CURIOSITIES OF VEGETABLE LIFE.

It is not necessary to travel in order to find a great many curious things in vegetable growth. They lie around us everywhere.

We will find a great deal to surprise us, if we study the habits of the trees and plants about us. Some have very peculiar methods of growth; some go to sleep, and wake up at regular hours; some set little traps for catching insects; some often change the colors of their flowers; and many other curious ways they have.

But men, who travel in various countries, and study the vegetable growth of all climates, meet with very marvelous things indeed. Let us follow them about the world for awhile. But we will have to travel very swiftly, and to skip from one country to another, and back again, perhaps, with great haste.

We will first look at some trees that surprise us by their size.

On Mount Etna, in Sicily, there is a famous chestnut tree. It stands on one of the lower slopes of the mountain, so that it is often visited. There are quite a number of huge chestnut trees in that neighborhood, each of which has a distinctive name. But the “Chestnut of a Hundred Horses” is much larger than any of the others. It is a very, very old tree, and the people who now live near it, are not sure how it first got its name. Some say it was named many years ago by a Spanish queen because its thick wide branches once sheltered her and her party of a hundred horsemen, from the rain. Others say it is so called because a hundred horses can be sheltered within, and around it. It is now the home of a shepherd, who has built a hut for himself, and a fold for his sheep, within the hollow of the tree.

The trunk measures 190 feet around. It looks as if there were several trees growing together, but it is known to be all one tree.

THE GREAT CHESTNUT TREE OF MOUNT ETNA.

In the centre of a graveyard, in the village of Allouville, in Normandy,there stands an oak that is over nine-hundred years old. Near the ground its trunk measures thirty feet in circumference. Two hundred years ago it was fitted up as a little chapel, and is used for that purpose to this day.

The tree is hollow, as are all these very old trees. The lower part of this hollow is lined with wood, carefully plastered and wainscoted. This is the chapel. Above it, is a second story, and in this room lives a solitary man—a hermit. Above, in the branches, is a belfry, ornamented with a cross.

In another part of France, there is an oak that is known to be fifteen hundred years old. It also is hollow, but every year, like the Hundred Horse Chestnut, and the Allouville Oak, it covers itself with thick and luxuriant foliage. The circumference of this oak is over 80 feet, and its branches spread over a circumference of 380 feet.

The inside of this tree is used for a dining hall by pleasure parties. A circular bench has been cut out of the wood, and a dozen persons can sit comfortably around the table. The room has a glass door, and a window. Beautiful ferns and mosses spring out of the sides of the tree, and decorate this hall.

Not far from Smyrna, in Asia Minor, there is a very old, and a very large Plane tree. It has three stems from one root. These join into one trunk at the height of about twenty feet from the ground, thus forming a gateway. The main road runs right through this gateway, and cavalcades of horsemen, and camel riders, and vehicles pass under this singular arch.

There is another Plane tree in the island of Cos, which is almost as well known as that of Smyrna. Its spreading branches cover the whole of a large square of a city, and are so heavy that the old trunk is not able to bear their weight. The inhabitants of the city, proud of their tree, and anxious to keep it, have built columns of marble under the branches to support them.

CHAPEL OAK OF ALLOUVILLE.

We have been visiting single trees of different kinds. There is a family of trees, every member of which attains a great size. The Baobabs ought to be large, for they require 800 years to attain their full growth. They then measure, usually, from 70 to 77 feet in girth. Enormous branches spread out from the central stem, each one of which is a respectable size for a tree. So these trees give a splendid shade, covering a space of ground 300 feet in circumference. They do not grow very tall. These trees are found chiefly in Africa.

The Baobabs remind us of another marvel of the vegetable kingdom—the great age of some trees. We have mentioned one 900 years old, and another 1,500. The ages of these are known because the trees have been traced back historically for that length of time. But these are babies in age by the side of the Baobabs. Botanists calculate the ages of the largest Baobabs to be over 5,000 years! We must remember this iscalculation, notcertainty. It is positively known, however, that some of them are several hundred years old; and there are olive trees known to have lived over a thousand years. This is a very good old age when we consider that man seldom lives to a hundred.

