American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-04-04
The Curious Ways of Plants.


Chicago Times
The Curious Ways of Plants.
Who can account for the ways of plants,
or explain why a certain species will grow
in one place and will not in another eX-
actly similar, SO far as human intelligence
can determine?
The American aloe is hundred years
in getting ready to flower, whereas the
gOurd grows like Jacks bean-stalk. Some
wild flowers disappear on the advance of
civilization, while on the other hand the
plantain, if the truth is told, goes
wherever Europeans go, and in this coun-
try was unknown until after the English
came, following so closely on their tracks
that the Indians gave it the name of
white mans loot"
Some varieties, as above intlmated, may
be found in particular locality ana no.
where else within half dozen miles.
There is, for example, in this neighbor-
hood, in Central New England, one spot
where are few shrubs of the mountain
laurel C'spoon woody in little patch by
the roadside, and, although this would
seem the natural country for it, it can be
discovered in no other place anywhere
about.
Then there is the fringed gentian, which
has been seen beside a secluded road some
six miles away; but, with that exception,
appears wholly unknown in the vicinity !;
yet the closed gentian is abundant. An
other of the perversely disappointing
flowers is the dog-tooth violet; not, how
ever, more capricious than the yellow
violet and the noble liverwort Nepatica
trilO6d). which, in certain dry maple
woods in the one case, and in open knoll
covered pastures in the other, grow in
great abundance; still, one might search
acres of similar woods and pastures for
them, all TO no purpose.
Another case, somewhat in point, is the
Acknowledgements, or at least one variety,
to moist woods along the eastern border
of New England; but SO partaking of
the afore-named eccentricity, that he may
count himself happy man who can find
it, and prove his success by great armfuls
of it wherewith to deck mis- house at
Christmas. One gets glimpses of it while
riding through some swampy tract on
Cape Ann, the bright berries and ever
green leaves, SO suggestive of English
good cheer, betraying it. There. too, in
summer, by searching diligently, one
may find species of magnolia, that be-
ing about its northern limit.
No common New England flower is so
little to be depended upon as the trailing
arbutus. 1t is difficult to determine what
it wants. 1t abounds in gravelly knobs
by the wayside, and thrives on the very
edge of pasture boys, and in the shade OF
woods; and yet, with all this versatility,
there are many towns where it is never
found, and where, though transplanted
and tended with care, it cannot be made
to live.
Quite opposite, in these respects, is the
cardinal flower" whose home is by the
US fa ciH do no lv MI har
naturally, although the kind of water is
not of imminent consequence, for it will
do just as well in dark nook under the
upheaved root of willow, on the edge of
mill pond, in the muddfest ooze, as in
the cleanest sand along a rivers bank, its
chief requirement seeming to be that it
shall not be crowded-One stalk always
standing by itself, Independent of its kind
and not in close neighborhood to other
plants. II is so adaptive that it will bear
removal to garden, taking kindly to its
new conditions; and there it will come
up year after year, flaming out in live
scarlet, in lone glorious blood red," as if
nothing had happened to it.
There are other facts, more singular, as
to the ways of growth and elbows" Of
blooming. One can understand that a
grapevine may hold to its support by
means of a tendril, while an ivy or a Vir-
ginia creeper secures itself by thrusting
its rOotlets into a crevice of wall or in
the bark Of tree; but why should a hon
eysuckle and bean vine wind in oppo-
site directions, the one going to the left
and the other to the right? and either will
swing in the wind or sprawl over the
ground rather than turn the other way.
The ketmia opens at nine O'Clock in
the morning, and shuts at ten, as if it
had a visual weakness; while a bed of
POrtulaccas never expands unless the sun
is out; and the hotter he shines the wider
they spread themselves; and the evening
primrose waits until he has gone down,
and then comes open with snap, like a
subdued kind of f1re-cracker.
But most unaccOuntable of all, per
haps, is the ightblooming jasmin. You
see simple tree-like plant, with plain
style of leaf, at the base of which grows
a spray of yellowish green tubes like
lilac buds, suggesting, more than any
thing else, a string of small candles.
You look at them in the middle of the
day, and they are only that and nothing
MORE" and you might, if you did not
know their ways, forget all about them
but when evening comes, forgetting is
impossible. The room is full of fra
GRANGE, rich as orange flowers, and almost
as subtle as violets; and 10! your little
candles are all lighted; and from some
| where about them comes that perfume
which is so delicious and SO mysterious
| as to its source. The next morning they
begin to contract; by noon the five points
are all close packed, and there is no scent
| to them or about them at all till nigh,
| comes on again; and SO they continue
scentless through daylight, but of ex
| quisite sweetness when darkness appears
a, b, Harris in the Christidn WeekLu