APPLETONS HOME READING BOOKS THE PLANT WORLD GIFT OF A. F. Morrison BIOLOGY LIBRARY Hppletone' 1bome IReabing Books EDITED BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DIVISION I NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS BY FRANK VINCENT. Actual Africa ; or, The Coming Continent. A Tour of Exploration. With Map and 104 full-page Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $5.00. " Nothing more complete on the subject of Africa has yet ap- peared than this really marvelous record of personal observation." St. Paul Pioneer Press. "One of the most important contributions to our works of reference that has appeared in recent years. " New York World. Around and About South America: Twenty Months of Quest and Query. With Maps, Plans, and 54 full-page Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth, $5.00. " The most informing book on the subject of the South Ameri- can continent that has ever been produced." Philadelphia Even- ing Bulletin. ''Mr. Vincent far surpasses any of his predecessors who have written of South America in the clear, comprehensive, and almost exhaustive view he affords of it." Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. In and Out of Central America; And Other Sketches and Studies of Travel. With Maps and Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $2.00. " The cleverest, the most comprehensive, and the best book we have yet had on Central America." New York Christian Work. "The narrative is very skillfully handled, and comprehensive information regarding the little republics is afforded in highly in- teresting fashion." New York Sun. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. A Part of the Avenue of Royal Palms. APPLE TONS' HOME READING BOOKS THE PLANT WORLD ITS ROMANCES AND REALITIES A READING-BOOK OF COMPILED AND EDITED BY FRANK VINCENT, M. A. AUTHOR OF ACTUAL AFRICA, AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA, ETC. NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1899 QKti BIOLOGY UBRARY COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. GIFT OF a, & LNTKODUCTION TO THE HOME BEADING BOOK SEEIES BY THE EDITOR THE new education takes two important direc- tions one of these is toward original observation, requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught him at school by his own experiments. The infor- mation that he learns from books or hears from his teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it with his own experience. The other direction pointed out by the new edu- cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted by experts who also lay out the course of reading. The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, commentary, or catechism to aid the members. Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential basis of this great movement to extend education ivi95 T 620 vi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. beyond the school and to make self -culture a habit of life. Looking more carefully at the difference between the two directions of the new education we can see what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to train the original powers of the individual and make him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the race, to make the child or youth a participator in the results of experience of all mankind. These two movements may be made antagonistic by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as it does the precious lesson of human experience, may be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be memorized without being understood. On the other hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated at the expense of his social well-being his originality may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is aggregated from the experience and thought of other people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil with material which he can not use to advantage. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. v ii Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- retical. The very persons who declaim against the book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons who have received their practical impulse from read- ing the writings of educational reformers. Yery few persons have received an impulse from personal con- tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- ber that have received an impulse from such books as Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Rousseau's Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, Gr. Stanley Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. The new scientific book is different from the old. The old style book of science gave dead results where the new one gives not only the results, but a minute account of the method employed in reaching those re- sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, a sociologist. The books of the writers above named have done more to stimulate original research on the v iii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. part of their readers than all other influences com- bined. It is therefore much more a matter of importance to get the right kind of book than to get a living teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of discovery and the methods employed, is a book which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- periments described and get beyond these into fields of original research himself. Every one remem- bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, which exercised a wide influence in changing the style of books on natural science, causing them to deal with method more than results, and thus to train the reader's power of conducting original research. Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has stimulated adventure and prompted young men to resort to the border lands of civilization. A library of home reading should contain books that stimulate to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of the law of evolution. Each and every being in the world is now explained by the process of development to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on all the others by illustrating the process of growth in which each has its end and aim. The Home Reading Books are to be classed as follows : First Division. Natural history, including popular scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of study in the district school course which corresponds to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant lands; special writings which treat of this or that animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this class. Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or water or light or electricity, or to the properties of matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic or inorganic books on these subjects belong to the class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. Third Division. History and biography and eth- nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and especially to the social life of the nation, and to the collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that one gives to another through commerce in times of peace; books on ethnology relating to the manners and customs of savage or civilized peoples ; books on the primitive manners and customs which belong to the earliest human beings books on these subjects be- long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu- man will, not merely the individual will but the social will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on forms of government and laws, and what is included under the term civics or the duties of citizenship. x EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- cludes more especially literature and works that make known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Literature and art show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, and aspirations, and they show how these feelings lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- partment of books is perhaps more important than any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to action. To each book is added an analysis in order to aid the reader in separating the essential points from the unessential, and give each its proper share of atten- tion. W. T. HARRIS. WASHINGTON, D. C,, November 16, 1896. PEEF ACE. PEOFESSOE JOHONNOT, author of valuable works on the principles and practice of teaching, has well said that "mechanical and unintelligent reading is the great reproach of our schools at the present time. In the process of instruction, whenever the attention is almost exclusively directed to words, such reading in- evitably results. The cause of the evil at once sug- gests the remedy : make thought the primary object of attention, and regard words as important only as containing the thought." The old-fashioned school readers do not meet these nor other vital requirements. Imperfectly arousing attention and interest, they are not calculated to form habits of observation, comparison, and deduction. Besides, they are so little entertaining and instructive that they rarely excite an eagerness and enthusiasm in students to afterward pursue the special subjects of which they treat. Literary, like more material food, should be palatable as well as nutritious. It is not denied that successful attempts have lately been made to provide such feasts. We have xii THE PLANT WORLD. had excellent " readers " in science, in industry, and in both human and natural history. The fascinating field of botany, however, seems to have been quite overlooked, and yet surely no subject is better calcu- lated to develop the mind and furnish knowledge of the greatest use and value. In the range and diversity of the fifty extracts of the present volume an endeavor has been made to secure the lively interest which comes from broad and characteristic treatment, and poetry has been invoked in addition to prose, itself oftentimes scarcely less picturesque and romantic. The illustrations force- fully reproduce several salient features of the vege- table kingdom. They are unique in a work of this kind. All the selections having been properly accredited, both in the text and in the Table of Contents, no fur- ther acknowledgment or additional detail is here thought necessary. F. Y. NEW YORK, December, 1896. CONTEXTS. PAGE Spring Thomson. 1 To a Student of Botany . . Volney M. Spalding. 2 The Date-Palm Anonymous. 5 Pitcher-Plants M. . C. Cooke. 9 Virgin Forest in Brazil . . . Charles Ribeyrolles. 16 Distribution of Ferns . . . Francis George Heath. 23 The Sensitive-Plant Shelley. 29 Uses of the Cocoa-nut Tree . . Bonifas-Guizot. 30 The Botanic Garden of Paredenia . . Ernst Haeckel. 33 The Bamboo Anonymous. 40 Marine Plants . . . . . . G. Hartwig. 43 Diffusion of Plants Anonymous. 48 Autumn Longfellow. 52 The Bread-Fruit-Tree .... Fulgence Marion. 53 On the Uses of Plants . . W. S. W. Ruschenberger. 59 Some Wonderful Gardens . . . . F. M . Colby. 63 The Chestnut-Tree Louis Figuier. 70 The Banana G. Hartwig. 74 The Water-Lily Hemans. 76 Plant-Lore Anonymous. 77 The Longevity of Trees .... Elias Lewis. 84 Grasses Margaret PLues. 95 xiii XIV THE PLANT WORLD. Giants of the Vegetable Kingdom . Six Great Groups of Plants The Lotus The Habitation of Plants . x . The Victoria Regia .... The Arab to the Palm The Life of Plants .... Sea- Weeds . . . . . An Autumn Garland The Giant Trees of California . Mountain Vegetation Indian Summer The Sleep of Plants .... The Baobab Valuable Woods of Brazil Giants in the Vegetable World The Feast of Roses .... The Chocolate-Plant .... The Cinnamon Gardens of Ceylon . Chances of Life of Seeds . The Pumpkin Carnivorous Plants .... The Cotton Plant .... The Rose among the Ancients A Chapter on Flowers The Talipot-Tree .... A Talk about Useful Plants . Subterranean Vegetation . . F. A. Pouchet. 103 Charles Barnard. 110 Anonymous. 115 Count Fcdix. 118 Paul Marcoy. 122 . Bayard Taylor. 128 . F. A. Pouchet. 130 . G. Hartwig. 134 F. M. Colby. 139 A. D. Richardson. 144 . Louis Figuier. 147 Anonymous. 155 . F. A. Pouchet. 157 . &. Hartwig. 161 James Orton. 163 M. C. Cooke. 167 . Moore. 173 . Anonymous. 175 . &. Hartwig. 181 Selina Gaye. 184 Whittier. 188 . Anonymous. 190 . G. Hartwig. 198 Samuel B. Parsons. 201 Emma C. Embury. 206 . Anonymous. 213 Charles Barnard. 218 . G. Hartwig. 224 ILLUSTEATIONS. FACING PAGE Avenue of Royal Palms, Rio Janeiro . . Frontispiece Blu-Blu Waterfall, St. Thomas, West Coast of Africa . 