Show f v. v tf 1 7 I l Wi I r t lo A FEW PLANTS P. f. f IJ j O Jd jf There ai are e so so many strange plants in the world that when orie sits one sits down dow with the the avowed avowed intention of writing off a few of them he well wel may pause f fearing aring that those which he writes of may not possess so many points of interest as some which he does not notice Do not suppose for a moment that all plants plants' ar are not riot i interesting One has only to partially understand them to find every plant flower and weed a subject for delightful study But just as the Hie unusual in in daily life attracts us more than the usual usual so those plants which j differ most widely most widely from those we daily meet are the most interesting to the people at large t as aswell well as to the botanist No one would think of giving evena even evena a very short list of strange plants without speaking speaking- of the Arnoldi This remark remarkable bl plant was discovered growing in Sumatra by Sir Thomas S. S Raffles while he was acting as as the British governor governor- of that island The student of history will perhaps remember that England temporarily annexe annexed J Sumatra and that it t formed a apart part pait of the British Empire from 1795 to 1819 The Arnoldi is the largest flower known and the flower is the whole of df f the plant It is a perfect parasite drawing drawing- all of f its food from the J on which it grows As it it draws only elaborated sap from its host as the plant on which li it if grows is called it has no need ne-ed of leaves an and d consequently conse consequently conse- conse it has none The blos blossom bud resembles a a large red cabbage When hen rf J the flower is fully expanded it is more than three feet in diameter and nearly I Iten I ten feet in in circumference Its five large fleshy petals form a basin capable of holding nearly neaily or quite two gallons of fluid It i is mottled ot led red in hue and is in color and texture very very suggestive tive of raW raw beefsteak Not only has this strange plant the appearance of ra raw raw v meat mea but it e exhales h l s an odor which so closely resembles the smell of d decayed flesh that even ven the flies are deceived and they hasten in swarms to these flowers and deposit deposits their eggs on them and in them Why has this plant entered on such sucha a career of deception Has the laid itself out ut to gratuitously deceive th the ov over confiding confiding meat flies and to starve their help helpless ess offspring in ih th the midst of apparent nt plenty or does it derive some benefit fl from from om its dishonest dishonest course The remainder of the sketch t tB B must answer this question Most plants secure secure their fertilization by means of bees butterflies etc In order that these necessary insects may be induced to vi visit it them most plants produce a showy agree agreeably bly scented flower which contains a few drops of honey but ut in the dense forests where the grows flies are more plentiful than tha bees and if they can be induced to visit the flowers they are quite as useful in securing the exchange of pollen as bees and butterflies Y From a human standpoint it is an e evidence ide ce of very poor taste to prefer the smell of putrid flesh to the odor of the violet o 01 or hyacinth but the plant caters to the taste of its insect friend and andi sets ets human views at defiance We Weare Weare Weare are told that the Greek painter once painted a bunch of grapes so skillfully that the birds were deceived and picked at his canvas so has for it its own selfish ends so cl closely sely imitated ted the smell and appearance of 1 I f r. r td iM 1 A decaying ca flesh that the flies are d deceived S Surely rely in th the shay sharp p competition of t J tropical tropical life ife dishonesty dishonest is so sometimes etim s the best est policy I I pass at a single stride f from om the h gi giant p parasite rasit of t the e tropics Jt to o one one with jt which the alfalfa growers of f California are already too fam familiar li and one one which is s by no means rare in the alfalfa fields of Utah I refer to the Dodder a plant which belongs to the Morning glory family When this thi plant fir first I t y raises its head above the e ground it has every appearance of being a es a respect respectable table t- t able member of vegetable society but like the rest of its near nearest st relatives relative ito it soon o n begins to twine its hs stem a around oun l the nearest arest plant and it not Pt only forces s this plant to support its weight but very soon it develops ps little rootlets wh which which h pierce the bark of the plant around which it is entwined and soon it is appropriating appropriating the sap which the alfalfa or other plant f fully lly intended using in its own growth As soon as the Dodder has these thieving rootlets fully developed the part of the stem connecting it with the ground dies die a and d the leaves which s are are no longer needed drop off and th the whole plant becomes one mass mas of blossoms blossoms blos blos- t s- s oms which ripen their seeds wholly at the expense e of the I plant rit on on which h th they chance to y grow k The first plant spoken of the has gone gone so far o on on th the road of of parasitism pa that it begins its life as a parasite The Dodder has not progress progressed Y q quite ite so far and it begins its life as a s self respecting r lf-r supporting self g plant The Bastard Toad-flax Toad known to botanists as the tz is sa a aN N common plant in Utah which has ju just t begun its downward course tow towards towards parasitism Perhaps even a majority of the plants of this species are free fro from w I this vice but many of them have learned that the sap from the tIle roots of oa oak and nd maple trees is quite as good as the sap which their own roots root gather and so o o they strike their rootlets into the oak and maple roots and thus not on only y steal s sap p but steal elaborated or digested sap In this way the plant saves o both oth its roots and its leaves In a few specimens which I have examined the plants were drawing so sq much sap from the roots of trees that they were losing their own leaves Perhaps in the far fat distant future the will b become become be be- c come me a leafless parasite like the for all bad habits habit are re transmitted from rm one g generation to another and reformation becomes more and more more ie difficult From plants which are strange because they are parasites I turn for fora a moment to the consideration of a strange though not uncommon flower an and fruit I refer to the common fig Few people except real lovers of nature have ever seen a fig blossom for instead of growing in plain sight as most flowers grow they grow in the inside of ofa a hollow stem or receptacle T The e K staminate flowers flowers grow near one end of the hollow st stem m which some v somewhat t reminds one of the finger of a glove and the flowers near the other ther end n Insect visitors are desirable to carry the pollen from the stamens to the thel l pistils but unfortunately the big flowers have little to offer insects It so 9 o. o chances however that a wild fig fiO b which produces produce no edible fruit does produce a a blossom which offers various inducements to insects The blossom of the Inedible fig so closely resembles the blossom of the cultivated fig th that t insects s sare are are often deceived and enough b of them enter the to t them em useless blosso blossoms s to sec th their thir ir fertilization The Italian peasants attract t insects n t t to the f secure re t I 1 1 J 1 I i ji d i 1 1 r t J ti c S A 1 J af d fig trees by hanging br branches of the fig tree tree as the the wild ones are called on the cultivated fig trees at the time when the cultivated trees stand tand most in need of insect visitors In this way insects are induced to visit the cultivated trees and mistakes enough are made to secure the fer fertilization of a large number of flowers flower It is is' proper to add that the practical value ue of hanging the C branches in the cultivated tree has been serious seriously y questioned ques ques- Many wonderful species of figs might be described but the present space space will only permit me to say that the Banyan tree that wonderful tree r which sends roots down from its wide wide spreading branches and which sometimes some- some t 1 1 times covers acres of ground is a species of fig figtree tree t |