The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-09-13
INGENUITY OF LIVING PLANTS.
Method by Which They Extract Food
and Resist Enemies.

Method by Which They Extract Food
and Resist Enemies.
There are many plants which dis
play an ingenuity in gaining food or
in attacking their enemies which
would seem to indicate surprising
degree of intelligence. Since plants
are rooted to their places, they are
naturally greatly handicapped, but
many of them have surprising COM
pensatiens. There is, for example,
the telegraph plant, of India, which
! has a method all it's own for catch
! ing the sunshine Each Of it's leaves
| is composed of three leaflets. The
larger terminal one erects itself dur
ing the day and turns sharply down
at night, describing complete circles
with a peculiar, jerking motion like
the second hand of watch. Occa-
sionally they rest for a period and
then go on again, thus bringing
every part Of every leaf to the full
action of the sunlight. Many plants
shift the position of their leaves as
the direction of the light changes.
This power is possessed to a consid-
cradle degree by some of our COM
mon house plants.
Should drop Of water or bit Of
sand or dirt fall upon the gland
studded leaves of the sundew moth
ing more happens than as if they
had been dropped upon the leaf of
any ordinary plant; but let an insect
Ii Of 1-o +ln nf
these innutritious substances, and
you shall see the tentacular glands
gradually bend over, and, assisted By
the curling up of the leaf itself, en-
fold the esculent mOrsel and cover
it with a digestive fluid, which at
once dissOlves it and adapts it TO be
assimilated by the insect eating
plant But it is worthy of note that
the instinct OF the plant, under GER
tain exceptional circumstances, like
the instinct Of insects, sometimes
goes wrong; for the sundew as
eagerly accepts morsels of cheese as
it does OF any other heterogeneous sub
stance, and cheese is a poison to the
| DrOSera plant. The sundew is not
1
and discrimination in the selection of
it's food. In ami about the swamps Of
North Carolina, and indeed in many
other parts of the United States, is
found the Dionoea, or Venus h.trap.
1t has, as has the Drosera, very small
roots, which, like those belonging to
the sundew, serve only TO give it
foothold, and supply it with mois-
ture; and plant captures the food
necessary to its subsistence.
The leaf in this instance is con-
structed like a steel trap, the two
halves swapping together and the
marginal teeth interlocking as do
the teeth of trap. Long, sensitive
bristles, generally three in number,
arranged in a triangular order, erect
themselves upon the upper surface
of the trap. Touched ever so slightly
by lowering or flying insect, they
transmit an impulse which in an ami
NAL would be called a mandate of it's
will, to the muscles or the machin-
cry that moves the lobes of the trap,
and SO instantly is this obeyed that
these lobes close upon the insect and
capture it Inorganic bodies placed
upon the lobes, unless they touch the
sensitive filaments, do not cause
them to close; organic bodies, when
moistened and placed upon the leaf
cause it, after absorption has begun
to take place, to close slowly.
The lobes may be made to close
over either organic or inorganic sub
stances. but with a difference When
an inorganic substance is placed
upon the leaf and one of the sensi.
tive bristles is touched the leaf in
deed shuts up, but in such a manner
as to leave hollow space between
the lobes of the trap, as if the plant
were tasting the substance to see if
1t were fit for food When, on the
other hand, an organic substance
falls upon the leaf both lobas press
against it and against each other
with force enough to fatten out
portion Of the white of hard boiled
egg that they have been made to
close upon. Again, when any innu-
tritiOus substance is caught the
glands are not excited to secrete the
digestive fluid, and the lobes soon
open, freeing the substance and
showing it perfectly dry. If the OBJ
ject caught is too small to make it
worth the attention Of the plant it is
allowed to escape between the inter-
locking teeth; but if the quarry be
large enough and Of a nutritious
character the lobes will remain fiat
tened together over it for fifteen.
twenty-four or even thirty-fve days
Norwegian Load Line.