23 Gathering Cocoa-nuts 30 The Bread-Fruit-Tree 53 Climbing for Palm Wine 77 A Dragon-Tree, Teneriife 92 Umbrella-Tree 103 Central American Fruits 110 A Canal full of Victoria Regia Lilies 122 Coffee Picking in Guatemala 130 The " Grizzly Giant " 145 The Flower of the Baobab-Tree 161 The Giant Cactus 168 A Clove Plantation, Zanzibar 187 Central American Vegetables 218 xv THE PLANT WORLD. SPKING. FAIR-HANDED Spring unbosoms every grace, Throws out the Snowdrop, and the Crocus first ; The Daisy, Primrose, Violet darkly blue, And Polyanthus of unnumbered dyes ; The yellow Wallflower, stained with iron brown ; And lavish Stock that scents the garden round : From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, Anemonies ; Auriculas, enriched With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves ; And full Ranunculus, of glowing red. Then comes the Tulip-race, where Beauty plays Her idle freaks ; from family diffused To family, as flies the father-dust, The varied colors run ; and while they break On the charmed eye, th' exulting florist marks, With secret pride, the wonders of his hand. No gradual bloom is wanting ; from the bud, First-born of Spring, to Summer's musky tribes : Nor Hyacinths, of purest virgin white, Low-bent, and blushing inward : nor Jonquils, 2 1 THE PLANT WORLD. Of potent fragrance ; nor Narcissus fair, As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still ; Nor broads Conations, nor gay-spotted Pinks ; r ftibw&ft from every bush, the Damask Rose. t<6 Cumbers, delicacies, smells, "Witn iiiies' on Ku$s expression cannot paint, The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom. THOMSON. TO A STUDENT OF BOTANY. 1. You are beginning the study of living things, and it is very important that you should begin in the right way. There are a few things that you ought to consider at the outset. First of all, it is essential that you should learn to see things just as they are, and to report exactly what you have seen. Agassiz used to say to his students : " Study to know what is ; be courageous enough to say, ' I do not know.' ' : Tyn- dall said to the teachers at South Kensington : "In every one of your experiments endeavor to feel the responsibility of a moral agent. ... If you wish to become acquainted with the truth of Nature, you must from the first resolve to deal with her sin- cerely." Darwin in his autobiography writes : " I had during many years followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought, came across me, which was opposed to my TO A STUDENT OF BOTANY. 3 general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once, for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than favorable ones." 2. When you have seen a thing clearly, be sure to express your conception, whether by drawing, or written description, or both, as accurately as possible. Learn to use scientific language with precision. Write out your observations in full, in the best English at your command. Avoid abbreviations and every other device for saving time. Make your drawings so that an engraver could copy them. Do not hesitate to do your work all over again, if it can be improved, as it probably can be, and do not leave a thing until you have not only a complete observation, but a com- plete expression of it. 3. Do not be hasty in drawing conclusions. Make a constant practice of comparing the object you are studying with others of the same kind. Note dif- ferences and resemblances. Learn by the actual process what it is to acquire a general conception. " Honesty in science means, first, facts well proved, and then conclusions slowly and painfully deduced from facts well proved." In all your work stop and tldnk. The mere accumulation of facts, if nothing is done with them, is of little consequence. Constant- ly ask the question, What does this fact mean ? You may or may not be able to answer the question, but there is no reason for not raising it. 4. Cultivate self-reliance, but not self-sufficiency. Study things themselves rather than book descriptions 4 THE PLANT WORLD. of them, but habitually use the books you are referred to, comparing point by point your own observations with what the authors have to say. The writers cited may or may not be right; they are more likely to be than you are; but both of you may be wrong. The best way is to observe for yourself, then consult the books ; then observe again, and continue your ob- servations and comparisons until the exact truth is ascertained. This is the way investigations are con- ducted, and you are learning how to investigate. 5. This leads to a word on the use of books. Make it a regular practice to look up the references that are given with the exercises. By doing this you will not only become acquainted with some of the most valuable botanical literature, but, what is more important, you will come, in some measure, to un- derstand the habits and methods of the great workers in science, and will, perhaps insensibly to yourself, catch something of their spirit, and learn to work as they did, honestly, accurately, and " with infinite pa- tience." 6. One of the greatest investigators who has ever lived wrote a few years ago : " Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has been imperfect, and when I have been contemp- tuously criticised, and even when I have been over- praised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that ' I have worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than this.' " VOLNEY M. SPALDING, " Guide to the Study of Common Plants." THE DATE-PALM. THE DATE-PALM. I. THE date-palm (Phoenix dactyliferd) is often found to be the only tree cultivated and wild, not only in Arabia, but throughout the whole of northern Africa and the country of the Euphrates to the valley of the Indus. A line drawn from Cape Blanco to Cape Gardafui marks its southern limit in Africa; but there are many places besides where it will thrive as a cultivated tree. Even in Europe, in the southern parts of Spain, there exists a noble forest of fine date- palms, relics of the past Moorish civilization, and the tree has been transplanted to some parts of America with success. Its true home, however, is that part of the tropic zone where there is no rainfall, and where its roots are fed by the ground -water lying in the sand ; since the hardness of the leaves and the thick- ness of their outer skin enable the tree to resist the heat of the sun. The palms can only thrive in the plains. In Syria they are found inland as far as the base of Lebanon; but they never grow on the heights, and are rarely found above 2,000 to 3,300 feet above the sea. On Mount Sinai they are said to flourish as high up as 1,638 feet above the sea ; but beyond this they degenerate. Along their southern boundary they seem to prefer the coasts, and are found in great abundance upon the island of Soco- tra. Magnificent date forests are found throughout the delta of the Euphrates and the Tigris. In the 6 THE PLANT WORLD. marshy depressions of the soil the stems of the wild palms take root ; they do not grow here, as elsewhere, to a height of sixty feet, but form a dense under- growth with their roots and offshoots. The fruit of the date-palm of Bagdad is still fine and pleas- ant flavored. The traveler, descending the moun- tains of Kurdistan towards Mesopotamia, meets with the first date-palm near Altyn Kopru (35 40' !N". lat.), and its northern limit extends eastward from that place and parallel to the mountain chain which is hostile to its growth. But still farther eastward, where the coast is visited by the southwest mon- soons, the conditions necessary to its healthy growth are lacking, and therefore it is only found in British India along the upper course of the Indus, and on the southwestern slopes of Cashmere. 2. It may be truly said of the date-palm, that no other plant has played such a part in the world's re- ligion, in history, or in poetry. It ranks in this re- spect before the Egyptian lotus, the Celtic mistletoe, the lily of France, the genista (broom) of the North- men, or the rose, thistle, and shamrock, of our own country. The writer of the Canticles borrows from its height and graceful beauty the imagery in which he depicts the royal maiden of whom he sings ; and when the noble hero of the Grecian epic approaches the king's daughter JSTausicaa with suppliant words, he says " For never saw I yet one like to thee, Or man or woman ; and I gaze with joy. So once in Delos have mine eyes beheld, THE DATE-PALM. 7 Beside Apollo's altar, a fair palm Whose slender, graceful stem enthralled my sight ; For the earth holds not such another growth." 3. The palm is "the queen of the oasis, whose foot is bathed in water, and her head uplifted to the fire of heaven." No storm breaks or uproots her ; no sun- beam penetrates through the sheltering roof of its feathery, rustling leaves, often more than three yards in length. Sheltering the spring of water, and pro- tecting the growth of vegetables and low shrubs at her feet, she is the creator, ornament, protectress, and wealth of the oasis. The traveler looks with joy on the distant vision of her crown of leaves as they rise above the horizon of the desert ; they are the sure sign of inhabited homesteads and a welcome resting place. The pleasant fruit, in shape and size like a plum, hangs down in rich clusters, and in many places, especially in Arabia, its sweet, pleasant-tasted fruit forms the daily bread of the inhabitants, and one of their most valuable articles of commerce. A single date tree bears yearly from five to six hundredweight. The fastidious European owns the delicacy of its fla- vor, although it is very rare that good specimens of the fruit are sold in Europe. But the tree has not always been what it has now become. The plains of the lower Euphrates and of the Tigris were the para- dise where men cultivated and improved the life-giv- ing tree, and whence it spread to other countries. 4. It is a remarkable fact in the history of civili- zation, only to be paralleled with the other fact that the dromedary, "the ship of the desert," was not 8 THE PLANT WORLD. known in Africa until the third century of the Chris- tian era ; and yet the dromedary seems created espe- cially for the Libyan Desert, and by its means the inaccessible region has been thrown open to men of other races and other religions. The camel and the date-palm, two blessings of creation, closely connected in the necessities of their existence, and apparently an integral part of desert life and scenery, do not even belong originally to desert lands. They are the prod- uct and growth of the inhabitants of the desert, who tamed the one, and developed the luscious honey- sweet fruit of the other, which made this part of the globe habitable. The palm in its present state of perfection makes life only too easy for its lord and master, giving him almost all he needs without any labor; and thus adding a link to his gloomy, indo- lent fatalism, and to the dignified repose with which he veils the hot passions slumbering below his assumed calm. "We need not specify in greater detail the mani- fold uses of the date-palm ; we content ourselves with referring, after Strabo and Plutarch, to the Persian or Babylonian hymn in which the praises of the date- palm are sung, and three hundred ways in which it may be used are fully set forth. ANONYMOUS, " Wonders of Living Nature." PITCHER-PLANTS. PITCHEK-PLAOTS. 1. THEEE are some plants which have commended themselves to notice either by their singular form, peculiar habit, showy flowers, or beautiful odor. Be- fore carnivorous plants attracted any attention on ac- count of their flesh-devouring proclivities, the Pitcher- plants had acquired notoriety, not on account of their showy flowers or beautiful odors because these are attractions which they do not possess but sim- ply on account of their singular form. The pitchers, from whence the name is derived, hang suspended at the ends of the leaves, of which they are simply pro- longations and modifications. Most Pitcher-plants consist of a clump of long, narrow green leaves. The extremities of the latter are attenuated down to the midrib, which becomes reduced to a cord, at the end of which hang suspended, one from each of many of the leaves, a curious bag or pouch, not unlike a small and delicate jug or pitcher, with a smaller leaf -like flap hanging over the mouth like a lid. These pitchers usually contain a little fluid, looking like water, at the bottom, in which are drowned insects. Such were the Pitcher-plants to our forefathers, and they were regarded simply as "curiosities of vegetation." To us they are something more, now that their history is better known, and for reasons which it shall be our object to explain. 