THE GIANT CANDLE.

The height to which some tropical plants that are not trees grow issurprising. You have, no doubt, all seen the queer fleshy-leaved cactus that is cultivated in green-houses. This plant has no woody stem, and yet one species of it grows to the height of twenty and thirty feet.

TREE FERNS.

It is called the giant candle, and it certainly looks like one.

The great height of this plant is the more surprising because it grows right out of crevices of rocks where no soil can be seen, and pushes its straight, fleshy stem up into the air without anything to shelter it from the furious winds that often sweep over the country. But it braves the winds, and grows, and grows; and every year puts forth its large white flowers, and bears upon its queer stalk a very savory fruit.

The largest palms rise to a height of 45 feet, and more or sometimes as high as 70 feet—before putting out a single branch. Then they spread out a great plume offeathery leaves. The wax palm of the Andes is said to grow to the height of 200 feet.

In New Zealand, the ferns, that are here so fragile and delicate, grow so high that they look, at a little distance like small palms.

The tallest trees in the world are the giant trees of California. These are from 300 to 350 feet high; and one that was cut down was 450 feet high.

We cannot very well speak of the height of vines, but there are species of these that grow to a very great length. Sometimes one stalk will stretch itself out to the length of 150 yards. Some of the sea-weeds, thrown upon the shore, measure 500 yards in a single strip.

We must again go to the tropics if we want to find large leaves. You have, no doubt, heard of the great water-lily—the Victoria Regia, but I think you would open your eyes if you could get a sight of a river filled with these floating mammoths of leaves. They are from four to eight feet in diameter. They are, in shape, almost circular, and are turned up a little around the edges.

The strength of these leaves is almost as surprising as their size. The fibres are large, and are so woven together on the under side that they form a solid framework to support the upper part of the leaf, which is of a beautiful green, and thick, and velvety. The water-fowl choose these leaves often for sleeping places in the hot nights, and find it very pleasant, doubtless, to be thus rocked on the cool water, in a velvet bed, that will not sink.

Palms have ridges running lengthwise of their leaves, as you may see by examining a palm leaf fan. One ridged leaf of the talipot palm, when well grown, it is said, will shelter forty persons. This sounds like a traveler’s story, but single leaves of this tree have been brought to this country, and one of them will completely cover the ceiling of a good-sized room.

THE GUTTA PERCHA TREE.

The leaves of the cocoanut palm are several feet long.

The juices of many vegetables possess very singular properties. The cow-tree, is so called because the sap that flows from it closely resembles milk, and is used as such by the natives.

A substance, with which you are very familiar, India-rubber, is nothing but the sap of a tree. A very useful sap it is; and, when hardened, and properly prepared, is impervious to water; and shoes, coats, coverlets, &c., are made of it. Put through another hardening process it takes a fine polish, and is made up into beautiful ornaments and useful articles.

India-rubber trees are found in South America, the East Indies, and in some parts of Africa.

In the same countries there grows a beautiful tree, which yields a thick sap, called gutta-percha. This is similar, in substance, to India-rubber, and is used for a great variety of purposes, from making lifeboats to knife-handles.

Sugar and molasses are made from the juice of a cane; maple sugar from the sap of a tree that grows plentifully in all our mountain districts. You think it wonderful that milk can be taken from a tree. Is it not quite as strange to find sugar there? I suppose you will reply to this that the milk is ready prepared, while we have to make the sugar. That is true, but we add nothing to what we take from the tree. We simply apply heat to the sap, and behold the sugar! The chief reason, I think, why we are not surprised at this sugar tree is that we are familiar with it. The inhabitants of Central America do not see anything strange in the fact of a tree bearing milk.

