The Tomahawk., 1916-06-15


r. HOT HOUSES
! the olfactory nerves. From the latter
comes a milky sap said to be poison
GUS. It obtains it's name from its
| principal characteristics, which are
thorns and growth in circles.
The botanic garden is rich in rare
foreign plants. Thousands of natural
| lied foreigners, as we'll as school
! teachers, their pupils and scientists
| interested in arborculture, botany and
| the other branches Of plant and tree
life, constantly visit the garden to see
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 Succoth. 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 a Washington filafera, a gi-
gantic California palm, the largest in
the conservatory. Here is wampee
tree, from China, which attracts the
Chinese of the Pennsylvania avenue
colony, and which produces an edi-
bic fruit, used for preserving and also
| for medicine. Here is marimOsa
alba, the sensitive plant, so-called,
from South America. One variety
closes and shrivels, if touched, an
other closes at night, as bird closes
it's wings and settles down, as if to
sleep. Elsewhere is the gamboges
which produces the best sort of Oil
for artists, which is also edible and
which also produces a medicine. In
another place is the Arabian coffee
| plant, In still another the Indian
breadfrujt, which looks something like
| a grapefruit. Nearby, is a travellers
tree" from Madagascar, which the ma
tives tap and from which they ObtaiE
water in the desert. There are in
cense trees from India, Japanese
| plums, gorgeous, scarlet HIBISCUS, al
! ligator 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 conf
merce 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 lechee rut-the Chinese Christmas
| nut. One finds here, too, the choco-
| late plant, which has fruit like the
lima bean.
There are also betels, nuts which
| 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, 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
Hottentot poison tree. 1t has a for.
midable name-no less than toxico
phlaca spectabilis, or acocanthera.
| This is the so-called ''ordeaI' tree OF
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
! lots, for the suspected person who was
/ obliged to eat of it always died A!
the botanic gardens it is said to be the
most poisonous Of plants. 1t is said
that a seed no longer than an almond
suffices to kill twenty persons.