10 THE PLANT WORLD. 2. Botanically, the Pitcher-plants proper are known by the name of Nepenthes, an old classical name, the application of which to these plants is some- what obscure. One writer has attempted an apology for it in the following manner : " I have often won- dered why Linnaeus gave to this genus the name of Nepenthes. Every reader of classic story remembers that when Telemachus reached the court of Mene- laus, tired and famished, the beautiful Helen gave him nepenthe to drink. No one has ever been able to say what this nepenthe was, though no doubt one of the ' drowsy sirups of the East.' Johnson defines nepenthe as an ' herb that drives away sadness.' Lin- naeus, perhaps, intended to refer to the tankard-like structure, so like also in the original species to a hot- water jug with its lid. Sometimes I am disposed to think that old Homer may have meant by nepenthe no physical beverage, but the sweet graces of Helen's queenly and consummate hospitality and welcome, touching, as they did, her guest's inmost feelings of love and reverence. If so, Nepenthe is well applied to its present owner, for assuredly no plant appeals more strongly to our sense of the admirable and the unique." 3. These tropical plants can only be cultivated in hot-houses in this country, and hence there are many persons to whom they are utter strangers. It may be true that all recent horticultural exhibitions have in- cluded specimens, but there are thousands of unfor- tunate individuals who can never visit "flower-shows," although there are but few in the neighborhood of PITCHER-PLANTS. 1 1 the metropolis who could not search out the Pitcher- plant in that favorite holiday resort Kew Gardens. Travelers have described for us the appearance of these plants in their native homes, and especially those who have visited Borneo and the other islands of the Indian archipelago. Among others, Mr. Al- fred "Wallace thus alludes to them. He says : " We had been told we should find water at Padangbatu, but we looked about for it in vain, as we were ex- ceedingly thirsty. At last we turned to the Pitcher- plants, but the water contained in the pitchers (about half a pint in each) was full of insects, and other- wise uninviting. On tasting it, however, we found it very palatable, though rather warm, and we all quenched our thirst from these natural jugs." 4. And again, when at Borneo, the same traveler writes : " The wonderful Pitcher-plants, forming the genus Nepenthes of botanists, here reach their greatest development. Every mountain-top abounds with them, running along the ground or climbing over shrubs and stunted trees ; their elegant pitchers hanging in every direction. Some of these are long and slender, resembling in form the beautiful Phil- ippine lace-sponge, which has now become so com- mon ; others are broad and short ; their colors are green, variously tinted, and mottled with red or pur- ple. The finest yet known were obtained on the summit of Kini-balou, in northwest Borneo. One of the broad sort will hold two quarts of water in its pitcher. Another has a narrow pitcher twenty inches long, while the plant itself grows to the length of twenty 12 THE PLANT WORLD. feet." In' 1847, when Lindley published the second edition of his "Vegetable Kingdom," he recorded, with somewhat of doubt, the number of different species as six, whereas, so many have been discovered since, that we may consider them equal to five times that number. 5. There are, says Dr. Hooker, " upward of thir- ty species of Nepenthes, natives of the hotter parts of the Asiatic archipelago, from Borneo to Ceylon, with a few outlying species in New Caledonia, in tropical Australia, and in the Seychelles Islands on the Afri- can coast. The pitchers are abundantly produced, es- pecially during the younger state of the plants. They present very considerable modifications of form and external structure, and vary greatly in size, from little more than an inch to almost a foot in length ; one species indeed, from the mountains of Borneo, has pitchers which, including the lid, measure a foot and a half, and the capacious bowl is large enough to drown a small animal or bird." 6. In most species the pitchers are of two forms, one pertaining to the young, the other to the old state of the plant, -the transition from one form to the other being gradual. Those of the young state are shorter and more inflated; they have broad fringed longitudinal wings on the outside, which are probably guides to lead insects to the mouth ; the lid is smaller and more open, and the whole interior surface is covered with secreting glands. Being formed near the root of the plant, these pitchers often rest on the ground, and in species which do not form leaves near PITCHER-PLANTS. 13 the root they are sometimes suspended from stalks which may be fully a yard long, and which bring them to the ground. In the older state of the plant the pitchers are usually much longer, narrower, and less inflated, trumpet-shaped ; the wings also are nar- rower, less fringed, or almost absent. The lid is larger and slants over the mouth, and only the lower part of the pitcher is covered with secreting glands, the upper part presenting a tissue of different char- acter. 7. The difference of structure in these two forms of pitcher, considered in reference to their different positions on the plant, forces the conclusion on the mind that the one form is intended for ground game, the other for winged game. In all cases the mouth of the pitcher is furnished with a thickened corrugated rim, which serves three purposes: it strengthens the mouth, and keeps it distended ; it se- cretes honey, and it is in various species developed into a funnel-shaped tube, that descends into the pitcher, and prevents the escape of insects, or into a row of incurved hooks, that are in some cases strong enough to retain a small bird, should it, when in search of water or of insects, thrust its body beyond a certain length into the pitcher. In one species (Nepenthes bicalcarata) there are also two strong pointed hooks, or teeth, which are directed down- ward towards the mouth of the pitcher. Such ap- pendages would doubtless be of service in preventing the free exit of any large insect after it had once entered the pitcher. 14 THE PLANT WORLD. 8. The attractive surfaces of Nepenthes are two, those namely of the rim of the pitcher, and of the under surface of the lid, which is provided in almost every species with honey-secreting glands, often in great abundance. It is a singular fact that the only species known to the writer of these observations, in which the honey -glands on the lid were absent, was a species in which the lid, unlike that of other species, is thrown back horizontally. The secretion of honey on a lid so placed would tend to lure insects away from the pitcher instead of into it. 9. From the mouth downward, for a variable dis- tance inside the pitchers, the glassy glaucous surface affords no foothold for insects. The rest is entirely occupied with the secretive surface, which consists of a cellular floor crowded with spherical glands in inconceivable numbers. Each gland resembles the honey-glands of the lid, semicircular, with the mouth downward, so that the secretive fluid all falls to the bottom of the pitcher. In one species three thou- sand of these glands were ascertained by Dr. Hooker to occur on a square inch of the inner surface of the pitcher, and upwards of a million in an ordinary-sized pitcher. The glands secrete the fluid which is con- tained at the bottom of the pitchers previous to their opening, and this fluid is alway acid. When the fluid is emptied out of a fully-formed pitcher, that has not received animal matter, it forms again, but in comparatively very small quantities, and the for- mation goes on for many days, even after the pitcher has been removed from the plant. " I do not find," PITCHER-PLANTS. 15 says Dr. Hooker, " that placing inorganic sub- stances in the fluid causes an increased secretion, but I have twice observed a considerable increase of fluid in pitchers after putting animal matter in the fluid." 10. A series of experiments performed with the pitchers of these Pitcher-plants, resembled those ap- plied previously to the Sundews and Fly-trap, with similar results. White of egg, raw meat, fibrin, and cartilage were employed for feeding. In all cases the action was most evident, and in some surprising. After twenty-four hours' immersion, the edges of the cubes of white of egg were eaten away, and the sur- faces gelatinized. Fragments of meat were rapidly reduced, and pieces of fibrin weighing several grains were dissolved, and had totally disappeared in two or three days. With cartilage the action was most remarkable. Lumps of this, weighing eight and ten grains, were half -gelatinized in twenty-four hours, and in three days the whole mass was greatly dimin- ished, and reduced to a clear, transparent jelly. 11. That this action, which is comparable to diges- tion, is not wholly due to the secretion, as at first deposited, seems probable, since very little change took place in any of the substances when placed in the fluid drawn from the pitchers, and put in glass tubes, nor even in substances immersed in the pitch- ers, when the plants have been removed into a room the temperature of which was far below that of the normal temperature in which the plant flourishes. In the latter case, as soon as the plant was taken back 16 THE PLANT WORLD. into a higher and more normal temperature, the im- mersed substances were immediately acted upon. M. C. COOKE, " Freaks and Marvels of Plant Life." VIRGIN FOREST IN BRAZIL. 1. I NEVER entered one of these free wild sanctu- aries, without a most profound emotion. It was not fear, it was not respect. I paid little heed to the spirits or the fairies of the wood. I recalled no leg- end, and the prophetic worship of the ancients of the mysteries of sacred forests in no degree inclined my soul toward the giant trees, these altars of shades. 2. It was the infinity, the mystery of this rich creation, gigantic and inexhaustible, the universal life, which beckoned me to enter. In the midst of this circulation of sap, this expansion of form, I felt my- self small, feeble, powerless ; the internal gloom, the night of science overwhelmed me, and the modern spirit of seeking possessed me with its fever. I ad- mire the savants, who, bending over a herbal, say to you, " Study carefully the structure of internal tissues, mark the absence or the number of cotyledons, follow the evolution of the germs, verify the sex, and you can place every plant in one of the four classes of the vegetable kingdom." 3. Really is this all the difficulty ? Is the secret of the life of plants a question of cotyledons ? God VIRGIN FOREST IN BRAZIL. If forbid that I should blaspheme patience and genius. The great masters of botany, Gesner, Adanson, Lin- naeus, and Laurent de Jussieu, having justly merited human gratitude, in giving us rules for examination, the natural affinities, and the organic analogies. But wherein have these methods and classifications re- vealed the being of the plant ? To describe is not to explain, and the phenomenon is not the law. But yet, let museums be arranged, and cabinets secured, conservatories built ; but if you should enter the pri- meval w^oods, and amuse yourself in counting the cotyledons, cyclopaedias would not suffice to name, nor centuries to number ! 4. Tropical forests resemble very little the great woods of Europe, where the species are grouped and massed. Here the infinitely varied natures are con- fusedly mingled. 5. A rich disorder marries plant, flower, and sap, life overflows in leaves and fruits, to the risk of dew- filled chalices. The carpet is no regular design of grasses, or cryptogamiae, of herbs or mosses, it is a chaos of capricious vegetation, of enameled flowering, intermingled with giant ferns ; and as for the trees, which shade or arch it, Nature and the winds have thrown them in by thousands, as the suns are scattered through space by the hand of God. 6. All that one can dare to attempt in this laby- rinth is a general sketch of forms, a modest draught of the interior plan of these marvelous constructions. 