River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1916-06-08

the olfactory nerves. From the latter
comes milky sap said to be poison
Gus. 1t obtains it's name from it's
principal characteristics, which are
thorns and growth in circles.
The botanic garden is rich in rare
foreign plants. Thousands Of natural
lied foreigners, as well as school
teachers, their pupils and scientists
interested in arborculture, botany and
the other branches of plant and tree
these specimens. !.
The myrtus communis Of southern
Europe has recently been the cause OF
many trips to the garden by Jewish
rabbis of Washington. This plant is
used by them in the synagogues dur
ing the SucoOth. If plant can be
found with three leaves, something
like the three-leaf clover, they cheer
fully pay as much as five dollars for
it. It is said at the garden that a
grower in the West has found way
to produce the three-leaf variety and
that he is advertising it for sale and
doing a good business.
Some Rare Foreign Plants.
A walk through the Conservatives
shows this and many other foreign
plants One sees the greater palms
pushing their way through the glass
window roofs, at times, and the low
height Of these roofs is the cause OF
great trouble to the caretakers and
attendants.
Here is Washington filafera, a gi
gantic California palm, the largest in
the conservatory. Here is a wampee
tree, from China, which attracts the
Chinese Of the Pennsylvania avenue
colony, and which produces an edt
BILE fruit, used for preserving and also
for a medicine. Here is a marimosa
alba, the sensitive plant, so-called
from South America. One variety
closes and shrivels, if touched, an
other closes at night, as a bird closes
it's wings and settles down, as If tC
sleep. Elsewhere Is the gamboge:
for artists, which is also edible and
which also produces medicine. In
another place is the Arabian coffee
plant, in still another the Indian
breadfruit, which looks something like
grapefruit. Nearby, is a travellers
tree from Madagascar, which the ma
tives tap and from which they obtain
water in the desert. There are in
cense trees from India, Japanese
plums, gorgeous, scarlet HIBISCUS, al
ngator pears, and there are, also,
bananas, the fruit of the latter grow
ing in Washington, if you please.
The conservatory is rich in the fig
family, many specimens being gath
cred here, some of which produce rub
Der and some fruit. The fig of COM
MERGE belongs to the rubber family.
Then there is the inga (not Inca, Of
course) of Peru, the most beautiful
oak holly from southern Europe, wild
date palms which fruit in winter, rat
tan palms, malacca palms, sage and
tapioca.
Nearby are also to be found the
nephelium longanum, so Familiarity
known to our childhood as the lychee
or Iechee nut-the Chinese Christmas
nut. One finds here, too, the choco-
late plant, which has fruit like the
lima bean.
the East Indian troops now in France
fighting for England, are reported to
have been furnished by the British
government that they may chew them,
| too large a dose OF which is said to
| produce a stupor. There is hemp,
| from which rope is made, and there
is the Olivia, a beautiful lily from the
Cape of Good Hope, named for Lord
| Give, famous as one of the earlier
viceroys of India.
Outside the Conservatory.
Outside of the conservatory there
| are hundreds of interesting plants and
| trees. One of these is an acacia plant
| ed by General Grant. Another is the
midable name-no less than toxico-
phlaca spectabilis, CT acocanthera
This is the so-called ordeal tree CT
Madagascar of which suspected as
we'll as guilty persons in times gone
by have been compelled to eat. The
ordeal" to test whether suspicion
was justly founded, always so proved
according to the belief of the Hotten
tots, for the suspected person who was
obliged to eat Of it always died. Al
the botanic gardens it is said tc be the
most poisonous of plants. It is said
that seed no longer than an almond
suffices to kill twenty persons