Evening star., 1940-04-28
War in the Vegetable
Kingdom
By Frederic J. Hnskin.

Peace societies and individual moralists
all over the world bewail the widespread
incidence of warfare while statesmen
and even military leaders assert fam
boyantly that all their efforts are bent
toward the restoration and preservation
OF peace. Even the utterances of Hitler
and Stain drip with expressions Of peace
and, throughout history, but few soldiers
have admitted that they fought for any
reason other than to bring about peace.
All this is very perplexing until one
looks into some of the more quiet secrets
Of creation and finds that war and the
preying of the strong upon the weak seem
to be the normal way of life, this side
Of Paradise.
Every one knows of the ceaseless war
fare which goes on in the animal king
dom. Most of 1t, like most of the wars of
men, has an economic basis, the struggle
for food. But the observer may not over
look the fact that the males Of the ami
NAL kingdom fight also for political rea-
sons, for individual supremacy which has
little If any connection with the search
for sustenance. Stays, bulls, elephants,
tomcats and great number of other
creatures lock in contests for political
leadership.
That is so thoroughly realized that it
need not be expatiated upon, but 1t is
astonishing to realize that in the vege-
table kingdom warfare also is rife There
are many obvious examples of plant war;
fare and predatory action. Most people
know how the ivy strangles the tree upon
which 1t grows and that even the gentle
seeming mistletoe is parasite which, in
time, bests the stoutest oak At this sea-
son of the year especially, gardeners
everywhere are observing the blitzkriegs
which the weeds seek to visit upon plants
Of more demure and elegant conduct and,
it is constantly observed, even with the
man with the garden hoe for an ally, the >
predatory weeds make costly inroads.
But, after all, that sort of plant war
fare can scarcely be called bloodthirsty.
The struggle rarely is spectacular How
ever, there is one widely spread genus of
plant life which carries on a different
warfare; not a warfare against its own
kind, but against the animal kingdom.
The group of plants which botanists clas-
sify as Drosera and Dionaea are carniv-
orous and overcome their prey pitilessly.
Such tall tales have been told of man.
eating plants Of the tropics that the very
existence of them has been thought by
many persons to be as fictitious as the
stories concerning strange creatures Of
Herodotus and other early writer's of trav-
elers' tales. For example, favorite story
concerns the man-eating plant of NADIA
gascar which attracts human beings by
the beauty of its blossoms only to i'm
prison and devour them slowly. Such a
plant. Is not familiar to botanists, al
though it is agreed that there are plants
which might conceivably capture a small
rodent such as field mouse.
But even If there yet remains to be
authenticated story of a man caught
by carnivorous plant and devoured, the
principle remains the same: There are
many carnivorous plants and right here
in the United States. Their prey, how
ever, usually consists of insects.
A story to an American ear sounds bet
ter If the locale is placed deep in some
tropical wilderness or other outlandisn
place and stories of carnivorous plants
seem to fit especially into tropical jun
gle scene. 1t is better theater. Never
theless, the Edenlike climate of California
furnishes bloodthirsty plants as do the
pleasant savannahs Of the Carolinas. In
the temperate climate of Ireland and
England and in Portugal are to be found
these silent enemies of winged and creep
ing life.
Neglecting any attempt to point a
moral as to the instructive urge of all
life to destroy other life, in any branch
OF creation, one can still find fascination
in the habits of these fercer specimens Of
plant life. Members of the Drosera tribe
are to be found as rule in low, swampy
ground. For example, the bogs of Come
mara in Ireland furnish thousands upon
thousands of plants which derive their
sustenance from living creatures.
Most of these plants 60 by the pleasant
name of the sundew. The sundew of
Ireland and England somewhat resem-
bles the daisy. 1t is a small plant OF
course it draws sustenance from the soil
and from the air, as do other plants, but
these sources of life alone are insufficient
to the sundews well-being The plant
has great many small tentacles, as
many as 265 have been counted on sim
gle specimen. Each Of these has what
appears to be tiny globule Of dew on
its tip. Actually this moisture is sticky
substance which attracts flies and other
insects like honey
The insect needs but to touch the
sticky drop to be imprisoned Instantly,
the many tentacles begin rapidly to close
around the creature as the fingers of a
hand close into a fist. The insect is
hopelessly caught. The moist sticky
substance then takes up its secondary
task, which is to digest the living creature.
Sometimes as much as four hours is re-
quired for the plant to extract the susie
nance from the prey. This DONE the ten
tacles open again and drop the indigest-
able remainder-what might be called the
skeleton of the prey. There are some
types of plants which 60 even further,
having an exudation which liquefies every
part Of the prey and makes food of it.
Charles Darwin, the great naturalist,
y