7. The general appearance of a virgin forest such as is seen on the Brazilian hills, is that of a grove in 3 18 THE PLANT WORLD. the form of an amphitheater. From the depths of the gorges rise the primitive trees, the trunks of which are hidden under a giant juicy growth, the shooting branches of which form an arch or basket. You would say the roots of the secondary plan gave the leaves and flowers; and so they rise from rank to rank, to the very summits where sometimes immense granite blocks appear above the last clusters of foliage,* now bathed in sunshine, now crowned with clouds. Shading upward, from the deepest green to slaty gray, from a purple red to pure lilac and white, every shade, every tone, every delight of the eye in color is found on this forest mantle fringed with flowers. 8. But if you will penetrate the secret of the woods, its arrangements, its freaks and fantasies of architecture, you must go under the arch and wander as far as possible, opening a path, hatchet in hand. Then the internal economy of these wild woods, so wise in its disorder, is seen. The three elements are before us herb, vine, and tree and if we can fathom neither the mystery nor the power of the creations, we can at least study and follow in its external form this vast and rich organism. The grasses and modest woody plants, the Brazilian creepers with tuberous or fleshy roots, Eusentes, and Liseroles, with white or blue flowers, climb, creep, twist, and interlace them- selves, while parasites are attached to the shrubs and trunks of the trees. These charming vampires all absorb the juices, but do they give nothing in return ? Not a single one of these malvaceas but has its prop- erty, purgative or febrifuginous, and if medical botany VIRGIN FOREST IN BRAZIL. 19 ever minutely studies these humble climbers, in root, bark, and flower, they will find more than one treasure. These plants secrete life. 9. Above the grasses and Convolvulacece rise the vines with hardy flexible branches. They run from tree to tree, enveloping the trunks almost to suffoca- tion, describing curves and spirals stretching out into airy bridges, then descend, only to climb again like ladders. This vegetation is wild as caprice itself, and in its athletic evolutions it defies art and fantasy. It has undulations which charm, lines which astonish us. It involves everything, intermingles with everything, grasses, trees, branch and trunk, the lively orchids, which form cornices for the socles of the trees or flowers for their capitals. It is the gluttonous para- site, the butterfly, its kingdom is the whole forest. 10. The artist dreaming of monuments, studies the old cartoons of the museums, the Ionic, the Doric, the Corinthian, the Composite, the Tuscan orders, and the Mauresque with its rich carvings. Why does he not go to the forest and study the vine, that grand worker, which day and night alike advances, inter- laces, constructs, and extends ? He would find here all the divine forms of Grecian art, all the fantasies of the spirit of the present, but varied to infinity, attaching themselves to, and leaning upon, the two im- mortal conditions of beauty strength and grace. 11. Callimachus, the sculptor-architect, formerly borrowed the acanthus leaf from the tomb of a Corin- thian maiden, and this flower of art made him immor- tal. How many similar flowers might there not be 20 THE PLANT WORLD. ravished from these virgin forests, and how fruitful would be the study of the full, rich, perspective of these marvelous constructions ! Art, like Science, should renew itself, rejuvenate itself on the breast of Nature. There lies the path of the age. 12. And the dealers in wood, the wood-carvers, the fabricators of household furniture, those who fur- nish the raw material and the timber, what do they in their lumber-yards and work-shops with their nut- wood, their oak, and their northern pine ? For build- ing and for ornament, there are here hundreds and hundreds of varieties of trees tall and perfect, which spring up, develop and die, useless creations, substances ignored, forces lost. 13. Dye-woods, gum-producing and resinous trees, or trees with healing bark ; what rich varieties would be found in these virgin forests ! Many have been discovered, and a few have been classed ; but what numbers of substances are still unknown, and how many precious juices are lost under the bark which covers them ! Between the creeper which corrodes the trees at the foot, and the flowers which crown them, there are indeed many secrets and more than one specific. 14. But I have no inducement to the study of these matters. I belong neither to medicine, to the axe, nor to the plane ; and regretting all these lost values, I enter the forest to dream there. 15. It is early morning, the sun gilds but does not penetrate the dark-green curtains. A single pencil of rays comes across the dry white branches of a light- VIRGIN FOREST IN BRAZIL. 21 ning-stricken irribera, and caresses the red flowers of the ipomea at mj feet. Little caravans on the march make a rustling in the leaves and grass. These are the travelers of the forest, insects, ants, and lizards, who go either to the harvest or the hunt. 16. Butterflies bend over the flower cups which the bees have visited. The tribe of neutral ants go out in squadrons seeking for the puceron ; and the timid agouti, squat under the mosses, gnaws at the leaves and roots. 17. The water-hog capibara the deer, and the tapir, they breakfast farther away under retired bowers at the foot of precipices ; and one might go for leagues through the wood without finding the ounce ; the striped huntress is in pursuit of the boto- cudos. 18. Above the creepers and ferns, from among the high branches, paroquets scream under the green leaves. 19. Monkeys, red and brown and with furry tails, are there howling and grimacing, rolled round the branches like moss. 20. The ouistitis, greedy lover of insects, watches or gambols in the sun, the locust exhausts its stridu- lous monotones, and the colibris chase the pollen. The bird-flies ruby-winged, the narcissus of the flowers, green coleopteras and butterflies with their blazing corselets and blue wings, all the graceful atoms in the sun's beams, fly, intermingle, rise, and fall like the sparks of a feu d? artifice, and shimmer, bathed in gold, in the light of the glades and distant vistas. 22 THE PLANT WORLD. 21. There is less noise and less luster in the mosses below, but there is a whole living, busy, animated world there, notwithstanding. The tree-trunks are peopled, the roots have their hives, the bark hides its legions, the sap trickles, there is life everywhere. Creation, incessant, universal, infinite, inexhaustible, which lives from death. 22. These are what I have found, and what I have seen in the forest: a rich and varied panorama, a sweet and powerful orchestra, a conservatory opulent in perfumes, a casket of flowers. It has given me all the joys of sense ; the mind too has had its enlighten- ment and its enchantment. 23. This grand tree, with its straight smooth trunk, shooting up like the palm, toward the clouds what is its fate ? 24 I see it prone, naked, in the hands of the ship- wright ; then it rises, the shapely mast of a noble ship, carrying a flag, and the ideas which it represents, to the ends of the earth. It will hold the blessed canvas, perhaps, which shall waft us to the wished-for port of our lost country. 25. Mount, ever mount, tree of our dreams and hopes ! May the gnawing worm be far from thy pow- erful trunk ! May the lightning spare thy head ! 26. How generous and fruitful is the virgin forest of southern lands ! Like Cybele, her mother, she bares her breast to all. She has germs and essences, she has sap and hidden forces, for science, for art, and for la- bor. She shelters under her arches all that vast un- known animal kingdom, from the insect to the jaguar, DISTRIBUTION OF FERNS. 23 from the infusoria to the monkey. The Indian, too, finds there his shelter and his food, like the plants and the bee. But it is sufficient for itself, it renews itself with the ages, clothed like them in unfading youth. It is one of the grand, free, and sovereign beings, which remain on the earth. What is its secret ? Hu- midity and heat, sunshine and dew. 27. What sun and dew are to the forest, science and labor are to humanity. A forest is not alone a poetic grouping, the great poem of the eyes ; it is a profound system of philosophy, a revelation which promulgates one of the great laws of creation. CHARLES RIBEYROLLES, " The Sublime in Nature." DISTRIBUTION OF FEE1STS. 1. FEKNS are associated with the most beautiful portions of this world's surface. The most graceful of Nature's garments, they seek to clothe, not the dull expanse of level plain, or the bare, straight side of hill or mountain. They do not grow on sandy flats, on the even margin of a sluggish river, or on the smooth and rockless lines of seacoast. Where the scorching sun- rays fall unscreened upon arid earth, and where no shadows relieve the course of a far-reaching expanse of open country, no ferny growths are found. It is where Nature is in her wildest moods, and assumes her grandest aspects, or where the beauty which is spread over rock and wood and stream is of that 24 THE PLANT WORLD. dreamy kind which, most powerfully stirs the imagina- tion and enthralls the soul, that ferns are found in the greatest perfection, waving their graceful fronds in response to the mountain breeze, or bending under the weight of spray drops flung upon them from the impetuous mountain torrent. 2. Ferns love to grow where the land is musical with running water; where great woods fling their shadows upon the hillside, and hang darkly over stream-crossed valleys ; where rivers, wandering over the crests of towering rocks, and leaping from the sunlight, fall foaming into dark pools, bristling below with sharp points of stone, to be carried thence, in fury, down steep inclines to the sea ; where for long miles the landscape undulates into heathery waves, broken by clumps of gorse on rocky mounds, shel- tered by prickly hawthorn or trailing sprays of black- berry ; where undulating meadows, cleft into many a sheltered hollow, roll gracefully away as far as the eye can reach ; where storm-tossed waves roar upon the rugged points of a rocky coast, and echo into many a cavernous hollow moist with the perpetual drop- pings of percolating water ; where, in short, mountain and valley or hill and glen commingle ; and towering rocks or stately woods, jutting knolls and arching branches, play with sunshine and shadow, and caress the sides of running streams, whose sparkling waters give birth to soft, moist vapors. 3. Enough has been said to show that ferns de- light in moist and shady places, and, thoroughly in keeping with their soft and graceful habit, they love DISTRIBUTION OF FERNS. 25 light and porous soils, where their roots can keep free from stagnancy. On shady slopes and modest eleva- tions they mostly like to dwell. Fibrous peat and sand, and the spongy mold of fallen leaves, form soils in which these plants delight. Through such soils water always percolates freely; for stagnant moisture is fatal to fern life. Hence the sloping sides of a mound or hedge-bank ; the crest and sides of rocky elevations ; the forks of trees, where leaf -mold has accumulated; the shaded margins of running brooks or larger streams; the moist caverns in the sides of cliffs above the tide-mark ; the mossy crests of islets in mid-stream; the sloping, sheltered hill- sides ; even the moister hollows of the plain, and the broken depths of forest glades and forest coverts, are the sites which are most congenial to ferny forms, and which most readily adapt themselves to ferny growths. 