Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-07-18
VICIOUS PLANES.
TREES WITH ALCOHOLIC REV.
I5RAGES TO ATTRACT VICTIMS.
Vegetable Whisky Shops and Bee,
acknowledgements by the Gov
crnncnt-HOw the Shrubs
Attract Their Customers

laboratory employed for this pur.
oose is the National Botanical Garden in
Washington. For the beer saloons and
whisky shops referred to are purely of u
vegetable nature. They are, in fact,
nottin" more or less than plants Of very
extraordinary description, which devote
their attention exclusively to the man
u:ac;urc and sale of iutoNicantS.
y reporter learned that attention is
being given to IN investigation of their
manner of doing business and to analyses
OF the liquors they dispense, which is cx-
pec'ed to have very important and use
iul results, opening NJ Il line of inquiry
III an altogether new direction.
The vegetable whisky shop is perhaps
the most astonishing plant in existence.
y number oi members of it's furily arc
represented i'll the green houses of the
botanical garden. Each one does bust
ness on its own hook, and most of them
sell differing brands of liquor, that sup
Piled to customers II; one shop being I'M
ike what is offered ut another This
ices not appear surprising when it is
considered that every vegetable whisky
shop does its own distilling.
You would be struck ut once with the
.>.t-ous appearance of one Of these veye-
table whisky shops il you SAW it standing
in big flower pot, carrying Oh the cnd
oi each of its long green leaves pitcher
shaped receptacle. If the plant is open
for business you can look into its pitch
crs and lind them To contain quite Il
quantity of watcry looking liquor. This
is the intoxicant which is offered to Gus
TONERS, each one being permitted to help
himself to us much rs he likes for the
/ stipulated and invariablc price, Maybe
you will find the pitchers all shut up, for
each pitcher has II cover that shuts down
whenever any rain or dew is falling To
prevent the liquor from becoming diluted.
Now, the customers spoken OF are ill.,
sccts Of all sorts-such rs bluc-bott
flies, mosquitoes, cockroachcs, red ants
and so on. There is not IL bug of any
sort, apparently, that has not II weakness
for the liquor supplied by the vegetable
whisky shop. The insect walks out on
one Of the long leaves until he comes TO
the end of it, and finding there is II
quantity Of delicious drmk in the pitch
| er he crawls in and swigs and swigs ut it
until he dies, as is supposed, OF alcohol
ism. At all events he pays for his drink
with his life and leaves his corpse in the
pitcher to sustain 10y lis absorption the
! hcalthful existence of the plant. Aud it
! is just for this objcct-to cntrap Gus
toners for food-thnt the plant prepares
and places on sale its liquor. What the
said liquor is composed of, chemically
| speaking, attempts are now being made
to find out oy analyses. So far, is is only
known that 1t is powerful and pala,a-
bic iutoXicant. How much the insects
enjoy 1t You can perceive by looking in
TO the pitchers, where yOu will often find
liz each receptacle hundreds OF bugs of
all descriptions. Another form of YER
etablc whisky shop has long, pcrpcndic-
ular trumpet shaped rcccptaccs for the
liquor, with the wide end Of the trum-
pets ut the top, where the bugs are ex-
pectcd to crawl in. And when you tear
open one OF these trumpcts-it may he IL
foot or more in lcngth-aftcr it has sur
vivcd its usefulness and dried up you will
usually find it filled from one end to the
other with flies and ants and such things
1t has recently been discovcrcd-and
herein lies the expected usefulness of the
investigation now going ON regarding
these plants-that different vegetable
whisky shops, like their prototypes OH
the city streets, have different clusses Of
customers. One kind OF these shops is
frequentcd almost exclusively by cock
reaches, for whose reception unusually
large pitchers are provided-thc plant
carrying them looking rs if il had sus.
pended from the ends of its strong leaves
Il lot OF small bath-tubs. Another kind,
| Ia tnh Al
great big beans, is frcqucntcd only by
red ants; and still another kind is pat
ronized 10y slugs, and has the rims of
its pitchers armed with teeth to delay
guests who might wish to depart So it
would appear that these whisky shops
could be propagated for use in destroy
ing such enemies Of the household and
the garden, and it is proposed to find out
.low far such thing may be practicable.
There is no difficulty, certainly, in rear
ing and maintaining the plants, which
are not tropical exotics, but natives Of
the region about Washington, and readily
cultivated in any temperate climate.
Quite rs interesting i'll its way as the
whisky shop is the vegetable beer saloon
referred to Mt the beginning of this arti-
Gle. In general appearance it resembles
The whisky shop strongly, but its pitchers
arc wider at the mouths and have no tops
to them. Thus the liquor dispensed by
the beer saloon is diluted more or less by
the dcws and rains so that it is not very
intoxicating. However, the drink is in
tended to attract the insect customers,
and not TO poison them. Patrons, crawl
ing into the pitchers, takes drink, and,
without feeling it go to their heads very
much, start to walk out again. But, I'M
fortunately, the whole inside of the
pitcher is lined with strong hairy projcc-
tons, all pointing downward toward the
liquor and away from the brim. 1t was
easy enough to walk downward, but when
the victim attempts to go upward and
out again the hairs obstruct his progress
SO cffectually that he finally tumblcs back
into the drink and is miscrably drowned.
That is the way the vegetable beer saloon
captures its customcrs-by drowning
l III