The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-08-07
4 VEGETABLE FISHERMAN.
A Plant Goes A-Fishing-An Enemy or
the Fish CulturIsts.

the riHn
Anything new? Any twenty-pound
trout or continental fish stories in the
ARP" asked n reporter of the Philadel-
phia Times of fish culturist grown
rotund in the government employ.
.'Yes. there is something new" re-
piled the fish man. Come in and look
at these weeds"
The visitor took the seat indicated at
table covered with dishes containing
variety of plants, small fishes, mag
nifying glasses, and other material
Incidental to the fish culturist's profess
sion, and looking through the glass
handed him, saw what had apparently
been mass of weeds become clear and
distinct and resolve itself into q deli
cate brush-like aquatic plant, covered
over at the juncture Of the various
stems with number of bladder-like
objects of u rich green hue and SEEM
ingly made up Of innumerable facets,
SO that they appeared like mimic vases
of richly-cOlored metals hammered in
to shape by some fairy worker in
metal.
Clipping one of these little vessels
from its delicate stem the fish culturist
placed it upon the slide of micro
scope, through which it appeared as
large as lima bean, and still moro
beautiful. 1t now cleaned with a
pellucid light, owing, as Ias evident,
to bubble Of air in tn interior, that
moved about in its prison like an opal.
The cup was also seen to have perfect
lid, that opened in instead of out, and
from the edge outward extended sever
al long, hair-like processes, that gave
the object the appearance of what a
specialist of crabs would call an entro-
mostracean crustacean (patent applied
for).
.'Now, them" said the fsh-man,
''you have taken in the chief points of
the object, and you sec it is a regular
pitcher, bowl, or jug-call it what you
will-that is suspended on the plant
by delicate stem, and that it has
spring cover. Now watch the cover
when | put this shot upon it"
The Times man again applied his
eye to the glass; the shot was placed
upon the delicate lid, quickly and mys-
tcriously disappearing.
Eyes, it has gone in. In other
words" continued the speaker, "the
bladder is n trap and catches every
thing that pushes on the cover. BY
DONE" and, shifting the slide, the
speaker replaced it by one that con-
tanned another Of the curions traps,
though larger and having in its mouth
or opening the body of young fish.
The tail of the little creature was CON-
pletely absorbed by the plant, and the
fish had long since given up the strug-
gle.
Eyes, it is veritable vegetable fish
erman," said the specialist, "and one
of the latest discovered enemies of the
fish culturist. II is a common weed
enough, and known generally as the
bladderwort. 1t is very popular in
aquariums and fish runs, and there is
little doubt but that large numbers of
fishes arc destroyed by them. The
thing was first noticed in England, and
that accidentally, and the discoverer
Immediately went to work making ex-
periments. 1t was found that out of
twenty-five fishes placed in the weed
one half of them were in the traps in
less than six hours, and judging from
the way in which they were caught
some people think that the plants are
as much animals as the fishes. Some
experiments made here have attracted
considerable attention. In one case
observed by myself one of the fishes
was caught by the tail and another
bladder had seized it by the head, and
both plants were hard at work absorb
ing it.
do they eat tho fishP" asked the
visitor.
"Yes." was the reply. 1.-The animal
is taken into tho bladder as far as it
will go. and then some secretion is ex-
udcd that seems to assist in digesting
tie lis. At any rate, the latter be-
comes absorbed in the plant and evil
IDENTIFY goes to help sustain it, which is
also true of large number of plants.
In Sumatra flower has been discover
ed that is twelve feet across and
weighs ten or fifteen pounds, tho Pc
tails being so strong that a man can
jump upon them without breaking
through, SO to speak. Right in the
center of this flower there is round,
basin-like structure that holds about
quart Of liquid or wator, and into this
thousands of insects and even small
animals are enticed and drowned and
absorbed by the plant; in other words,
the oval basin is the flowers mouth, or
one of them. So with many of the
pitcher plants. They are all traps,
baited with peculiar odors that attract
their prey. This discovery about the
bladderwort is an important one, but
whether it justifies us in taking any
steps toward its determination has not
yet been determined"