4. It will be seen that the presence of ferns in any place assumes the pre-existence of conditions favor- able to their growth. They are never found absent from an old forest. Let us inquire the reason of this, and examine into Nature's preparations for their re- ception. The presence of clustered trees for a long period of years gives rise to the formation of a surface soil which is composed of the decomposed remains of the crops of leaves which, in the deciduous species of trees, annually fall to the ground. Leaves upon leaves accumulating form the most perfect vegetable mold, and this, built up upon the porous subsoil, and largely intermixed with the root fibers of plants which have 26 THE PLANT WORLD. Sprung up and died down each year, constitutes a soil at once rich, light, and porous in which ferns espe- cially delight. The sheltering canopy of trees, while it keeps out the sunlight, keeps in the moist emana- tions from the ground, and thus creates other condi- tions which are essential to fern life. Within a forest the ground is generally uneven and diversified. Banks of rock or earth are found scattered about the former cleft into various shapes, forming hollows and crevices of various kinds the latter mostly covered by some species of vegetation of dwarf or shrubby growth, and overarched by the taller growths of the forest. In the hollows and crevices of the rocks, and upon the top and sides of the earthy banks leaves perpetually fall and decay, and in course of time form a leafy soil, which mingles with crumbling rock or earthy granules, it may be, of sand or gravel. Upon such places fern spores drop, and find the situation suited for them by reason of its moist and sheltered position. Soil and position being congenial, the spores develop into plant- lets, and these in time into full-grown ferns. The conditions which favored their early existence are maintained. The soil is annually enriched by addi- tional deposits of leaf -mold, and, the moisture and shelter continuing, the ferns grow to maturity, and then spread their myriad atoms of reproduction, which, wafted to other rocky holes, marshy banks, and old, moist forks of trees, soon fill the forest with graceful ferny forms, covering sloping banks, waving from the crowns of pollard trunks, and draping rock and river with their feathery tresses. DISTRIBUTION OF FERNS. 27 5. Or take the case of a stream which flows rapidly through a mountain gorge, or along the bowlder-strewn bed of a valley. Vegetation of large growth trees or giant shrubs will follow the course of such a stream, for its moist channel is favorable to the development of vegetable life. The stream brings moisture ; the trees or other growths bring shelter ; the force of the current makes and maintains holes and fissures in its earthy or rocky bed. These are filled with leaf -mold from dropping leaves, and with sand and fibers from the carrying stream. Then Nature begins her work, and plants her smaller growths of moss, lichen, and fern on the dark, moist surfaces of earth or rock. The process of dwarf forestry commences, and slowly and surely the whole ground-plan is draped with a mantle of living green. 6. Chance, perhaps, has thrown together in mid- stream some shapeless masses of rock ; the water brings down a contingent of broken branches torn from their parent stems by the force of high winds, or fallen un- der the process of natural decay. The jutting masses of stone arrest the woody fragments, and these in their turn catch the passing whirl of stream-borne leaves, and dam the earthy substances washed down from the banks of the stream above. A process of accumula- tion commences. The mass thickens and strengthens, and some bold plant starts up from its center. Others follow, and their matted roots consolidate the sub- stance, which by degrees acquires increased consistency and becomes an islet. Among the earliest of vege- table inhabitants are the mosses and lichens, and then 28 THE PLANT WORLD. the domain is appropriated as another portion of the fern world by the appearance of some representative of the moisture-loving family. 7. Again, the face of the country may be traversed by gentle risings of the ground, and intersected by hedge-banks dividing the domains of pasture or corn land and skirting a network of roads and lanes. If the soil be rich and the roadways narrow, the banks of earth or loosely built stone may be crowned by stately shrubs or trees, whose branches cross the way between and meet each other. Then upon the hedge- top, or on the hedge-bank, leaf -mold gathers, and ferny forms assemble and greet the passerby. 8. Let it be remembered, however, that the vari- ous members of this beautiful family of plants have varying predilections in the matter of soil and posi- tion. Some seek the drenching moisture of the water- fall or the dripping walls of sea-caves. Others can live and thrive in the moderate moisture of sloping banks under the shelter of shrubs or trees, while others still will grow on the open surface of an un- dulating plain. But, with few exceptions, ferns mostly love to be elevated, even if but slightly, above level surfaces. It is percolating moisture which they love moisture which does not rest about their roots, but passes away immediately into the soil below. And there is a beautiful consistency in the love of these plants for sloping banks and jutting knolls, for only in such positions can they show to advantage their graceful and beautiful forms. FRANCIS GEORGE HEATH, " The Fern World." THE SENSITIVE-PLANT. 29 THE SENSITIVE-PLANT. 1. A SENSITIVE-PLANT in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan -like leaves to the light, And closed them beneath the kisses of night. 2. And the Spring arose on the garden fair, And the Spirit of Love fell everywhere ; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. 3. But none ever trembled and panted with bliss In the garden, the field, or the wilderness, Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want, As the companionless Sensitive-Plant. 4. The snowdrop, and then the violet, ' Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, And their breath was mixed with fresh odor sent From the turf, like the voice and the instrument. 5. Then the pied windflowers and tulip tall, And narcissi, the fairest among them all, Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess ? Till they die of their own dear loveliness ; 6. And the Naiad -like lily of the vale, Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale, That the light of its tremulous bells is seen Through their pavilions of tender green ; 30 THE PLANT WORLD. 7. And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew Of music so delicate, soft, and intense, It was felt like an odor within the sense ; 8. And the rose like a nymph to the bath addressed, "Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air The soul of her beauty and love lay bare ; 9. And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, As a Maenad, its moonlight-colored cup, Till the fiery star, which is its eye, Gazed through the clear dew on the tender sky ; 10. And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, The sweetest flower for scent that blows ; And all rare blossoms from every clime Grew in that garden in perfect prime. SHELLEY. USES OF THE COCOA-NUT TEEE. 1. IMAGINE a traveler passing through one of those countries, situated under a burning sky, where cool- ness and shade are so rare, and where habitations, in which to take the repose so necessary to the traveler, are only to be found at considerable distances. Pant- ing and dispirited, the poor traveler at length per- USES OF THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 31 ceives a hut surrounded by some trees with straight erect stems,' surmounted by an immense tuft of green leaves, some being upright and the others pendent, giving an agreeable and elegant aspect to the scene. Nothing else near the cabin indicates cultivated land. At this sight the spirits of the traveler revive ; he col- lects his strength, and is soon beneath the hospitable roof. His host offers him an acidulous drink, with which he slakes his thirst ; it refreshes him. When he has taken some repose, the Indian invites him to share his repast. He produces various courses, served in a brown-looking vessel, smooth and glossy ; he serves also some wine of an extremely agreeable fla- vor. Toward the end of the repast his host offers him sweetmeats, and he is made to taste some excel- lent spirits. 2. The astonished traveler asks who in this desert country furnishes him with all these things. "My cocoa-nut tree," was the reply. " The drink I pre- sented you with on your arrival was drawn from the fruit before it is ripe, and some of the nuts which contain it weigh three or four pounds. This kernel, so delicate in its flavor, is the fruit when ripe. This milk, which you find so agreeable, is drawn from the nut ; this cabbage, whose flavor is so delicate, is the top of the cocoa-nut, but we rarely regale ourselves with this delicacy, for the tree from which the cab- bage is cut dies soon after. This wine, with which you are so satisfied, is still furnished by the cocoa- nut tree. In order to obtain it an incision is made into the spathe of the flowers. It flows from it in a 32 THE PLANT WORLD. white liquor, which is gathered in proper vessels, and we call it palm wine ; exposed to the sun, it gets sour and turns to vinegar. By distillation we obtain this very good brandy which you have tasted. This sap has supplied the sugar with which these sweetmeats are made. These vessels and utensils have been made out of the shell of the nut. 3. " Nor is this all ; this habitation itself I owe entirely to these invaluable trees ; with their wood my cabin is constructed ; their leaves, dried and plaited, form the roof ; made into an umbrella, they shelter me from the sun in my walks; the clothes which cover me are woven out of the fibers of their leaves. These mats, which serve so many useful purposes, are produced by them also. The sifter which you see was ready made to my hand in that part of the tree whence the leaves issue ; with these same leaves woven to- gether we can make sails for ships. The species of fiber that envelops the nut is much preferable to tow for calking ships ; it does not rot in the water, and it swells in imbibing it ; it makes excellent string, and all sorts of cable and cordage. Finally, the delicate oil that has seasoned many of our dishes, and that which burns in my lamp, are expressed from the fresh kernel." 4. The stranger would listen with astonishment to the poor Indian, who having only his cocoa-nut tree, had nearly everything which was necessary for his existence. When the traveler was disposed to take his departure, his host again addressed him : " I am about to write to a friend I have in the city. May I THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF PAREDENIA. 33 ask you to charge yourself with my communication ? " " Yes ; but will your cocoa-nut tree supply you with what you want?" "Certainly," said the Indian; " with the sawdust from the wood I made this ink and with the leaves this parchment ; in former times it was used to record all public and memorable acts." BONIFAS-GUIZOT, " Botany for Youth." THE BOTANIC GAKDEN OF PABEDENIA. 1. IN the central province of Ceylon, 1,500 feet above the sea, lies the former capital of the island, the celebrated city of Kandy, and but a few miles distant from it Paredenia, a small town that for a brief sea- son, five hundred years ago, likewise enjoyed the honor of being the regal residence of an ancient king. Here, in 1819, the English Government established a botanic garden, and intrusted Dr. Gardner with its management. His successor, Dr. Thwaites, the learned author of an excellent " Flora Ceylonica," for thirty years did everything in his power to raise the garden to a standard that would correspond with its peculiar climatic and local advantages. On his retirement, a few years ago, Dr. Henry Trimen was appointed di- rector of the garden, and from this gentleman I re- ceived a cordial invitation to visit Paredenia. I accepted the kind invitation all the more readily, be- cause I had already in Europe heard and read a great deal about the splendid collection of rare plants in the 34: THE PLANT WORLD. Botanic Garden of Paredenia, and my great expecta- tions were not disappointed. If Ceylon is in truth a paradise for the botanist, as well as for every plant- friend, then Paredenia may justly be termed the heart of this botanical Eden. 2. The entrance to the garden is through an avenue of noble India-rubber trees (Ficus elastica). This is the tree whose inspissated milk-sap forms the caout- chouc of commerce, and whose young plants are fre- quently seen in the greenhouses of our rugged north. While these India-rubber plants with us are objects of admiration when their slender stems grow to the height of the ceiling, and their few branches bear from fifty to one hundred leathery, egg-shaped leaves, here in their hot mother-country they develop into gigantic trees of the highest rank, and rival our proud- est European oaks. The immense crown of many thousands of leaves covers with its mighty branches (forty to fifty feet long) the superficial surface of a stately palace, while from the base of the thick trunk extends a network of roots that frequently measures from one hundred to two hundred feet in diameter far more than the height of -the tree itself. This as- tounding root crown consists mostly of twenty or thirty main roots, from each of which branch as many more all of them curving and twisting over the ground like so many gigantic serpents, for which rea- son the Cingalese call it the " snake-tree," and poets at various times have likened it to the snake-entwined Laocoon. The spaces between the roots form verita- ble closets or sentry-boxes, in some of which a man THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF PAREDENIA. 