Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-05-09
Plants that Trap Animals.

quite extensively OF late into the
propagation of whiskey shops and
lager beer saloons. Its labratory ELL
ployed for this purpose is the national
botanical garden here For the lager
beer saloons and whiskey shops re-
ferred TO are purely of vegetable
nature. They are, i'll fact, nothing
more or less than plants Of a very eN-
traordinary description, which devote
tneir attention exclusively to the
manufacture and sale of intoXicants.
\ Star reporter learned that attention
is being given to an investigation OF
their manner of doing business and
the analysis of the liquors they dis
pense, which is expected TO have very
important and useful results, open
ing up a line of inquiry in a new dl-
rection.
The vegetable whiskey shop is per
- haps the most astonishing plant III
existence. 4 number of members OF
the family are represented In the
greenhouses of the botanical garden.
Each one does business on its own
hook, and most of them sell different
brands of liquor, that supplied to Gus
toners at one shop being unlike what
is offered at another. This does not
appear surprising when it is consid-
cred that every vegetable whiskey
shop does its own distilling.
You would be struck at once with
the curious appearance OF one oil
these vegetable whiskey shops II you
saw it standing in a big flower pot,
carving on the end of each OF Its
long green leaves a pitcher-shaped
receptacle. If the plant is open for
business YOU can look into the pitch
ers and find them to contain quite a
quantity Of watery looking liquor
This is the intoxicant which is offered
to customers, each one permitted to
help himself to as much as he likes
for the stipulated and invariable
price. Maybe you will find the pitch
ers all shut up, for each pitcher has a
cover that shuts down whenever any
rain or dew is falling to prevent the
liquor from becoming diluted.
Now, the customers spoken OF are
insects of all sorts-such as blue-bot-
tie flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, red
ants, and so on. There is not bug
OF any sort, apparently, that has not
weakness for the liquor supplied
by the whiskey shop. The insect
walks out on one OF the long leaves
until he comes to the end OF it, and
finding there quantity of delicious
drink III the pitcher, he crawls i'll and
swigs and swigs at it until he dies, as
is supposed, of alcoholism. At all
events, he pays for his drink with his
life and leaves his corpse in the pitch
er to sustain by its absorption the
healthful existence Of the plant And
it is just for this object-to entrap
customers for food-that 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 by analy-
sis. So far it is only known that ii is
a powerful and palatable intoxicant.
How much the insects enjoy it you
can perceive by looking into the
pitchers, where you will often find III
each receptacle hundreds Of bugs OF
all descriptions. Another form of veg
etable whiskey shop has long perpen-
dicular trumpet-shaped receptacles
for the liquor, with the wide end oi
the trumpets at the top, where the
bugs are expected TO crawl in. And
when you tear open one OF these
trumpets-it may be foot or more
in length-after it has survived its
usefulness and dried up you will nsu-
ally find it filled from one end 10 the
other with flies and ants and such
things.
1t has recently been discovered
and herein lies the expected useful
ness Of the investigation now going
on regarding these plants-that diff
ferent vegetable whiskey shops, like
their prototypes on the city streets,
have different classes of customers.
One kind of these shops is frequented
almost exclusively by cockroaches,
for whose reception unusually large
pitchers are provided-the plant car
rying them looking as if it had sus-
penled from the ends of its strong
leaves lot of small bath tubs. An
other kind, with pitchers that resem-
BILE i'll appearance great big beans, is
frequented only by red ants; and still
another kind is patronized by slugs,
and has the rims of its pitchers armed
with teeth TO delay guests who might
wish TO depart. So ii would appear
that these whiskey shops could lie
propagated 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 practi
cable. There is no difficulty, GER
tainly, in rearing and maintaining
the plants, which are not tropical ex
otics. but natives of this very region
about Washington and readily to b'
cultivated in any temperate climate
Quite as interesting in its way a.
the whiskey shop is the vegetable
lager beer saloon referred to at the
beginning Of this article. In genera
appearance it resembles the whiske,
shop strongly, but its pitchers ar
wider at the mouth and no tops Il
them. Thus the LIQUOR dispensed b,