Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-05-14
VEGETABLE CURIOSITIES,
Plants that Murder Other Shrubs
and Flowers Around Them.

Plants that Murder Other Shrubs
and Flowers Around Them.
Trees are very like human beings.
They have their sympathies and aver
sions. Most of them like company and
grow better In clumps, but many are
very particular about the company they
keep. When they have what they like
they flourish. When they have uncon-
genial nelghbors they are stunted and
often die
If you keep your eyes open when
walking in the country you will see for
yourself that these remarks are per-
fectly true. Observe a solitary tree
standing alone in an open meadow 1t
is rarely 50 fine in size or shape as one
which grows in a wood. At first sight
this seems curious, for one would nat
urally imagine that tree that has an
unlimited supply Of soil and air and
light would have q better chance Of
prospecting than another which had to
share these necessities with its neigh
borA
The real truth of the matter Is that
young tree must be protected from
the wind. If it is not it gets a setback
from which it never RECEIVERS.
But it does not pay to plant young
tree near to one which Is already in
full growth, and especially is this the
case If the older tree be a pine or q
Scotch fir. The pine will simply push
its roots out and absolutely strangle Its
younger companion.
Almost all evergreens exercise an
evil effect upon the so-called deciduous
trees, the ones that lose their leaves in
winter. The worst of the whole lot is
the yew. No other plant or shrub can
keep up the struggle for existence be-
meath the black shadow of a yew tree.
Even grass aud weeds will not grow in
such place.
There is a semi-tropical plant COM
monty grown in our gardens and most
useful in medicine which is at least
equally deadly as the yew. This is the
castor bean. Everything animal and
vegetable seems to hate this handsome
plant with It's large, shiny leaves. Moth
ing will grow beneath 1t, and even
goat will starve before eating it. Lo-
Gusts refuse to touch 1t, and 1t is said
that the surest way to keep a lawn
from moles is to plant a few castor
beans here and there in the grass.
Incredible as it may appear. there
are plants which are so mutually hos
tile that they cannot exist in one an
others neighborhood. This Is true of
the thistle and the rape. If a field is
infested with thistles, which seed them
selves and come up thicker year by
year, the best plan is to plow it and
SOW rape. The thistle will be absolute
ly annihilated.
Other antagonistic plants are the
rose and the mignonette Between these
antipathy goes so far that, If you fill
vase with specimens of the two flow
ers mixed together the result will be
that both will lose their scent and very
shortly afterward their freshness also.
OF all the mean, shabby plant GRIM
inals known, none can quite match the
dodder. Starting as quite an ordinary
plant, with roots of its own. the dodder
lies in wait for a neighbor which may
suit its requirements. and selling upon
it drives suckers deep into its stem
and lives upon the juices of its unwill-
ing host. The miserable dodder then
discards its own roots, degenerates into
a mass Of pink filaments which climb
all over its adopted parent, and In
short. becomes a parasite Of the mean
est description. Feeding entirely upon
the juices of its host. it usually ends
by killing the latter; but as the dodder
itself can grow and spread from an
inch of uninjured stalk, it simply seeks
new victim for destruction.