35 standing upright may effectually conceal himself. Similar root-columns are developed by other large trees of different orders. 3. Scarcely had I expressed my admiration for this avenue of snake-trees, when my eyes were en- chained by another wonderful sight near the garden gate. There, as if to greet the new-comer, stood a huge bouquet of palms, composed of those species in- digenous to the island, and a number of foreign rep- resentatives of this noblest of tropical families ; gar- lands of lovely creepers festooned their crowns, while their stems were ornamented with the most exquisite parasitic ferns. A similar but handsomer and more extensive group stands near the end of the main alley, and is encircled by a lovely wreath of flowering plants. Here the alley branched, the path on the left leading to a slight eminence on which stands the bungalow of the director. This enviable home is, like most Cey- lonese villas, a low, one-storied structure, encircled by an airy veranda whose wide, projecting roof is sup- ported by a row of white pillars. Roof and pillars are adorned with luxurious vines, large-flowered or- chids, odorous vanilla, showy fuchsias, and other bright flowers; choice collections of flowering plants and ferns embellish the garden beds which surround the house, and above them rise the shade-dispensing crowns of India's noblest trees. Numerous gorgeous butterflies and beetles, lizards and birds animate this charming picture. 4. As the villa stands on the highest eminence in the garden, and the broad velvety lawn slopes away 36 THE PLANT WORLD. from it on every side, the view from the veranda em- braces a large portion of the garden with several of its most attractive tree-groups, and the belt of tall forest trees which incloses the meadow land. Beyond them rise the wooded summits of the mountain chain which encircles Paredenia valley. 5. The Mahawelli-ganga flows in a wide, semi- circular sweep around the garden, and separates it from yonder chain of hills ; consequently it lies on a horseshoe-shaped peninsula whose land side, where it adjoins the Kandyan valley, is effectually protected by a tall, impenetrable hedge of bamboo, thorny rat- tan, and other equally formidable plants. As the cli- mate (at 1,500 feet above sea-level) is extraordinarily favorable, and the tropical heat of the sheltered valley, in conjunction with the copious rains which fall in the neighboring mountains, transform the Paredenia Garden into a natural forcing-house, it will be readily understood that the tropical flora here develops her wonderful productive power in the highest degree. My first ramble through the garden, in company with the well-informed director, convinced me that this was indeed the case ; and although I had read and heard so much about the wonderful attractions of the exuberant tropical vegetation, had longed for so many years to behold it with my own eyes, the actual reality, the actual enjoyment of the fabled glories, far sur- passed my highest expectations, and that, too, after I had been prepared by what I had seen in Bombay and Colombo. In the four days I spent at Paredenia I gained more information concerning the life and hab- THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF PAREDENIA. 3? its of the plant world than I could have acquired at home in as many months by the most diligent botan- ical study. And when, two months later, I returned to the garden for a farewell visit, my delight was as great as when I first beheld its manifold attractions. I can not adequately express my gratitude for the courteous hospitality and wealth of information I re- ceived from my good friend Dr. Trimen. The seven days in his enchanting bungalow were, for me, seven veritable days of creation ! 6. Yastly unlike most of the botanic gardens of Europe, whose stiff rows of beds remind one of files of soldiers, the Paredenia Garden (one hundred and fifty acres) is arranged with regard to aesthetic effect, as well as for the systematic classification of the plants. The principal tree-groups, and plants of kindred spe- cies, are tastefully distributed over grassy lawns, with pleasant paths leading from one to the other. In a more retired part of the garden are the less attractive beds for the cultivation of useful plants. Almost all the useful plants of the torrid zone (of both hemi- spheres) are here represented ; seeds, scions, and fruits of many of them are annually distributed among the planters and gardeners on the island. Thus the gar- den is not only an experimental station and acclimati- zation garden, but it has for years conferred important practical benefits on the colonists. 7. If, among the many wonders in Paredenia Gar- den only a few are to be briefly noticed, then I shall begin with the celebrated giant bamboo, the astonish- ment and admiration of every visitor. Rambling from 38 THE PLANT WORLD. the entrance gate toward the river and along its lovely bank, we see, while still at a distance, huge green bushes over one hundred feet high, and as many broad, which spread their plumed heads like the feather brushes of giants high above the river and the road, casting delightful shadows over both. Approaching nearer we see that this stupendous mass of verdure is composed of numerous (from eighty to one hundred) slender stems from one to two feet thick, which have sprung from a common root, and bear, on delicate, nodding branches dense clusters of the daintiest leaves. And these gigantic trees are nothing but grasses! Like all grass-stalks these prodigious tubes are jointed ; but the sheaf which, in the delicate species, is a thin small scale at the base of the leaf is, in this bamboo giant, a firm woody partition that, without further preparation, might serve as a shield for the breast of a vigorous man. A child of three years might hide in one of the joints ! As is well known, the bamboo belongs to the useful plants of the tropics; but to fully describe the manifold uses to which these tree- grasses as well as the palms are turned to account by the natives would fill a whole volume. 8. Next to the bamboos or, indeed, before them come the palms. Besides the orders indigenous to the island, we find here a number of palms that are natives of the mainland of India, the Sunda Islands, Australia, and tropical America as, for instance, the Li/vistonia chinensis, with its huge crown of fan- shaped leaves ; the celebrated Lodoicea from the Seychelles, with its colossal fans ; the Elceis, or oil- THE BOTANIC GARDEN OF PAREDENIA. 39 palm of Guinea, with its long, plume-like foliage ; the famous Mauritia from Brazil ; the lofty Areodoxa, or king's palm, from Havana, etc. Of the latter I ad- inired and sketched, on Teneriffe (1866), a splendid specimen, and was therefore not a little surprised and delighted to behold here a whole avenue of the stately trees. ~No less interesting were splendid groups of thorny climbing palms or rattans (Calamus) with deli- cate, vibrating leaves ; their slender but firm and elas- tic stems climb to the tops of the highest trees, often attaining a length of three or four hundred feet. They belong to the longest of all land plants. 9. One of the most attractive parts of Paredenia is the fern garden. In the dense shade of tall trees along the cool banks of a murmuring brook is assem- bled a company of small and large, delicate and vig- orous, herbaceous and arboreous ferns, such as it would be impossible to imagine any more charming and agreeable. The entire charm of form which distin- guishes the dainty feathery foliage of our native ferns is here displayed in an endless variety of different spe- cies, from the simplest to the most complex; and while some of the pretty little dwarf ferns might easily be confounded with dainty mosses, the giant tree-ferns, whose slim, black stems bear a lovely crown of feathery leaves, attain the proud height of the palm. 10. Like the ferns, the fern-palms, or Cycadece, as well as the dainty selanginella and lycopodia families, are represented in Paredenia by choice collections of the most interesting species, from the most minute, 40 THE PLANT WORLD. moss-like forms to the robust shrub sorts that almost remind one of the extinct tree-lycopodia of the Stone- coal period. Indeed, many plant-groups in this gar- den recall to mind the fossil flora so admirably por- trayed by linger in his views from an antediluvian world. If, in conclusion, but two more plant orders, which are of peculiar interest to me, are to be intro- duced to your notice, then the first shall be the lianas, and the second the banyans. Although creep- ing and climbing plants are abundant everywhere on the island, the Paredenia Garden contains several splendid examples, the like of which are rarely found ; for instance, colossal vines of the Yitis, Cissus, Pur- tada, Bignonia, Ficus, etc. Also the banyans, and several kindred fig-trees (Ficus galaxifera, etc.), are the finest, most magnificent tree-forms I saw on Ceylon. ERNST HAECKEL, " India and Ceylon." THE BAMBOO. 1. NEXT to the palms, the bamboo tribe claims pre- cedence among the plants of India, both by its variety of form and its great numbers. According to Zollin- ger's table of the different Javanese species, certain kinds which grow to the height of more than ninety feet, individual examples one hundred and thirty feet high have been measured, but the average height varies between twenty and fifty feet. The prickly bamboo does not grow so high, but twines closely round the THE BAMBOO. 41 nearest stem, and forms an impenetrable jungle or bush. The thickness of the stem varies between about twelve inches and the tenth of an inch. The color of the leaves shades from bright green to a pale yellow tint. The climbing lianas, for instance, the Dinochloa, which resembles the rotang palm in its circular formation, hangs down its graceful branches tipped with a feathery tuft of leaves. The slenderer forms put out fresh growth at the summit of the stem, which hardens by the amount of silica which it contains, and is covered with joints from which short branches tipped with leaves are put forth all the way down the stem. When they are joined together, they shoot upward like a gigantic cane bush, and at last bend down on all sides in gently curving arches to the ground. Their social life, the close disposition of the stems which sway with a soft rustling murmur at every breath of wind, the dead leaves which cover every inch of the soil, exclude all other kinds of vegetation from the interior of a bamboo jungle. When the water supply is abundant, the growth of the bamboo increases with almost miraculous speed, so that in a few days the stem gains several feet, and lengthens as it were visibly before the eye ; it is nev- ertheless able to support the interruption caused by long seasons of drought, and is therefore equally at home in the swampy forest as in the parched savan- nas. The largest bamboo indigenous to Siam devel- ops its sheaf of stem of eighty-two to ninety-eight feet high in the space of three or four months, and then begins to fade in the dry season, and sinks to the 42 THE PLANT WORLD. ground. A tropical climate is not an absolute neces- sity for the growth of the bamboo, some of which are seen in Sikkim at a height reaching to the limit of tree growth. 2. The numberless ways in which the bamboo en- ters into the national life of the countries where it is found have attracted the attention of every traveler. The longer he sojourns in Eastern lands, the greater is his astonishment at the myriad purposes to which cer- tain plants are applied by the Orientals. In the first rank among these necessaries of Eastern life come the cocoa-palm and the bamboo. The Javanese builds his house of bamboo ; every article of household fur- niture is made of the same material ; he lights a fire of bamboo, and over it he cooks his rice in a bamboo dish, which is charred but not destroyed in the pr"o- cess. Yery possibly the dish may contain, instead of rice, some young shoots of the bamboo, which form a tender and succulent vegetable. Sometimes no other material is seen in a whole village ; the fairy -like pali- sading which incloses it, and the gates themselves, are all made of bamboo. 