Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-29
SOME STRANGE PLANTS.

| Surprising Discoveries Made Mt the National
Botanical Gnrden-Whisky Shops and
Lager Beer Saloons in the Vegetable
World.
THE Government has been going quite extern
sively Of late into the propagation of
| whisky shops and lager beer saloons. Its labo-
ratory employed for this purpose is the Ma
tional Botanical Garden in Washington, for the
lager beer saloons and whisky shops referred
to are purely of vegetable nature. They are,
| In fact, nothing more or less than plants of a
very extraordinary description, which devote
thelr attention exclusively to the manufacture
and sale OF intoxicants. reporter learned
that attention is being given to investiga-
t1on OF their manner of doing business and to
analyses of the liquor they dispense, which is
expected to have very important and useful re-
suits, opening up line of inquiry in an alto
gether new direction. The vegetable whisky
snop is perhaps the most astonish-
ing IN nannt,. plant in existence number
sented in the greenhouses of the botanical
garden. Each one does business on its own
hook, and most of them sell differing brands
of liquor, that supplied to customers at one
shop being unlike what is offered at another.
Ihls does not appear surprising when 1t Is con-
sldered that every vegetable whisky shop does
its own distillng
You would be struck at once with the curious
appearance of one of these vegetable whisky
shops If you saw it standing i'll big flower pot,
carrying on the end of each of its long green
leaves pltcher-shaped receptacle. II the plant
is open for business You can look into the
pitchers and find them to contain quite
quantity of watery-looking liquor This is the
intoxicant which is offered to customers, each
one being permitted to help himself to as much
as he likes for the stipulated and invariabie
price. May be you will find the pitchers all
shut up. for each pitcher has cover that shuts
down whenever any rain or dew is falling to
prevent the liquor from becoming diluted.
All Have n Weakness for Liquor.
Now, the customers spoken of are insects of
all sorts-such as blue-bottle flies, mos
auitoes, cockroaches, red ants and SO on. There
is not a bug of any sort, apparently, that has
not 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 here quantity of delicious
drink in the pitcher he crawls in and swigs and
swigs at 1t until he dies as is supposed of alco-
holism. At all events he pays for his drink
with his life, and leaves his corpse in the
pitcher to sustain Dy its absorption the
is just for this object-to entrap GUS
toners for food-that the plant pre-
pares and places on sale its liquor. What the
said liquor is composed of, chemically speak
Ing, attempts are now being made to find out
by analyses. SO far it is only known that it is a
powerful and palatable intoxicant. How
much the insects enjoy 1t you can perceive by
looking into the pitchers, where you will often
find in each receptacle hundreds of bugs of all
descriptions. Another form of vegetable
whisky shop has long perpendicular trumpet
shaped receptacles for the liquor, with the
wide end Of the trumpets at the top, where the
bugs are expected to crawl in. And when you
tear open one of the trumpets-it may be a loot
or more in length-after it has survived its
usefulness and dried up you will usually find it
filled from one end to the other with flies and
ants and such things
Variety of Drinks and Patrons.
IT has recently been discovered-and herein
lies the expected usefulness Of the investi-
CATION now going regarding these plants
that different vegetable whisky shops, like
their prototypes the city streets, have differ
ent classes of customers. One kind of these
shops is frequented almost exclusively by cock
reaches, for whose reception unusually large
pitchers are provlded-the plant carrying them
looking as II it had suspended from the ends of
its strong leaves lot of small bath tubs. An
other kind, with pitchers that resemble in ap-
pearance great big beans, is frequented only by
red ants; and still another kind is patronized
by slugs, and has the rims of it's pitchers armed
with teeth to delay guests who might wish to
depart. So it would appear that these whisky
shops could be propogated for use in destroying
such enemies of the household and the garden,
and it is proposed to find out how far such
thing may be practicable. There is no difficulty.
certainly, in rearing and maintaining the
plants. which are not tropical exotics but
natives of this very region about Washington,
and readily to be cultivated In any temperate
climate.
The Lager Beer Saloon.
QUITE as interesting in its way as the whisky
4 shop is the vegetable lager beer saloon re-
ferred to at the beginning of this article. In
general appearance it resembles the whisky
shop strongly, but its pitchers are wider at the
mouths and have no tops to them. Thus the
liquor dispensed by the lager beer saloon is
diluted more or less by the dews and rams SO
that it is not verv Intoxicating. However, the
drink is intended to attract the insect custom
ers and not to poison them. Patrons, crawling
into the pitchers, take drink. and, without
feeling it go to their heads very much. start to
walk out again. But, unfortunately, the whole
inside of the pitcher is lined with strong hairy
projections, all pointing downward toward the
liQuor and away from the brim. 1t was easy |
victim attempts to go upward and out again
the hairs obstruct his progress so effectually |
that he fiDally tumbles back into the drink and
is miserably drowned. That is the way the
drowning.
The Butcher Plant.
A MOTHER fascinating plant now being propa-
gated at the botanical garden is the |
ssbutcher" which kills the insects and such |
things that it feeds upon by crushing them
alive, afterward consuming them at its leisure. |
This is considered, to be of all vegetables the
one exhibiting an intelligence most nearly ap- |
preaching that which animals possess. Its ap- |
pearance is not impressive save for its pc |
culiarity. Growing along the ground, it has |
for leaves little green things shaped like open |
clam shells, the biggest of them half an inch |
long. with a row of little spikes around each |
edge. AS you observe the plant most of the |
clam shells will be open. waiting for food, each |
OF them greedy mouth ready TO devour any,
thing that may crawl in. Here comes an ant. |
yawning jaws. Yes, there he goes into the big |
one, attracted by the sugary exere-
ton on the inside of the mini
ture clam shell, which serves for
bait. The victim reaches the middle point be-
tween the Jaws and comes in contact with six
she'll leaf and serve the plant as feelers. I'm
mediately the jaws close with snap, the two
rows of spikes folding over the shut edge of
The clam shell, SO as so give the prey no chance
Of escape If the insect were much bigger and |
stronger than ant he would be quickly
The jaws will open again, clam-shell leaf being
occupied meanwhile in digesting the food cap
,ured. All the leaves of the plant being en-
ragged continually in waiting for prey, catching
t and digesting it, it makes very good living |
indeed where bugs are plentiful In the green
houses there are comparatively few insects,
however, and so the head gardener feeds his
ou tcher plant from day to day with such deli
,acles as finely chopped or scraped beefsteak
md earth worms cut up, which are devoured
With relish. The butcher plant is found in
orth Carolina, and nowhere else in the world. |
REFORMED CHURCH SYNOD.