The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-01-09
SELF-PROTECTION.
Ways I'm Which Plants Protect Themselves
from Assault.

from Assault.
Plants have several methods of pro-
tecting themselves from assault, among
which is that of secreting an acid poison
in their leaves. In the Rdnunculaceg
this secretion is virulent poison, and
half an ounce of that secreted by the
celery-leaved buttercup would kill a
dog. The root of an Indian species of
this order is used in the Himalayas to
poison arrows for tiger-shooting. 1t is
said that tramps use the leaves of the
common buttercup, as well as those of
the celery-leaved kind, ''to produce
blisters on their limbs in order to ex-
cite compassion" The reason why
ferns grow in such unmolested pro-
fusion is that they are stepped in tG1l1ai1a,
substance very much disliked by all
animals. Another most effectual means
of protection adopted by plants is the
secretion of a sticky substance on their
stems, in which ants and other unwel-
come insects are caught, The writer
mentions curious example of sagacity
in connection with this sticky substance.
The amphibious PerSicGrid, which
grows both on land and water, only Sc
cretes the sticky matter when growing
on land, as if quite aware that the
water was sufficient protection from
creeping insects.
Even the milky juices exuded by the
leaves of the common lettuce, milk
thistle, etc, may be frequently ranked
among the defensive arrangements of
plants. Kerner narrates some expert
ments he made, which prove that ants
and other insects crawling over such
leaves soon get glued down by the
milky exudations produced by the claws
of their tiny feet. His experiments
were made with Lactatea anguStGn0 and
LactucG Sati0G. He says: "No sooner
had the ants reached the uppermost
leaves, or the peduncles and the in
volucral bracts, than at each moment
the terminal hooks of their feet cut
through the epiderm, and from the little
clefts thus made milky juice Immediate
ly began to flow. Not only the feet of
the ants, but the hinder parts of their
bodies, were soon bedrabbled with the
white fluid; and if the ants. as was FREE
quently the case, bit into the tissue of
the epiderm in self-defense, their organs
of mastication also at once became
coated over with the milky juice.
By this the ants were much i'm
peded in their movements, and in order
to rid themselves of che annoyance to
which they were subjected, drew their
feet through their mouth, and tried also
to clear the hinder part of their body
from the juice with which it was
smeared. The movements, however,
which accompanied these efforts simply
resulted in the production of new fis-
sures in the epiderm, and fresh dis
chages of milky juice, SO that the posi-
ton of the ants became each moment
worse. Many of them now tried TO es-
cape by getting as best they might to
the edge of the leaf, and letting them
selves fall from thence to the ground.
Some succeeded, bat others tried this
method of escape too late, for the air
soon hardened the milky juice into a
tough brown substance, and after this
all the strugglings Of the ants to free
themselves from the viscid matter were
in vain. Their movements became
gradually fewer and weaker, and final
" they ceased altogether, and the dead
animals were left adhering to the in
volucre, OF the uppermost branches. =
HCrDer'S Weektg.