But there is a tree that produces sugar ready-made. This is the manna tree of Sicily. The sap hardens on the trunk and branches into sugary particles, which are scraped off with wooden knives. This kind of sugar is used principally in medicine. It is insipid in taste.

A species of Laurel in India contains camphor in all its juices. Break up twigs, stems, and leaves of this tree, and heat them, and the liquid that comes from them will soon condense into camphor gum.

The seeds of one kind of palm produce a fine oil; and the stalks of another give us wax, of which candles are made. This wax forms on the outside of the stalk, at the places where the leaves join the stem. From another palm is extracted a juice that when exposed to the air for a short time, becomes wine.

In arid deserts, and in unwholesome marshes plants flourish luxuriantly, the leaves of which contain pure, sweet, freshwater, always ready for the thirsty traveler.

So far we have only spoken of the wholesome juices of plants and trees, but a large number are full of deadly poisons. Many of these grow in our own woods and fields. Some of the poisons have been utilized in medicines, for it has been found that, properly prepared, and given in small quantities, they can frequently arrest disease. Such is opium, which we get from the poppy, strychnine, and prussic acid. All of these are terrible poisons, but when administered by a physician in small doses, they relieve pain, and help to cure disease.

Other vegetable poisons seem to be only destructive. If a man should, ignorantly take refuge under a Machineel tree from a shower, and remain there for any length of time after the rain began to drip upon him, he would suddenly discover that blisters were breaking out on his skin, and that sharp pains were running through his limbs, and he might well feel thankful if he escaped without a fit of sickness. This, at least is the story that the savages tell who live in the regions where the Machineel grows. It is probable that they exaggerate the facts, but they will none of them go near a tree of this species if they can help it; and there is no doubt that it is very poisonous.

THE DEADLY UPAS.

The most celebrated of the poison-trees is the Upas, which growsin several tropical countries, but chiefly in the island of Java. The accounts given of the Machineel tree are nothing compared to the wonderful stories told of the Upas. No plant, not even grass, will grow under one of these trees, or anywhere near it. A drop of water falling from a leaf on any one beneath it, will produce inflammation. Whoever walks under one of these trees bare-headed, must expect to lose all his hair. To stay under it for a short time will cause sickness. To sleep under it is certain death. Birds fly over the tree with great difficulty, and if one should chance to alight upon it, woe be to him! Instantly he drops down dead. The wild beasts know the fatal tree, and shun it, but, if one venture beneath its shadow, he never comes forth again, but leaves his bones there.

These stories which the natives really believe, they told to travelers, and, for a long time they were supposed to be true. One thing which caused these accounts to be so readily credited was the condition of things in a valley in Java, where these trees were found in abundance.

The natives of Java told the Europeans of a wonderful valley that they called the Valley of Death, because the air was so poisoned with the noxious vapors of the Upas trees that no animal ever went through the valley. It dropped dead before the short journey was completed, and the ground was strewn with the bones of creatures that had perished there. The natives were willing to conduct their visitors to a hill that overlooked this valley at a safe distance. When they arrived at this hill, there, sure enough, was the valley, Upas trees, dead grass, bones, and all, just as the savages had described it. This settled the matter for a great many years in regard to the death dealing Upas tree. Other travelers to Java, rode up this hill, looked at the Valley of Death, shuddered, and rode down again.

At last there arrived on the hill-top a man who made up his mind he would ridethroughthis valley! And so he did! Everybody saidhe was going to his death, but he was resolved to solve the mystery of the valley. He rode into it, and through it, and back again, and came out alive and well! Nevertheless he found the skeletons of wild animals, and of birds strewn the whole length of the valley.

It was a mystery, but it was all cleared up afterwards. The valley was fatal to all animals except man. But the Upas tree had nothing to do with it. The valley was filled with carbonic acid gas to the height of a couple of feet from the ground.

