination, 372 Heat in fungi, 381 Heliotropes or sunflowers, 170 Helleborus niger, 144 Humulus lupulus, 187 Hygienic plantations, 8 Hygroscopism, 275 IMITATING samarz, 332 Indian fig or banyan, 350 Introduction, 1 Iresine herbstii, 229 Trish shamrock, 451 LarcE leaved palms, 356 Legend of the cedar, 419 Lilium giganteum, 364 Lily of France, 457 Locomotive Loranthus, 319 Lotos of the Nile, 407 Lotos-eaters, 459 Luminosity, 383 Luminous agarics, 395 Luminous mycelium, 391 Lupinus luteus, 250 Lycopodium and Azorella, 327 MAcrocysTIs pyrifera, 368 Mahogany tree, 292 Mandrake, 439 Marigold and luminous flowers, 384 Martynia diandra, 302 Masdevallia, 271 Medicago echinus, 437 Megaclinium bufo, 236 Mesembryanthemum tripolium, 282 Meteoric flowers, 259 Mimicry, 321 Mimicry in fungi, 339 Mimosa pudica, 221 Mirabilis jalapa, 265 Mistletoe, 438 Momordica elaterium, 294 Monkey-pots, 311 Mystic plants, 401 NAPOLEONIC violet, 457 Narcissus, 415 Nelumbium speciosum, 308 Nepenthes ampullacea, 106 ” bicalcarata, 105, a5 Chelsoni, 110 a distillatoria, 109 55 Rafflesiana, 106 CENOTHERA biennis, 265 Oncidium zebrinum, 269 Oxalis acetosella, 183, 243 Oxalis sensitiva, 225 PACHYSTOMA Thomsoni, 269 Parachute of Tragopogon, 296 Parnassia palustris, 233 Passiflora edulis, 215 >, gracilis, 207 Passion flower, 430 Pedalium murex, 299 Pentaclethra macrophylla, 285 Phalaris canariensis, 176 Phaseolus vulgaris, 251 Philodendron, 377 Phytelephas, macrocarpa, 379 INDEX, 463 Pinguicula Lusitanica, 123 Pinguicula vulgaris, 123 Pitcher plants, 99 Plants of races, 17 Polar-plant or compass-weed, 170 Polygonum convolvulus, 195 Porlieria hygrometrica, 285 Proboscidea Jussieui, 302 RAFFLESIA Arnoldi, 359 Rain tree, 13 Relative sizes, 6 Rhizomorpha subterranea, 393 Robinia pseudacacia, 182 Rock rose, Helianthemum, 330 Roridula dentata, 70 Rosa setigera, 216 Rose of Sharon, 427 Royal Hawthorn, 449 - SACRED flowers in India, 402 Sanctity of the oak, 422 Sandbox, Hura crefitans, 284 Sarracenia flava, 74 y» purpurea, 77 xe variolaris, 72 Scarlet pimpernel, 264 Schnella excisa, 353 Scotch thistle, 452 Sea and forest, 2 Seed of Calosanthes Indica, 335 Seeds of Mesua ferrea, 331 Seed of Zanonia macrocarpa, 334 Selaginella lepidophylla, 287 Sensitive plants, 220 Sequoia gigantea, 346 Silene noctiflora, 266 Similar crested seeds, 336 Sleep of plants, 239 Snake nut of Demerara, 342 Snipe orchis, 269 Solanum dulcamara, 191 Species of plants, 3 Sphzerobolus stellatus, 295 Stellaria media, 249 Stipa pennata, 277 ” Sunde spartea, 279 WS, 23 Sunflowers, 10 8 TEMPERATURE, 371 The olive, 424 Thomasia solanacea, 325 Trapa ” bicornis, 305 bispinosa, 305 Tree ferns, 367 Tribulus terrestris, 299 Trifolium repens, 246 subterraneum, 165 Tropzeolum, 249 Twiners and climbers, 184 UrricuLaRIA clandestina, 134 ” ” ” montana, 143 neglecta, 133 vulgaris, 132 VENUS fly-trap, 50 Victoria regia, 364 WELWITSCHIA mirabilis, 349 XANTHIUM spinosum, 301 ”? strumarium, 301 WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. ; er ta } + am 9 aw © ao: 6 eas at IE E emeae E waarTO OE eB 4 Te PEN PAES u | © amm:@ aap © Gum © au 6 Gum 6' ge 0 am 6 au @ aa 6 cam O's 6 ae PUBLICATIONS OF THE Society for Promoting Christian Bnotoledge. 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