The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-09-16
PLANT WONDERS.
FACTS ABOUT SOME CURIOSI-
TIES OF AGRICULTURE.
Roots Of the Gala Lilly as Food
Caterpillars Which Bear Mush-
rooms-Edible Fungi Grown
in Decayed Wood.

1t is nothing more nor less than the root
of the calla lily, which resembles some
what in appearance the ordinary Irish
tuber, with the addition of few whisk-
ers that have nothing to do with the
other qualities CT the article. A section
of it is so potatolike that you would not
be likely to remark any difference. In
cooking it has first to be boiled, in order
to destroy certain acrid properties, after
which it may be fried, roasted baked,
or what not, according to taste.
Farmers in Florida have begun to
raise these calla roots for market. The
plants grow readily in swamps, and so
thickly that the yield of single flooded
acre is enormous. They reproduce them
selves by the multiplication OF their bulbs
underground, so that the grower has
simply to dig up the offshoots aud leave
parents to propagate anew For centur-
les the Egyptians have cultivated SINH
lar crop during the seasons OF the Niles
overflow, and at the present time calla
lily bulbs are common vegetable in
Japanese markets. So prolific and pala-
table are they that their propagation in
many parts of the Uuited States, where
conditions are favorable, may reasonably
be looked forward to as an agricultural
industry of the future.
The Department of Agriculture is con-
tinually engaged in trying to discover
and encourage the cultivation Of new
and desirable varieties of fruits. Lately
it has come across sort of giant goose.
berry that grows on trees, and within
the last few days long-sought prize has
been obtained from Benton Habor,
Mich, Ill the shape of a. really thornless
blackberry. TIE picking of this delicate
fruit has hitherto been interlered with to
some extent by the spikes with which
nature protects the branches, but in the
future, it is hoped, people will be able
to 60 blackberrying without danger Of
pricking their fingers.
Experiments are making for the first
time in the grating of pecan trees. Ac-
cidental seedlings in Texas and New
Mexico have developed nuts of this
kind as far superior to the ordinary ones
as the shellbark is to the piguut. Fur
thermore it has been demonstrated that
these improved varieties can readily be
perpetuated, and even bettered, by graft
ing. Only little cultivation is neces-
sary to produce pecans of five or six times
the size of the usual specimens and with
shells so papery as to be easily broken
between the fore6nger and thumb. The
writer saw a good sized pasteboard box
full of such samples in the office of the
United States Pomologist yesterday and
ate few to make sure of their delicious
quality. The same process is possible
with chestnuts, which grow to the size
of horsechestnut in some parts of the
United States. They, too, are being
grated with view to securing the in
crease of their size and the improvement
of their edible qualities. In certain
Illinois valley hickory nuts used to grow
as wide as the palm VI ones hand, and
efforts are being made to obtain sur
wing plant so as to propagate from
them.
The Department OF State has just re-
ceived from Consul Jones at Chin kiang,
China, q small bottle containing some
specimens of the curious fungus that
grows from a species of caterpillar, liter.
ally transforming the animal into a. veg
etable and causing the unhappy insect to
serve the purpose of root. It is the
larva of moth. and when the cold of
winter approaches it makes its way down
into the soil to the depth of three or four
inches. There it is attacked by re-
markable disease and sprouts, sending up
a long shoot which appears and fructi"
fes above the ground like any nush-
room. The natives in Thibet and in the
province of SIZE. Kuahn go about looking
for the fungus near myrtle trees of a GER
tain sort. They dig up such specimens
as they discover and make them into
little bundles, tied with red thread. in
this state they are sold as q medicine
which is esteemed, if possible. more
highly than the famous ginseng, being
considered powerful curative agent for
diseases OF the throat and lungs.
This fungus has no other method OF
growth than the one described. The
fructifying top that is above ground
scatters its spores around under the scar
let-howered myrtlcs on which the cater
pillars feed. When the latter burrow into
the soil to hibernate, they are apt to stir
up some of the hostile germs, whereupon
they are at once attacked and speedily
transformed into vegetable tissue. The
substance of their flesh is metamorphcsed
into stalks sprouting from their heads.
Of course, q sufficient number OF the
larvae escape this fate to perpetuate the
species from year to year and to supply re-
productive opportunities for the fungus.
Curiously enough, the common white
grub, which is the larva OLA beetle, Is
in many parts of the United States at
tackled by fungus in similar manner.
It has been suggested that measures
might be pro6tably taken to artihcially
inoculate this destructive worm on a
large scale with the disease, with view
to bringing about its determination.
Thus far no economic use has been found
for the sprouts produced. In New zea-
land there grows out of the body of a
big caterpiller surprising edible mush-
room, the stalks of which are eight to
ten inches long, and are much priced by
the natives for food. The latter also
burn it for use as q coloring matter.
There is a similar fungus in Costa Rics.