I cannot explain to you in this place how this gas is formed by plants. It would be a good plan for you to study up this subject, for it is quite curious, and very interesting. The gas is fatal to animal life. Neither man, beast, or bird can breathe it for even a short time and live. But the gas is heavier than the common air, and sinks in it. In this valley, as I have said, it extended only about two feet above the ground, and a man’s lungs were above it, so he could not inhale it. On horseback of course he was far above it. But low animals, and birds that alighted on the ground at once fell victims to it.

This led to an examination of the Upas tree stories, and most of them were found to be fables. Grass and flowers do grow around these trees in most places; birds sport upon their branches, and lizards run up and down unhurt; and it is possible to remain under them without injury of any kind.

But it is true that the juice of the upas is a powerful poison. The savages use it as a weapon to kill their enemies in war, and to slay the wild beasts. They dip the points of their spears and arrows in the poisonous sap. An animal dies in five or six minutes after being struck with one of these poisoned weapons. They take great precautions in collecting the sap, so terrible is their fear of this tree.

On some plants the blossoms are so small they can scarcely be seen by the naked eye, and on others they are of enormous proportions.

An African flower, the Aristolochia, has a large and curiously shapedblossom. It is shaped like a helmet with flaring edges, and the opening is so large that it will admit the head of a man, and can be worn as a hat.

The flowers of the Victoria Regia, which are shaped very much like those of our water lily, are a yard in circumference.

But the giant of blossoms is the Rafflesia Arnoldi. This is a long name, but the flower can bear it very well.

RAFFLESIA ARNOLDI.

It grows in the islands of Java and Sumatra, and the buds and blossoms seem to be pretty much all there is of the plant. And quite enough too. The full blown flower is a yard wide. Each of its five petals is a foot long, and they stand at about the distance of a foot from each other. In the centre there is a deep honey-cup, which is capable of holding a dozen pints of fluid. The whole weighs fifteen pounds. The central cup is violet and red, and the petals are of a brilliant orange color, so that it makes a gorgeous display indeed.

But this flower, so magnificent in size and color, has such a disagreeable smell, that after having satisfied your curiosity by looking at its gigantic blossom, you will be glad to get away from its neighborhood.

From the bark of a tree, the Cinchona, we get one of our most useful and powerful medicines. The bark is known under the name of Peruvian bark, and there are several preparations from it—quinine being the one most generally used. It is a valuable medicine everywhere, but is especially so in the hot countries where it grows, for very malignant fevers prevail in those localities. It got its name, Cinchona, from the first European who used it. The Countess Chinchon of Spain, while living in Peru was attacked by one of the terrible fevers of the country, and was near dying, when she heard that in such fevers the natives cured themselves with the bark of a tree. She tried it, and recovered; and, after she got well, she took pains to make known the virtues of this bark, and gave away great quantities of it. It is now a very important article of export from Peru, and a source of great wealth.

There are other barks of plants and trees used in medicine. A great many are useful as dyes. The inner bark of a species of oak furnishes us with corks. Some trees have aromatic barks. The black birch of our own woods is highly spiced. Of some the flavor is so pleasant that they are used as spices. Cinnamon bark, for instance, which, of course, you know all about.

So you see that even in the bark of vegetables there are pleasant things stored away, and wonderful secrets, if we choose to take the trouble to get at them.

The fragrance of a plant, if it has any, we expect to find in its blossoms. But this quality is not confined to the flowers. It is found sometimes in the leaves, occasionally in the bark, and very frequently in the fruit. We are familiar with the fragrance of strawberries, raspberries, peaches, grapes, bananas, lemons, and oranges; and many others might be named. In fact nearly all eatable fruits have some sort of a pleasant odor, though in some it is very faint.

Sometimes the fragrance is in the nuts. There are but few examplesof this. The Black Walnut has an agreeable smell. The most famous of fragrant nuts is the Nutmeg, with which we are all familiar in the spice-boxes. But perhaps you don’t know how beautifully it looks growing upon the tree. So we will break off a branch for you to look at.

