Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-08-28
The Transportation of Plants.

The Transportation CT Plants.
CT all the phenomena of plants. that
of Transportation is perhaps the most
interesting. The rich dew that I'M
pearls q summer morning with beauty,
resting on leaf and flower and grass
blade, dampenIng the country reads.
and that WAS once thought to be evolved
from the atmosphere. is proved by
the great Dutch naturalist Muschen-
brock TO be the condensed perspira-
ton of plants. The experiment was
very simple; he covered with a plate
of lead the whole circumference Of the
root Of white poppy, so as to pre-
vent the vapor of the earth from inter
fering with his experiment. The plant
was then covered with bell glass ce-
mented to the lead After that. each
morning. when the naturalist came to
visit The imprisoned plant, he observed
that even during the driest night its
leaves were covered with an innumer-
able quantity OF those drops of water
TO which the name of dew is given,
and that the sides of the glass were
covered with moisture. Guettard was
able to decide the amount which we're
table trans piration produces, and found
that a branch of a cornell tree weigh ne
only five and one-half drachm- dis
tiled each day an ounce and three
drachms Of water, double its weight. In
twenty-four hours.
The common garden sunf1ower is q
marked instance Of the Transportation OF
plants, Wales has proved by expert
ment that sunfower lost by the tran
SEPARATION o. its leaves twenty ounces OF
water IN twenty-four hours. Ruysch,
the great Butch anatomist, states that
an arum which he kept in a greenhouse
in the botanical garden at Amsterdam
DIST lied water drop by drop from the
extremit es of its leaves in proportion
as it was watered, and another plant of
the same family (Colocasia esculenta),
edible arum, threw out little drops of
water in the form of a Jet, that Were ex-
hailed from the pores seen on the TIPS of
its cordate-shaped leaves; and from
each of these oriHces from ten to one
hundr d drops of water were thrown
some distance every minute. ] ouehet
mentions a similar phenomenon in one
of the greenhouses of the botanical
garden at l. ouen, where an arborescent
fuchsia ra ned down so much water
upon the plants around it that it was
necessary to remove them. The leaves
of other plants, more tenacious of the
perspiration they distil, collect it in
little cups, which are seen at the ex-
tremities OF their leaves, these
in some cases have movable lids
The most remarkable plant that
exhibits this phenomenon is the
famous Aepenthes distiilatoria, or
pitcher plant, found in Southern Asia.
Its lea es display firm mid-rib, which
extends along the blade and ends in a
strong cylindrical cup, provided with
hinged lid, which spontaneously opens
and closes according to the state of the
atmosphere. During the night this lid
SINKS down and Theoretically closes the
little vase, which then fills ND with
Hmpid water exhaled by its walls. Dur
ing the dag the lid is raised and the
water mostly evaporates- The benefi-
Gent nepenthe has often quenehed the
thirst OF the Italian lost in the burning
deserts. In the marshy forests of
Southern America is found another dis
tilling plant, the purple sarracenia. the
structure of which is equally eccentric
Its leaves. uniting at their edges, are
into elegant gInphore, the
narrow opening of which is surmounted
by al ample green auricle threaded
with scarlet veins, TO which this spec es
owes its name. These cups are filed
with pure and delicious water for the
benefit of the traveller, and for which
he is all the more grateful as he is en-
circled by morasses, The water OF which
Is lukewarm and nauseous.
The vegetable marvel in transpira-
ton is the weeping tree of the Canary
islands, whose iufted foliage distills wa
ter ike rain. But the rain tree with
viii b botanists are familiar is the |
of the eastern Peruvian
Andes. Prof. Ernst, the director of the |
Botanic Gardens at Caracas, states:
in the month of April the young
leaves are still delicate and transpar-
ent; during the whole day a fine spray
Of rain is to be noticed under the tree,
even in the driest air, so that the strong
ly-tinted iron clay soil is distinctly
moist. The phenomenon dminishes
with the growth of the leaves. and
ceases when they are full grown He
attributes the rain to secretions from !
glands on the footstalk OF the leaf on
which drops of the l.uid are found !
which are rapidly renewed on being re-
moved with blotting paper.
The gigantic gum trees, Eucalyptus |
,1lobulus, so valuable to destroy malar- |
q, emit eamphoraceous antiseptic va
oers from their leaves thai counteract |
,he poisons of the atmosphere. -Bosten !
|