The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-28

pollen to the stigma. Luckily, this occurs
often enough to perpetuate the plant.
Some kinds of orchids initiate to the
life, bees, butterflies and moths, APP
parently for the purpose OF attracting
these insects on the decoy duck principe
The object is not quite so evident IN the
case of varieties of these extraordinary
plants whose flowers counterfeit with
amazing exactness toads, huge spiders and
other animals. There is one which pre-
sents the likeness of man hanging by the
head, and another that opens and shows
beautiful dove in an Enclosure of petals.
There is an extraordinary flower that
grows in the hot and damp jungles of the
Malay peninsula, where it is called by
the natives the "wonder-wonder." 1t is a
blossom and nothing else, without leaves
or stem, which grows out of the wood OF
decaying vines. This parasite is some
times three feet across its globular central
cup having q capacity of six quarts. The
strong odor il exhales resembles that OF
decaylng meat so strongly that flies swarm
upon 1t, and it secures fertilization through
their means.
A book might be made of the freak
plants of the world. There is the vegeta-
bic boa constructor of India, known as the
'maloo climber" which twines about
great trees and strangles them to death, so
that they decay, tall in, and often leave
the empty tower of climbers standing
ties Is used as sort of natural bomb
shell. When filled with gunpowder and
set of, 1t explodes with a loud report. The
familiar Brazil nut" grows in hard spher-
ical pods, each of which contains from
eighteen to twenty-four of the triangular
seeds that come to market. So beautifully
are they packed by nature that no
them back in their receptacle after once
they have been taken out. In South
America also there is "cow tree" which
gives milk that is shown by chemical
analysis to be of almost exactly the same
composition as that of the COW, which it
resembles to perfection in appearance and
quality, tasting like sweet cream. Deep
in the swamps and forests of the island
of Formosa grows plant the stems of
which are filled with a fine white plth.
This is cut by the Chinese into thin strips
and is called rice paper" Bodies of the
dead suspended within hollows of the
"beobab" tree, that grows in Africa, are
transformed into mummies for all eter-
nifty without further process of embal-
ment. On the elevated barren plains west
of the Volga grows plant closely resem-
bling lamb, which was said by travellers
of old to bend from the stalk upon which
it could turn and feed upon the heritage
about it; but when the grass died, it per-
ished from hunger. The likeness referred
to is not to be denied, though its death
when the grass dries up is due to the same
that kills the other vegetation, namely,
drouth. Every one has heard of the fam
GUS deadly upas tree" of Java, which was
declared to grow in desert all alone, no
other plants around it, nor fish in the
waters, nor animals of any sort, since
even the birds flying over were killed by
its effiuvium. Criminals condemned to
die, according to the story, were offered
the chance to escape execution by
going to the tree and collecting some of its
poison. About two out of every score re-
turned, and they reported having found
the ground strewn with bones of their
predecessors. Subsequent investigation
has discovered certain basis of truth in
the tale, which lies in the fact that these
upas trees grow in low volcanic valleys,
rendered unwholesome by the sulphurous
fumes escaping from crevices in the earth.
Streams in such nelghborhoods are so i'm
pregnated with sulphuric acid that no fish
can live in them. The trees juice is very
poisonous, but otherwise it is harmless.
Most strange and grotesque of the plants
at the botanic garden are the cacti. They
would appear to have been created by
nature in freakish and irresponsible
mood. One might imagine them tn prop
erly belong in some other world than this,
only half alive as they seem, and assuming
such extraordinary and even absurd forms.
Certain naturalists have imagined that
they must be relics of a vegetation belong
ing to period long prior to the develop
ment of the plant life familiar to the pres
ent generation. Their characteristic spines,
emitting them to the name of vegetable
hedgehogs, accentuate their impossibility
as contemporary species. The larger
forms, some towering to fifty feet in
height, and other individuals weighing a
ton or more, plentifully adorn the Mexican
landscape, which in many parts obtains an
aspect extremely weird from those aston
ishing growths. That country, in fact,
contains three-fourths OF the entire num-
Der of varieties known. Nature provides
the cacti with spines in order to save them
from being eaten by animals. Horses are
very fond of them and will frequently de-
YOUR them, after kicking IF the prickly
surface with their hoofs.
There are few known plants which afford
such beautiful examples of symmetrical
structure as the ''mammillariaP group of
cacti; many of which resemble exquisite
pieces of mechanism finished with the ut
most minuteness and accuracy. Others
might be imagined to have undergone
kind of capitalization. their whole surface
being frosted over in geometrical patterns
OF them the celebrated botanist Lindley
said: Gentle reader, hast thou ever seen
IN display of fireworks a crowd of
wheels all in motion at once, crossing
each other in every direction; and canst
thou fancy those wheels arrested by
some magic power. their rays retained
but their fires extinguished? Then mayst
thou conceive the curious beauty of this
little herb, plant so unlike all others
that We would fain believe in the reani-
mated spirit of race that fiourished in
former ages with those hideous monsters
whose bones alone remain to tell the his
tory of their existence in the quarries of
our sandstone, slate and clay"
1t is from species of cactus that
cochlneal is obtained, and for the purpose
OF gathering from it the insects so valuable
IN commerce, great estates are planted
with 1T in the West Indies Algeria, the
Canary Islands and India. The plants are
set out in rows, trimmed TO the height of
four or five feet. In August and September
called the sowing" when the field hands
attach to the cacti by means of thorns
leaves covered with female bugs, which are
thus left id order that they may produce
their young. The latter quickly swarm
over the plants, from which they are re-
moved four monts later with blunt knives
This process is a tedious one, 10000 be-
ing required TO make a pound Finally
the insects are killed by immersion in
boiling W alter and dried in the sun. that
being the condition in which they are ex
ported.
One of the most surprising curiosities in
this branch of the vegetable kingdom is
the old man cactus" which derives its
name from the siivery white hairs that
cover the upper part Of its stem, giving it
peculiar resemblance 10 the hoary head
of any aged man. The hairs are in REALITY
soft, weak spines. When the plant Is
grown In the house it is best accommo-
n oil