BRANCH OF A NUTMEG TREE.

This nut ripens under the hot sun of India. Not only is the nut itself fragrant, but the second coat of its envelope, or shell, that you see in the picture, also has a pleasing perfume of its own, entirely distinctfrom its nut. This you are also familiar with in the spice box, broken up into thin yellow chips, and called Mace.

No more delicious fragrance can be found than that of a South American bean, the Vanilla.

As for leaves, you can think of a great many fragrant kinds in a few minutes, not only green-house plants, like some of the geraniums, but many of the weeds of the fields.

Some vegetables produce very remarkable fruits.

FRUIT OF THE BREAD FRUIT TREE, REDUCED IN SIZE.

A species of fig-tree bears loaves of bread! It is quite a large tree, about forty feet high, and has wide spreading branches, thickly covered with very large leaves. It bears fruit abundantly, and duringeight months of the year, there is always some ripe fruit to be found on the boughs.

This fruit is round; is larger than a child’s head; weighs three or four pounds, and is rough and hairy on the outside.

The thick green rind encloses a pulp, which is as white as wheat bread, and, when cooked, tastes very much like it, and is equally nourishing. To prepare it to be eaten, it is cut into thick slices, and laid upon a gridiron over a bed of hot coals. In a few minutes the “bread” is ready.

Thus the natives of the countries where this fruit grows have bread for eight months of the year with very little trouble. If they did not have this kind they would not have any bread at all, for wheat and rye will not grow there.

But they want bread the rest of the year too. So they take advantage of the time when the fruit is most abundant, and, from that which they do not want for immediate use, they prepare a paste that can be kept a long time without turning sour. And, during the four months the tree is without ripe fruit, they live upon this preparation.

Tapioca is the singular production of a vegetable root. It is singular because, though wholesome and nutritious as food, it is produced from a strong poison. It is prepared as follows by native women.

Roots of the manioc plant are gathered, and bruised into pulp with a wooden pestle. This pulp is wrapped in a net made of lily leaves. This is stuck upon a fork, and a heavy weight tied to the bottom of the net so as to press it tightly to squeeze out the manioc juice. A calabash receives the juice, which is very poisonous. Arrows and spear heads are dipped into it to make them certainly fatal. While this is going on the liquid is all the time depositing a white, starch-like substance in the bottom of the calabash. When all of this that the poisonous liquid contains is deposited, the juice is poured off, and the white substance is passed through clear water, and becomes tapioca.

A FOREST OF MANGROVES.

When we are in the tropics we must not forget to visit the Mangroves. These trees grow thickly together in the ocean mud near the shore, and are very queer specimens of the vegetable world. To look at them from a little distance you would hardly know whether they were trees, or fishes, or sea-serpents. Their upper branches and trunks are like the first, their lower branches covered with oysters and other shell-fish appear like the second; and their long curiously twisted roots, standing partly out of the water, seem like the third. Sometimes, in passing over wet and swampy places, men walk on these roots. In such a case, a naked savage gets along much more easily than an European, with his boots and clothes, and perhaps a heavy gun.

But there is a strange thing about this tree, apart from its uncommon growth. And that is the way that its seeds germinate. We put a seed into the ground, and when it sends up its little stalk and leaves we say it has germinated or sprouted. Now the mangrove seeds germinate on the branches, in the fruit. The seed sends forth the little stalk which grows up there until it is a foot long. This stalk is shaped like a pointed club and is quite heavy. When it is ready to fall, it goes plump down through the leaves and branches of the tree, sharp end downwards, and sticks itself firmly upright in the mud at the bottom of the water. And, after some time, it thrusts itself above the surface, and grows into a comical mangrove tree.

If you will study the marvels of vegetable life you will find strange things of which I have said nothing.

Many wonderful plants grow high up in the air on the branches of trees; and many very curious ones thrive only in the water.

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