The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-03
FREAKS IN THE ANIMAL WORLD.
Some Creatures That Are Neither One
Thing Nor Another.

Some Creatures That Are Neither One
Thing Nor Another.
Albert Seyton in the Philadelphia Times.
Everybody has played the game of
Twenty Questions, and answered yes
or no" when asked if at" were animal.
vegetable or mineral, never doubling that
the lines drawn between these three great
"kingdoms,'' as we call them, are as we'll
defined as those between the spiritual and
the material kingdom. Yet, a great phi
losopher has said, nature draws no
lines" and the more we advance In knowl-
edge, the more we see that this is true.
The three great Kingdoms of material
created things are as confused, as to their
border-lines In many cases, as are some
of the geographical and political kingdoms
of to-day.
Let US suppose that, in playing the
game of Twenty Questions" you choose
chalk" as your word. Now. when asked
If 1t is mineral, you would be almost sure
to say yes, but you would be wrong; 1t is
no more mineral than is coral, or your
own skeleton, for II Is, like these two, the
bony frame that supports, or once sup
ported animal life. The same thing Is
true of a sponge though some of you, per-
only a step from the sponge to the So
called flowers" of the sea, which are,
after all, sea-animals, In spite of the fact
that they seem to grow from roots, as
do the air flowers.
There are many fungi that have the
power of motion, pulpy masses of vegeta-
BILE matter, apparently, that go from place
10 place, without visible means of locomo-
ton. But the microscope shows us that
they are more animal than vegetable.
one of the most wonderful of the animal
plants Is the alga, which is so minute that
its color can be seen only when 1t appears
as it does at times, in water. The alga is
red, and some suppose that its presence in
the Red Sea gave that body of water its
name II is the alga, also, that causes the
phenomenon known as rain of blood -
the alga, which defies all the lines drawn
by man, and refuses to belong to. either
his vegetable or his animal kingdom.
Did any of you buy a rose of Jericho at
the Worlds Fair2 1t is a desert plant, and
looks like a dried-up bunch of weed, as the
wind blows 1t here and there but If you
catch it, and wet its feet. its roots, it in
stantly unfods It's long arms, and waves
them in the air. 1t moves; and we are in
the habit of CHASING all moving life as an
imal life.
In Italy there is a very beautiful tree
that bears, as a flower, a soft ball of yell
a little ducklings breast. This tree is the
sWeet-scented mimosa, which has fine,
fern-like leaves, something like those of
our wild locust, only more delicate. Well
only touch the mimosa with your hand
and you brighten it; at any rate, you seri-
ously disturb it, for it instantly folds Its
leaves closely, and droops.
But the most remarkable of these plants
is the Martha flower of the tropics. 1t
hates insects, and fights them, too. If the
hungry honey-seeker dares to approach It,
IL throws out a shower of pollen, half
smotherlng the intruder and closes tight
the petals of its flowers, so that il cannot
enter. How the flower knows of the APP
proach of the insect, no one can tell, but
that It does know, Is certain.
Then, there Is the Venus fy-trap. a
wonderful plant, but pass 1t by, because
it was described to you few weeks ago
And now, having seen how strangely
mixed up the three great kingdoms are
let us turn to the next question asked in
our game Having been told that a thing
belongs TO the animal kingdom, you are
asked whether 1t be fish, flesh or fowl
Suppose frog" be the word; most of you
would answer, flesh" perhaps; but not