Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-02-26
POINTS ABOUT PLANTS.
Interesting Information about All Sorts
OF Green Growing Things.

Professor Bouilhac has been trying ex-
reriments IN growing fresh water weeds.
and finds that they not only absorb ar
Henic. but actually thrive upon it. deriv-
ing more benefit therefrom than from
phosphoric acid which is supposed to be
the best fertilizer.
Plants are as peculiar in their tastes as
animals arc. A rose tree or an orange
tree will thrive better on a diet of bones
than anything else Try the experiment
of burying n dozen crushed bones a few
feet from the roots of your favorlte rose
tree. In a years time the roots will have
reached out and filed every nook and
Granny among the fragments Of bones.
Hcrcfordshire hop grower plows into
his hop yard shoddy, old rags, wool waste
or leather clippings. The hop plant knows
how to help itself to the nitrogen in these
substances and dourishes upon them.
Most grasses are very fond of charcoal.
Every gardener knows that the best way
70 improve lawn is to give 1t a yearly
dressing of SCOT or OF powdered charcoal.
Ferns have fondness for peat. and
every single one of our cultivated plants
shows a preference for some special chem
Teal. and grows better when 1t gets it.
Weak tea is often poured upon ferns
and plants of the same order when
standing in pots; it certainly seems to do
them good Soapsuds are eagerly rel
ishcd by bananas; while CoCoanut palms
prefer nothing to a few handfus of salt
Ecattored around their roots twice q year.
florist once gave this contributor i
useful hint on the management Of pot
Ilarts. a dose of castor oil once a week,
instead of the usual morning watering,
will sometimes do wonders in cases
whore the plant is looking yellow and
kickly
Rather more than 100 different kinds
of plants are known which prefer flesh
to any other kind of fool The sundcw,
known among British carniVOrous plants,
Che sundew's spoonikc leaves are COW
cred with erect hairs each having n
rounded head coated with Il sticky iluid.
When a fly or any other insect touches
one Of these hairs. it is caught as Sc
curelv as if it had settled upon fY-papcr.
Tho ,cdf then Curls up and envelopes
the wrctched insect. Whom it uncloses,
nothing is left hut the wings and outer
skin. All the rest has been absorbed hy
tho plant.
The Venus nytrap, pitcher plant, and
many others not known in Britain also
flourish on flesh food. The experiment
has boon tried of placing a number of
these plants near one another, and then
covering some of them with a screen of
wire gauZc. In n very short time thosc
which were free to catch insects had
vastly increased in size beyond the other
which were covered.
Many strange accounts have at times
appeared of larger plants which catch
animals and dcVour them. But of all
these tho only authenticated case is that
Of the plant known by the natives as
the dcViVs moose" which grows on the
shore Of Lake Nicaragua. in Central
America. Professor Dunstan. the we'll
known naturalist, was walking by tho
lake ono day when he heard his dog howl
ing frghtfuly. He hurried to the res
cue, and found the animal held by three
black sticky bands, or branches. which
clung To the skin and made it bleed. The
branches were those OF the new carnivor
Gus plant which Mr.. Dunstan has named
the Gland octopus"
4 very peculiar experiment was tried
| - year or two ago by Sir j. Y. Simpson,
He took n number Of growing plants and
placed them in an atmosphere charged
with chlorofOrm vapor. Some plants
werc unaffected but all tho sensitive
plants showed effects similar to those
exhibited by animals The leaves entire
~ lost their usual irritabitv, and hung
quite motionless. instead of curling NJ al
the approach of danger
Another eXpermcnter found that the
poison which most plants find most dead
~ is petroleum, Inoculatod with pctro
le,m even palmettoes soon withored and
| dicd.-Iondon Answers.