3. The prickly bamboo, a species which grows to the height of thirty-nine feet, in thick bush branches covered with formidable thorns, forms a rampart hardly to be broken through, even by the aid of artil- lery ; so that the Dutch, taught by their experience in Sumatra, always plant it round their fortresses. The sportsman and the soldier use it for lances, arrows, and a blow-pipe, by means of which poisoned arrows are shot. It is constantly employed to form bridges, MARINE PLANTS. 43 and it provides the fisherman with incomparable rafts, masts, and creels. In China nearly all the paper is manufactured from bamboo, even paper used in Eu- rope for art printing. The canes in use among us are bamboos, while the cane employed for chairs, etc., is obtained from palms, natives of the East Indies, espe- cially the Calamus rotang and Calamus verus. To add one more use to which the inexhaustible bamboo may be put, we may mention that a wedge-shaped piece of the cane cut the cross way of the stem, so that the sharp edge is formed of the outer silicious stratum, makes a knife good enough to be even used in surgical operations. ANONYMOUS, " Wonders in Living Nature." MAKIJSTE PLANTS. 1. THE dry land develops the most exuberant vegetation on the lowest grounds, the plains, and deep valleys, and the size and multiplicity of plants gradu- ally diminish as we ascend the higher mountain re- gions, until at last merely naked or snow-covered rocks raise their barren pinnacles to the skies ; but the con- trary takes place in the realms of ocean, for here the greater depths are completely denuded of vegetation, and it is only within six hundred or eight hundred feet from the surface that the calcareous nullipores begin to cover the sea-bottom, as mosses and lichens clothe the lofty mountain-tops. Gradually corallines 44 THE PLANT WORLD. and a few algse associate with them, until finally about eighty or one hundred feet from the surface begins the rich vegetable zone which encircles the margin of the sea. The plants of which it is composed do not indeed attain the same high degree of development as those of the dry land, being deprived of the beauties of flower and fruit; but as the earth at different heights and latitudes constantly changes her verdant robe, and raises our highest admiration by the endless diversity of her ornaments, thus also the forms of the sea-plants change, whether we descend from the brink of ocean to a greater depth, or wander along the coast from one sea to another ; and their delicate fronds are as remarkable for beauty of color and elegance of out- line as the leaves of terrestrial vegetation. 2. The difference of the mediums in which land- and sea-plants exist naturally requires a different mode of nourishment, the former principally using their roots to extract from a varying soil the substances necessary for their perfect growth, while the latter absorb nourishment through their entire surface from the surrounding waters, and use their roots chiefly as holdfasts. 3. The constituent parts of the soil are of the greatest importance to land-plants, to whose organiza- tion they are made to contribute ; while to the sea- plant it is generally indifferent whether the ground to which it is attached be granite, chalk, slate, or sand- stone, provided only its roots find a safe anchorage against the unruly waters. 4. Flat rocky coasts, not too much exposed to the MARINE PLANTS. 45 swell of the waves, and interspersed with deep pools in which the water is constantly retained, are thus the favorite abode of most algae, while a loose sandy sea- bottom is generally as poor in vegetation as the Ara- bian desert. 5. But even on sandy shores extensive submarine meadows are frequently formed by the grass wrack (Zostera marina), whose creeping stems, rooting at the joints and extending to a considerable depth in the sand, are admirably adapted for securing a firm posi- tion on the loose ground. Its long ribbon -like leaves, of a brilliant and glossy green, wave freely in the water, and afford shelter and nourishment to numerous marine animals and plants. In the tropical seas it forms the submarine meadows on which the turtles graze, and in the north of Europe it is used for the manufacture of cheap bedding. It also furnishes an excellent material for packing brittle ware. 6. Sea-weeds are usually classed in three great groups green, olive-colored, and red ; and these again are subdivided into numerous families, genera, and species. 7. On the British coast alone about four hundred different species are found, and hence we may form some idea of the riches of the submarine flora. Thou- sands of algae are known and classified, but no doubt as many more at least still wait for their botanical names, and have never yet been seen by human eye. 8. The green sea-weeds, or Chlorospermeve, gener- ally occur near high -water mark, and love to lead an amphibious life, half in the air and half in salt-water. 4:6 THE PLANT WORLD. The delicate Enteromorphce, similar to threads of fine silk, and the broad brilliant Ulvce, which frequently cover the smooth bowlders with a glossy vesture of lively green, belong to this class. Many of them are remarkable for their wide geographical distribution. Thus the Ulva latissima and the Enteromorpha com- pressa of our shores thrive also in the cold waters of the Arctic Sea, fringe the shores of the tropical ocean, and project into the southern hemisphere as far as the desolate head-lands of Tierra del Fuego. But few animals or plants possess so pliable a nature, and such adaptability to the most various climates. 9. The olive-colored group of sea-weeds, or Me- lanospermece, plays a much more considerable part in J: / JT t/ -L the economy of the ocean. The common fuci, which on the ebbing of the tide impart to the shore cliffs their peculiar dingy color, belong to this class ; as well as the mighty Laminarice, which, about the level of ordinary low water and one or two fathoms below that limit, fringe the rocky shore with a broad belt of luxuriant vegetation. 10. The first olive-colored sea- weed we meet with on the receding of the flood is the small and slender Fucus canaliculatus, easily known by its narrow grooved stems and branches and the absence of air- vessels. Then follows Fucus nodosus, a large species, with tough thong-like stems, expanding at intervals into knob-like air-vessels, and covered in winter and spring with bright yellow berries. Along with it we find the gregarious Fucus vesiculosus, with its forked leaf traversed by a midrib, and covered with numer- MARINE PLANTS. 47 ous air-vessels situated in pairs at each side of the rib. Finally, about the level of half -tide, a fourth species of fucus appears, Fucus serratus, distinguished from all the rest by its toothed margin and the absence of air-vessels. 11. These four species generally occupy the litto- ral zone of our sea-girt isle, being found in greatest abundance on flat, rocky shores, particularly on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland, where they used formerly to be burned in large quantities for the manufacture of kelp or carbonate of soda, which is now obtained by a less expensive process. In Orcadia alone more than twenty thousand persons were em- ployed during the whole summer in the collection and incineration of sea- weeds, a valuable resource for the poverty-stricken islanders, of which they have been deprived by the progress of chemical science. 12. The fuci are, however, still largely used, either burned or in a fermented state, as a valuable manure for green crops. Thus every year several small ves- sels are sent from Jersey to the coast of Brittany to fetch cargoes of sea-weeds for the farmers of that island. 13. The largest of indigenous sea-weeds are the Lamincvria saccharina and digitata, or the sugary and fingered oar-weeds. Their stout woody stems and broad, tough, glossy leaves of dark olive-green, often twelve or fourteen feet long, must be familiar to every one who has sojourned on the coast. When gliding over their submerged groves in a boat, their great fronds floating like streamers in the water afford 4-8 THE PLANT WORLD. the interesting spectacle of a dense submarine thicket, through whose palm-like tops the fishes swim in and out, emulating in activity the birds of our forests, 14. But our native oar- weeds, large as they seem with regard to the other fuci among which they grow, are mere pygmies when compared with the gigantic species which occur in the .colder seas. 15. None of the members of this family grow in the tropical waters, but they extend to the utmost polar limits, and seem to increase in size and multi- plicity of form as they advance to the higher latitudes. The northern hemisphere has generally different gen- era from the southern. To the former belong the gigantic Alarias with their often forty feet long and several feet broad fronds, the singularly perforated Thalassophyta, and the far-spreading Nereocystis, which is only found in the Northern Pacific ; while the genera Macrocystis and Lessonia are denizens of the Southern Ocean. G-. HART WIG, " The Sea and its Living Wonders." DIFFUSION OF PLANTS. 1. As the earth does not bring forth in every place all the plants which could live upon its surface, so the several kinds of animals have a definite and probably for the most part a very limited territory allotted to them for their reproduction ; but animals and plants have ventured to overstep these narrow limits, and DIFFUSION OF PLANTS. 49 win for themselves large tracts of the earth's surface outside the boundaries of their original birthplace. 2. Chained to its clod of earth, and incapable of altering its locality at will, the plant is apparently helpless ; but it has powerful allies, of which the most important are wind, water, and animals. For the present we will not speak of culture and acclimatiza- tion, by which men foster and promote the growth of certain foreign plants. Marvelous are the contrivances by which Nature herself provides for the wide distri- bution of seeds. Sometimes the fruit, sometimes the seeds, are furnished with wings or hairy crowns, by which the wind may carry them far and wide. We have only to remember these contrivances, as shown in the dandelion, elm, poplar, and maple. Sometimes the plants open with an elastic movement, and scatter their own seed, as in the case of balsams, wood-sorrel, and a kind of cucumber (Ecballium officinale). We must not forget to mention the tenacity of life pos- sessed by the seed. 3. In the year 1176, at Linz on the Rhine, some of the Crepis pulctira, a flower extremely rare in Ger- many, and which had certainly not been seen at Linz within the last twenty years, was found in some earth which had been dug out of the church in the preced- ing year ; so that the seed must have slept for many years in the ground, and yet retained its germinating power. In a similar manner there appeared suddenly near the old mines of Mount Laurion, in Attica, the plants Glaucium serpieri and Silene juvenalis plants entirely unknown, or at least never seen in that neigh- 50 THE PLANT WORLD. borhood. These seeds had lain buried for an indefi- nite length of time three yards below the surface, and were brought to light by the workmen who were pre- paring to extend the mines. This long sleep of the seeds, a sleep which it is thought may last for cen- turies, explains how it is that tunnelings and railway cuttings are often the scenes of valuable discoveries of new and rare plants, the seed buried for years in the earth being unintentionally and unconsciously dug out by the hand of man. 4. Other plants follow the courses of rivers and running streams, by which their seeds are carried down into suitable places. Thus the (Enothera bien- nis, a native of Virginia, is said to have reached Padua in 1612, and spread thence throughout Europe ; and this flower is much more abundant on the shores of the middle and lower Rhine than in the adjoining sandy plains, which are equally suited for its growth. Another example is given by the Collomia grandiflora, a herb belonging to North America, which was sud- denly found in the year 1855 on the banks of the Ahr, near Ahrweiler. It is not known how it reached the spot, but in 1857 it was found already at the mouth of the Ahr, and in 1862 on the banks of the Rhine, near Bonn ; so that in the course of seven years it had spread along forty miles of the river banks, notwith- standing the unwearied efforts of the students of Bonn to uproot it and transfer it by handfuls to their her- baria. 