Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-12-03
BATTLES IN PLANT LIFE.
Some Curious Traits which Follow Close
ly Human Instincts.


A struggle for existence, and conse-
quent survival of the fittest, has been
going on through countless ages of
seriation among the plants just as
among the animals and men; and in
this struggle a keen war has been pro-
ceeding among the different sections
of them-a real war, in which the OBJ
ject of one side has been to damage
the other, either by elbowing it out of
its territory, shelling it as in the case
of the thistle when the wind blows
its down into field of meadow grass.
or by engaging with it in gladatorial
combat. The first instinct of plants
is clean-jumping and land-grabbing,
and neither Russia, Great Britain nor
any other nation Is keener on annex
ing land which offers opportunities
than these plants.
Now, it is an extraordinary thing
that leaves and weapons should be so
strikingly suggestive of each other;
but note the names which botanists
give to the former and the meaning
of these names. For instance, there
is "clarate," signifying club-shaped; /;
'gladiate," sword-shaped; 'dolabri-
FORM" axe-shaped; "lanceolate," lance
shaped; "sagrittatte," arrow-shaped,
and "clypiate," buckler-shaped.
Professor Max Muller once referred
to the Australian boomerang, the in
vention of the natives, as the most re-
markable weapon in history; yet the
plant warriors have had their boom
erangs for ages, for the leaves from
the eucalyptus, or Australian gum
tree, which are sickle-like, with sharp
edges behave, when projected for
ward by the hand or by a gust of wind,
in precisely the same way, de-
scribing an arc of a large circle, and
then falling to within two feet of the
point of projection.
Moreover, other varieties of n do
mestic and peace loving nation are
favored with means of defence to
such onslaughts as these. There is the
experiences of the little ways of the
enemy having taught the leaves to
assume a fiat, blade-lille form, which
is well adopted for compact growth
and for presenting united resistance
to the foe.
Moreover, the botanical world has
its navy. The seeds of the double
cocoanut of the Seychelles go abroad
in boat-shaped capsules, and go on
maritime expeditions in search of new
herbally-and capture. 1t is declared
even that the war vessels of the world,
from the savages' canoes to the iron
clads Of the Powers, have been
modelled originally on certain leaf
structures.
Mankind has not got monopoly
of torpedo boats The vegetable war
riors had such things, or something
remarkably like them, long before us.
These are the leaves of what is known
as the "pepper-tree," which is very
plentiful in California. If you pluck
one of these leaves fresh from the
tree and place it quickly in basin
of water with a perfectly still sur
face, you will fird the leaf propelled
forward in quick, spasmodic jerks by
the sap.
How the vegetable world Is in some
places fortified to resist the incur
sions of animals and men we all know,
and there is at least one case where
some of their most formidable war
riors have been drifted into our own
military service and used as barriers
for the production of forts. This is
one of the islands at the west en-
trance to Hong Kong harbor, where
there are two large forts surrounded
with a thickly planted mass of yuc-
cas- and Spanish bayonets, the latter
being a very spiny species of prickly
pear. These form perfect protec-
ton.
Owing to their very succulentnature,
these plants are impervious to fire,
and in case an attacking enemy should
go for them with such weapons as
scythe and cutlass, the rifiemen on
the ramparts would have plenty of
time to stop the little game.
What with one thing and another,
the armies of botany are in a great
state of efficiency, and campaigns as
important to them as this in the
Transvaal is to us are matters of the
commonest OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
Origin of Ghetto.
Ghetto, the name of the Jewish