Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-10-23
NASSAU'S CURIOSITIES.
QUEER FRUITS, VEGETABLES, ETC.
FURNISHED BY DAME NATURE.

QUEER FRUITS, VEGETABLES, ETC.
FURNISHED BY DAME NATURE.
Ready Made Frames for Houses-A Vera.
table Tooth Brush - Marbles Ready
Grown-Lace from Bark - Vegetable
Sponeo-F1owers for Boot Blaokinp.
Nature IN her all enfolding bene6cence
here has trees which form roof. corner posts
and studding, only requiring clapboards 10
close them in, and as if realizing that fresh
circulating air is best, hints Of living under
them just as they ara The giant ceiba sends
out from its base great plank like buttresses.
which form stalls in which to stable cattla
wide spreading low branching tree-it
might be an oas except for the curious wheel
like fruit tipping the branchlets, green and
poison when young, gray and explosive
when ripe-the fruit is capsule made up of
deeply grooved series of nuts, fat and
round, disposed on edge in circle, clinging
to central disk which is followed and par
titioned, when fully ripe the capsule e1-
plodes with report like a pistol, and the
nutlets scattered far and wide, open and let
tne Kernels drop-a reasonable way In which
s1tAeh' piONiueo loT bno TeplanUl0g OF new
trees This fruit is called the sand box
because in old pre-blotter times they were
used to hold black iron ore sand, with which
writing was sanded 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 'snutsn for
them
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 a piece Of
chaw stick in the mouth. The plant has a
flexible stem which climbs by tendrils This
looks like licorice root This cut into six
inch lengths, the ends chewed, furnish
hbrous vegetable brush. 1t contains an aro-
matte, slightly bitter principle allied to soap
In its effect, hence chewing 1t, as we say of
favorite dentifrice, makes the teeth clean,
the mouth sweet, the breath fragrant The
colored folks at public festivals sell small
beer Of various 6avors Oh the street, and with
this chaw stick they give it froth.
The children have living fountain of
chewing gum trees There is in the hospital
grounds a fine example of ficus lndca, the fig
which yields India rubber, The leaves large,
oval, thick, shining and vivid green, the
roots spread over much surface. The chill
dren scrape of little bark, the milk flows,
and they let it run over the fingers and
palms When saw this done | thought it
would be a long job to get those hands free
from the sticky stuff. But lol on exposure
to the air few minutes rubbing the 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, vel
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
root bark Of Jamaica dogwood and throw it
into the water, to be sure of stupefying all
the fish within its influence, without njuring
them as food This tree is common in Mas
sau Piscidia erythrina-and its bark is now
considerably used as an opiate in medicine
Cautiously enough, the odor Of the bark is
similar to that Of opium For sponge |
need moi go to the sea, but whip against
stone the ripe fruit of the Egyptian
iufa. which 80 commonly here reaches its |
squash like vine into the sapodilla trees This
then freed from seed and peel gives me
wash rag or vegetable sponge-for both kit
cl.yn OF bath Bottles, bowls, jugs and cook
inc pans grow on trees-the calabash trees
,.,ruG already leavened, but no. baked
ta,l,,s in great loaves on the artocarpus, or
rrlA ,,,n ia,
WIN us immense. deeply cut leaves. So
&. ,t' strawberries grow like currant clus
I. ~ IN trees, are yellow instead of red and
sn,.. instead of sweet. Would you drink am
i.r,,ia. iit for the gods' Send black Hehe
i,.tu Il plumy cocoanut tree to fling down
l. 4 in the milk" Should | need light !
t4ve only to rob the bayberry OF its green
Isl. wax or string together some nuts of the
r,tatIe tree with cotton wicking. A torch OF
pitch pine need be no larger than pencil
Would have lacei A colored woman will
take a gray, smooth branch of the Logetta,
and from the spread peeled bark, moistened
and beaten on q stone, unfold twenty lay
ers of white flmy lace, as delicate and ele
CANT az point Would you have downy
pillowi Watch till the round ovate pointed
pods OF the silk cotton tree bombay cribal
ripens, and while you hold it in yonr hand
maybe 1t will quietly open, as 1t did In mine,
and out gushing comes a brown, silken misty
cloud, yelling up and over. falling slowly at
your feet With a sigh of surprise you won
der where or how that big basket full of silky
down could have been packed into that little
empty pod in your hand
There is an exquisitely rich, crimson hibis-
Gus here. called the changeable rose, ex-
tremely ornamental on lawns and shrubber-
les, and yet to what base uses may we come"
the flowers bruised are used to blacken and
polish boota -Frederick Stearns in Detroit
Free Presa