5. Animals are of great use in furthering the dis- tribution of plants. Yery many fruits and seeds are DIFFUSION OF PLANTS. 51 carried bodily away by being caught and fastened with thorns and brambles in the fleece of woolly ani- mals. The seeds of many Australian plants, for in- stance, have been carried to Europe in the fleeces of Australian sheep. Many animals eat berries without destroying the seed, which passes through them unin- jured. The seed so sown is so far from having less- ened its powers of fructification that, in the opinion of Altum, it must have been specially intended to be prepared for sowing in that manner. It is known also that, to the great annoyance of the Dutch Trading Company, the pigeons who fed on the valuable Muscat nuts in the Moluccas transplanted it with increased powers of germination, increased by its passage through their bodies, although it is said to have pre- viously defied every method of artificial cultivation. The seeds of the white thorn do not germinate until they have lain buried in the earth for a whole year ; but if turkeys are fed with the seed in autumn, and the birds' manure sown, the seeds will come up in the following spring. 6. There is no doubt, then, that many plants have been distributed in this manner by the aid of birds. While some plants spread abroad to almost incredible distances in the course of time, others seem bound to one narrow home ; for instance, a member of the palm tribe (Lodoicea sechellarum), which grows only in two of the Seychelle Islands. Its fruits are often carried by the ocean currents to the Maldives, where they are known as Maldive nuts, and their great size and mys- terious appearance on the shore gave rise to number- 52 THE PLANT WORLD. less fantastic suppositions until their true home was discovered. One of the most effectual barriers against the complete and wholesale intermingling of plants is the sea, for although its currents tend to spread them abroad, its great extent hinders their passage to the opposite shore. The greater the distance between two coasts the more sharply sundered is their vegetation. Next to the sea, the great desert wastes, such as that of Sahara, act as barriers, and the inaccessible forests of tropical America divide the floras of the adjoining countries. In ordinary cases, however, the changes of climate are sufficient to preserve the distinct character of the natural flora, and the high peaks of mountains, like those of the European Alps, form a limit to the exchange of neighboring vegetation. ANONYMOUS, " Wonders in Living Nature." AUTUMN. 1. WITH what a glory comes and goes the year ! The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy Life's newness, and earth's garniture spread out ; And when the silver habit of the clouds Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with A sober gladness the old year takes up His bright inheritance of golden fruits, A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene. The Breadfruit Tree. THE BREAD-FRUIT-TREE. 53 2. There is a beautiful spirit breathing now Its mellow richness on the clustered trees, And from a beaker full of richest dyes, Pouring new glory on the autumn woods. And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. 3. Oh, what a glory doth this world put on For him who with a fervent heart goes forth Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks On duties well performed, and days well spent ! For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves, Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings. He shall so hear the solemn hymn that Death Has lifted up for all, that he shall go To his long resting-place without a tear. LONGFELLOW. THE BBEAD-FBUIT-TKEE. 1. AMONG the examples which in a special degree attest the watchful care of Providence, we have to mention that of the bread-tree, discovered in the isles of Oceania. This invaluable tree belongs to the genus Artocarpus, of the fig family. The leaves in this family are simple, plain, or serrated, and the flow- ers very small and imperfect, some having no corolla, and others no calyx, but all appearing alike upon the same tree at the extremities of the branches. 54: THE PLANT WORLD. 2. The true bread-tree has indented or serrated leaves. We say the true bread -tree, for this genus embraces many other species, which, in spite of a very remarkable organization, do not possess the properties of the one we have mentioned. Thus there is an Artocarpus incisa, with small leaves and flowers, but bearing fruits which are, perhaps, the largest borne by any tree on earth. These round fruits are some- times so large that a man can not lift them ! The kernels are eaten, roasted like chestnuts, but they are not easily digestible. Then there is the Jack (Arto- carpus integrifolia\ of the Indian Archipelago, with a huge trunk, and dense foliage on the broad-branch- ing summit, while the fruit measures eighteen inches by fifteen. Travelers are not agreed as to the merits of the latter. Rheede says they have an agreeable taste and odor, but Commerson could not summon courage even to put a morsel of it in his mouth. " Tastes differ," but it seems difficult to explain such contradictory opinions, unless it should be that these travelers speak of such trees as certain critics are said to judge of works which they have never seen. A third species is the Artocarpus hirsuta, the tallest of the genus. Its wood is used in carpentry and in boat- building. The Indians hollow out the trunk to make their piraguas, some of which measure eighty feet in length by nine in width, and thus enable them to make long ocean voyages. 3. We return to the true bread-fruit-tree. The discoveries in Oceania have rendered it celebrated, and special expeditions have been undertaken for the THE BREAD-FRUIT-TREE. 55 purpose of obtaining roots for transplantation to dif- ferent parts of the Old and New World. We shall presently notice the most remarkable of these expedi- tions. The following are the distinctive characteris- tics of this tree : The trunk is straight, as thick as a man's body, and rises in a gentle spiral to the height of about forty feet. Its large round top covers with its shadow a space thirty feet in diameter. The wood is yellowish, soft, and light; the leaves, one and a half feet long and one foot wide, large and permeated with seven or eight lobes, a form which characterizes this species. The same branch bears male and female flowers. The bread obtained from the tree is its globular fruit, larger than a child's head, weighing three to four pounds, rough on the outside, and cov- ered with hair. The thick green rind incloses a pulp, which, during the month that precedes maturity, is white, farinaceous, and slightly fibrous ; but when ripe, changes in color and consistency, and becomes yellow and succulent or gelatinous. The island of Otaheite abounds in the best kind of these trees, which bear fruit without seed ; the other islands of Oceanica pro- duce varieties of less valuable bread-fruit, containing angular seeds almost as large as chestnuts. 4. The fruit of this tree ripens during eight con- secutive months in the year. The islanders live upon it, as we do upon our manufactured bread ; it is their main food, and Nature, as we see, furnishes it to them without their being put to the trouble of cultivating the ground, of sowing, reaping, thrashing, grinding, or baking. To have their " fresh bread " they choose 56 THE PLANT WORLD. the time when the pulp is farinaceous, which they can tell by the green color of the rind. The necessary preparation " for the table " is accomplished by cut- ting them in thick slices and cooking them upon a charcoal fire ; when ready, each " loaf " weighs about a pound. They are sometimes also placed upon a heated oven, as we do with pastry, and left there until the rind begins to blacken. Then the burnt part is scraped clean, as your toast, and the interior is white, ready to be eaten, tender as the crumbs of French rolls, but little differing in taste from wheaten bread, except only a slight flavor suggestive of the inside of an artichoke. As the natives want bread throughout the whole year, they take advantage of the time when the fruits are abundant, and prepare from the pulp of the surplus fruit a paste which, after being fermented, can be kept a long time without turning sour. During the four months when the trees do .not yield, the natives live upon this prepa- ration. 5.. The expedition to which we referred was that made by Captain Bligh, sent in search of the bread- tree of Otaheite for the purpose of introducing it into the tropical colonies of Great Britain to furnish food for the slaves. The narratives of Cook and other ex- plorers had encouraged the highest expectations of the benefits which would result from the culture of the bread-fruit-tree. The English colonists having entreated their government to obtain for them this wonderful tree, a vessel specially fitted for the pur- pose was got ready and placed under the command of THE BREAD-FRUIT-TREE. 57 Bligh, then only a lieutenant, but afterward an admi- ral. The selection of the commander was judicious, for .Bligh had accompanied Cook in his voyages, and given on many occasions proof of his talents and his gallantry. Leaving England in 1787, the expedition arrived in six months at Otaheite. The islanders re- ceived them hospitably ; more than a thousand plants were put in pots and boxes and taken on board, with a sufficient quantity of fresh water to keep them alive, and five months afterward the precious cargo was floating toward its destination. But, in spite of all the happy auspices under which the return voyage was begun, it had an unfortunate ending. It fur- nished one of those examples, happily rare, of the revolt of a crew and the desperate position of a cap- tain left to the mercy of the mutineers in the midst of the silent ocean. Twenty -two days after they had left Otaheite the greater part of the crew, having joined in a most cowardly plot, seized Bligh during the night and placed him with the eighteen that remained faith- ful to him in a long boat with some provisions and instruments, and, leaving them alone in the middle of the ocean, sailed off and were soon out of sight. Bligh and his companions bore up with superhuman courage in the midst of their fatigue and sufferings ; only one succumbed. They arrived at the island of Timor, after having sailed the distance of thirty- six hundred nautical miles in the longboat. The Dutch governor received them kindly, and soon twelve of them were able to take passage to Ireland. Bligh obtained justice in England ; he was immedi- 58 THE PLANT WORLD. ately promoted to the rank of captain and placed in charge of a new and larger expedition. This time he succeeded completely, and two years after the two vessels of the expedition landed in the British West Indies, having on board twelve hundred plants of the bread-fruit-tree, and without having lost a single man of either of the crews. 6. The slaves of the West Indies did not show as much alacrity in making use of the fruit as had been expected, preferring their familiar food, the banana ; on the other hand, the Europeans accepted it with great pleasure. It ought to be stated, however, that the slaves ate the fruit without having previously pre- pared it, while the Europeans cooked it according to the best receipts of English writers. 7. The old people of Otaheite attribute the origin of the bread-fruit-tree to an incident which is em- bodied in a touching legend. At a time of great scarcity, a father assembled his numerous children upon the mountains and said to them : " You will in- ter me in this place ; but you will find me again on the morrow." The children obeyed, and, coming on the following day as they had been commanded, they were much surprised to see that the body of their father had been transformed into a great tree. His toes had stretched out to form the roots'; his power- ful and robust body had furnished the trunk; his outstretched arms were changed into branches, and his hands into leaves. His bald head finally had disappeared, and a delicious fruit was found in its place. ON THE USES OF PLANTS. 59 8. This legend recalls the seventh circle of the Inferno of Dante, where the souls who had been vio- lent upon earth are seen changed into living trees, while their limbs writhe and twist like the branches of dead trees. But we prefer the simple legend of the primitive isles to the gloomy imagination of the great Italian. The poet speaks of the dead ; the island- ers appeal to the living. FULGENCE MARION,