The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-05-26
DANGEROUS PLANTS,
Some OF the Wonders Of Tropical vege.
tatinn

tation,
Ihree of the most dangerous of yeee-
tallPe plants in the world are the can
hlDal tree of Australia, the death"
OF grapple plant Of South Africa, and
inc vegetable python" of New Zea-
land.
The "cannibal tree grows up in the
saape OF huge pineapple and attalns
height of eleven feet. 1t has series
Oh broad, board-llke leaves, growing in
fringe at the apex, which forcibly
brings to mind a gigantic Central
American agaye; and these board-like
IeaVes, from ten to twelve feet in the
smaller specimens and from fifteen to
twenty feet in the larger, hang to the
ground and are easily strong enough
TO bear the weight of man of l4O
pounds or more, In the ancient times
TINS tree was worshipped by the native
sayages under the name of the devil
tree a part of the interesting cere-
mony being the sacrifice of one of
their number to its all too-ready en-
brace The victim to be sacrificed was
driven up the leaves of the tree to
the apex, and the instant the so-called
'plsti,s' of the monster were touched
the leaves would fly together like a
trap, crushing the life out of the in
truder, In this way the tree would
hold its victim sapping his vitality
and life, until every particle OF flesh
would disappear from his bones.
The "grapple plant" is a PROSTATE
herb growing in South Africa. It's
flowers are purple and shaped like the
English foXgloye. Its rruit has for
midable hooks, and by clinging to any
passer-by, it is conveyed TO situations
where its seed may find suitable con-
ditions for growth. Sir John Lubbock
says it has been known to kill lions.
The vegetable python" which is
known to the naturalist as the clusia
or fig, is the stranger of trees. The
seeds of the clusia being provided with
pulp and very Pleasant to the tropical
birds which feed thereon, are carried
from tree to tree and deposited on the
branches. Here termination begins.
The leafy stem slowly rises upward,
while the roots flow, as it were, down
the trunk until the soil is reached.
Here and there they branch, changing
their course according to the direction
Of any distractions met with. Mean
while from these rootlets leafy branches
have been developed, which, pushing
themselves through the canopy above,
gets into the light, and enormously
accelerates their growth. Now a
metamarphosis takes pace! For the
hitherto soft aerial roots begin to
harden and spread wider and wider,
throwing out side branches which flow
into and amalgamate with each other
until the whole tree trunk is bound in
a series of irregular living hoops.
From this time on it is a struggle of
life and death between the forest giant
and the entwining clusia. Like an
athlete the tree tries to expand and
burst it's letters, causing the bark to
bulge between every interlacing; but
success and freedom is not for the cap
tive tree, for the monster clusia has
made its bands very numerous and
wide Not allowed expansion the tree
soon withers and dies, and the great
stranger is soon expanded into a great
bush, almost as large as the mass of
branches and foliage it has effaced.
1t is truly a tragedy in the world of
vegetation.