The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-09
WONDERFUL TREES.
Curious GrOvvths That Produce All
Sorts of Useful Substances.


From the Philadelphia Times
One would hardly expect to find any
thing like soap growing on a tree; but
there is such product in tropical America
the rind of what is called the soap tree
fruit. forming a strong lather when it Is
immersed in water.
The substance known as vegetable w.
DRY is the product of tree that bears a
fruit about the size OF a mans head ana
Weighing about thirty pounds, each fruit
containing forty nuts, which are very
solid, hard and white. With such a load
to carry It is not surprising that the stem
of the tree. which is less than a foot in
diameter, may be seen, not only very
much bent from 1t naturally upright po-
sition, but actually crawling on The
ground.
There are several kinds Of tree from
which our ordinary cork Is derived, ana
by wise provision of nature, when the
outer coating of the bark has ripened on
these cork trees, it may be removed with
out injury to the inner bark, which con-
tinues growing.
The bamboo blow-pipe. as It is generally
called Is curious tree. Although II is
only about one and a half inches in d.
ameter It grows to "a hight of fifty or
sixty feet, and for about sixteen feet Il
has no joints. 1t is known, as the rifle
of the Indian" and in his hands, or rather
in his mouth, becomes a formidable wea-
pom for blowing poisoned arrows.
The silk-cotton tree grows in the Ba-
hama Islands, whore there is scarcely any
depth of soil; and in order to meet this
emergency the roots extend over a very
long stretch of ground, showing them
selves near the surface while the slim
trunk is supported by six or eight regu-
larry formed buttresses, that are large
enough TO conceal a man from view.
The baobab or monkey-bread tree is
most extraordinary production Of nature.
Imagine tree thirteen feet in diameter
at the base and only forty feet high.
with the trunk rapidly diminishing to-
wards the top, and then spreading out
into what looks like a little forest In
one of these old trees the branches form
a spherical head hundred to one hun
dred and fifty feet in diameter, the CEN
ter branch rising TO a hight of sixty feet
while others drOop over the main trunk
and conceal 1t from view
Some of these trees have been followed
out and the space made large enough to
hold twenty. or thirty men, without any
apparent injury to the tree. The baobob
must be one of the slowest growing trees
in the world, as 1t Is supposed to be one
of the Oldest A tree has been cultivated
in the gardens at Kew for more than
forty years, and thus far it has attained
hight of only four and n half feet Some
of these trees are estimated to be 5000
years old, and there are dates cut in the
bark that were made in the fourteenth
century.
There is a tree called the cinchona tree
from the bark of which, formerly known
as Peruvian bark. is derived the invalu-
able quinine.
Cocoa is a native of South America and
its leaves have long been used by the
people of that region where it grows as
a stimulant and a supporter OF animal
strength, enabling men to work hard for
days with very little food, and to perform
long and rapid journeys on foot without
fatigue. More especially in operations on
the eye, and in dental surgery, the prod
uct of the plant is found to be of great
value, as cocoaine produces insensibiity
to local pain, without affecting the gem
eral system, like ether and chlorofOrm
Then there is the eucalyptus tree, which
has made such malarious regions as the
Ponline marshes safe and inhabitable.