The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-08-01
NASSAUS CURlOSITIES.
QUEER FRUITS, VEGETABLES ETC.,
FURNISHED BY DAME NATURE.

FURNISHED BY DAME NATURE.
Ready Made Frames for uouses-A vegs
table Tooth Brush - Marbles Read
Grown Lace from BARK - vegetsbl
sponge-FIowers for Boot Backing.
\ Nature in her all EMBEDDING beneflcenc
!, here has trees which form roof, corner post
, and studding. only requiring clapboards t
I close them in, and as if realizing that fresi
. circulating dir is best, hints OF living under
7 them Just az they are The giant ceiba send
out from its base great plank like buttresses
which form stalls in which to stable cattle.
A wide spreading. low branching tree-ii
, might be an oak except for the curious wheel
like fruit tipping the branchlets green and
poison when young. gray and explosive
J when ripe-the fruit is a capsule made up of
deeply grooved series of nuts, Hat and
round, disposed on edge in circle, clinging
to central disk which is followed and par
titioned, when fully ripe the capsule ex-
plodes with a report like pistol, and the
nutlets scattered far and wide, open and let
the kernels drop-a reasonable way in which
nature provides for the replanting of new
trees. This fruit is called the ''sand box
because in old Freebooter times they were
used TO hold black iron ore sand, With which
writing was sandcd instead Of blotted Even
now by loading the fresh dry capsules with
lead, so as to prevent its explosion, they form
quaint paper weights. This fruit is also
called the monkeys dinner bell. because
| where the tree abounds in the tropics mon
keys abound also, and when they hear the ex-
plosion they hasten to dinner-it's nuts" for
| them.
A VEGETABLE TOOTH BRUSH
The chaw stick is a vegetable tooth brush.
The negroes here noted for fine white teeth,
and often you will see them with piece OF
chaw stick in the mouth. The plant has "a
flexible stem which climbs by tendris. This
looks like licorice root This cut into six
inch lengths, the ends chewed. furnish a
fibrous vegetable brush. 1t contains an aro-
matte, slightly bitter principle allied to soap
in its effect, hence chewing it, as we say of
favorite dentifrce, makes the teeth clean,
the mouth sweet, the breath fragrant The
colored folks at public festivals sell small
beer Of various favors on the street. and with
this chaw stick they give it froth.
The children have n living fountain OF
chewing gum trees There is in the hospital
grounds fine example OF ficus lndica, the ilg
which yields India rubber The leaves large
oval, thick shining and vivid green. the
roots spread over much surface. The Chi |
dren scrape oil little bark, the milk flows |
and they let it run over the fingers and |
palms. When saw this done | thought it |
would he a long job to get those hands free
from, tI, CT icl-V StuH Iu. LOT nm oxpo1tr.
to the air few minutes. rubbing tho hands
together meanwhile, the milk became dark
gray and presently peeled off and left the
skin as clean as if washed with soap A vast
improvement over soap and towels.
The boys find ready grown marbles, yel.
low, gray and red, hiding from them in the
thickest of goulanuia, or Bonduc vines
Each prickly pod has from one to three
'nickers," or nuts-hard, round and smooth
Necklaces, brooches and ear rings are also
formed of them.
NATURES MANY CoNvENIENCEs
To fish without labor would bruise the
DOT bark Of Jamaica dogwooi and throw il
nto the water, TO be sure OF supplying all
he fish within its influence, without iniuring
hem as food. This tree is common in Mas
considerably used IA an opiate in medicine /
,uriously enough, the odor of the bark il {
imilar to that of opium For sponge |
ICED not go to the sea, but whip against q
stone the ripe fruit of the Egyptian d
ltfa, which so commonly here reaches its n
4uash like vine into the sapodilla trees This p
hen freed from seed and peel gives me a Il
rash rag or vegetable sponge-for both kit a
hen or bath. Bottles, bowls, jugs and cook :,
ig pans grow on trees-the calabash trees
Bread already eavened, but not baked. ;
angs in great loaves on the artocarpus or j
read fruit tree-a glorious picture it is. 81
18th its immense deeply cut leaves SO d
illed Strawberries grow like currant clus- W
rs on trees, are yellow instead of red and Il
ur instead Of sweet Would you drink am I'll
rosia, fit for the godsi Send black Hehe Ii
to a plumy cocoanut tree to fling down a si
1t "in the milk Should | need light | of
i've only to rob the bayberry of its green ci
wax, or string together some nuts Of the nj,
ndle tree with cotton wicking. A torch Of 70
tch pine need be no larger than a pencil
Would have lace' a colored woman will
Ike u gray, smooth branch Of the Logetta,
I'd from the spread peeled bark, moistened .
" ou u otouc. iHeulI idN- |
$ of white filmy lace, rs delicate and ele- WI
mt as point. Would you have downy ";
llow' Watch till the round ovate pointed no
ds of the silk cotton tree Bombay criba err
,ens, and while you hold it in yonr hand in;
aybe it will quietly open, as it did in mine
d out gushing comes brown, silken misty in
'ud, yelling up and over, falling slowly at int
ur feet. With sigh Of surprise you won IN,
r where or how that big basket full Of silky en-,
WI could have been packed into that little du
PITY pod in your hand. III,
There is an exquisiteIy rich, crimson hibis -
here, called the changeable rose, ex- %
mely ornamental on lawns and shrubber- VI
and yet TO what base uses may We come" WI
he flowers bruised are used to blacken and nv
ish ots.-Frederick Stearns in Detroit ont
70 Press. mi
The Daughter of Owen Meredith. r.
81 10 \