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30 chapters
THE ROMANCE OF PLANT LIFE
THE ROMANCE OF PLANT LIFE
INTERESTING DESCRIPTIONS OF THE STRANGE AND CURIOUS IN THE PLANT WORLD BY G. F. SCOTT ELLIOT M.A. CANTAB., B.SC. EDIN., F.R.G.S., F.L.S., ETC. AUTHOR OF "A NATURALIST IN MID AFRICA," "NATURE STUDIES—PLANT LIFE" ETC. WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY LONDON: SEELEY & CO. Limited 1907...
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CHAPTER I THE ACTIVITY OF VEGETABLES
CHAPTER I THE ACTIVITY OF VEGETABLES
Plants which move—Sensitive Plant—A tourist from Neptune—The World's and the British harvest—Working of green leaves—Power of sunshine—Work done by an acre of plants—Coltsfoot, dandelion, pansies, in sunshine and in cold—Woodsorrel and crocus—Foxglove—Leaves and light—Adventures of a carbon atom—The sap—Cabbages and oaks requiring water—Traveller's tree—The water in trees—An oasis in Greece—The associate life of its trees and flowers. W HEN we remember either the general appearance or the way in
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CHAPTER II ON SAVAGES, DOCTORS, AND PLANTS
CHAPTER II ON SAVAGES, DOCTORS, AND PLANTS
Savages knew Botany—First lady doctors and botanical excursions—True drugs and horrible ornaments—Hydrophobia cure—Cloves—Mustard—Ivy—Roses and Teeth—How to keep hair on—How to know if a patient will recover—Curious properties of a mushroom—The Scythian lamb—Quinine: history and use—Safflower—Romance of ipecacuanha—Wars of the spice trade—Cinnamon, dogwood, and indigo—Romance of pepper—Babylonian and Egyptian botanists—Chinese discoveries—Theophrastus—Medieval times—The first illustrated book—Nu
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CHAPTER III A TREE'S PERILOUS LIFE
CHAPTER III A TREE'S PERILOUS LIFE
Hemlock spruce and pine forests—Story of a pine seedling—Its struggles and dangers—The gardener's boot—Turpentine of pines—The giant sawfly—Bark beetles—Their effect on music—Storm and strength of trees—Tall trees and long seaweeds—Eucalyptus, big trees—Age of trees—Venerable sequoias, oaks, chestnuts, and olives—Baobab and Dragontree—Rabbits as woodcutters—Fire as protection—Sacred fires—Dug-out and birch-bark canoes—Lake dwellings—Grazing animals and forest destruction—First kind of cultivatio
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CHAPTER IV ON FORESTS
CHAPTER IV ON FORESTS
The forests of the Coal Age—Monkey-puzzle and ginkgo—Wood, its uses, colour, and smell—Lasting properties of wood—Jarrah and deodar—Teak—Uses of birch—Norwegian barques—Destruction of wood in America—Paper from wood pulp—Forest fires—Arid lands once fertile—Britain to be again covered by forests—Vanished country homes—Ashes at farmhouses—Yews in churchyards—History of Man versus Woods in Britain. W HAT was the first tree like? That is a very difficult question to answer. Perhaps the first forest
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CHAPTER V FLOWERS
CHAPTER V FLOWERS
Man's ideas of the use of flowers—Sprengel's great discovery—Insects, not man, consulted—Pollen carried to set seed—Flowers and insects of the Whinstone Age—Coal Age flowers—Monkey-puzzle times—Chalk flowers—Wind-blown pollen—Extravagant expenditure of pollen in them—Flower of the pine—Exploding flowers—Brilliant alpines—Intense life in flowers—Colour contrasts—Lost bees—Evening flowers—Humming birds and sunbirds—Kangaroo—Floral clocks—Ages of flowers—How to get flowers all the year round—Ingeni
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CHAPTER VI ON UNDERGROUND LIFE
CHAPTER VI ON UNDERGROUND LIFE
Mother-earth—Quarries and Chalk-pits—Wandering atoms—The soil or dirt—Populations of Worms, Birds, Germs—Fairy Rings—Roots miles long—How roots find their way—How they do the right thing and seek only what is good for them—Root versus stones—Roots which haul bulbs about—Bishopsweed—Wild Garlic—Dandelion, Plantain—Solomon's Seal—Roots throwing down walls—Strength of a seedling root. T HE word "Adam" means red earth. Poets and essayists still regularly write about Mother-Earth and, in so doing, ad
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CHAPTER VII HIGH MOUNTAINS, ARCTIC SNOWS
CHAPTER VII HIGH MOUNTAINS, ARCTIC SNOWS
The life of a cherry tree—Cherries in March—Flowering of gorse—Chickweed's descendants—Forest fires in Africa—Spring passing from Italy to the frozen North—Life in the Arctic—Dwarfs—Snow-melting soldanellas—Highland Arctic-Alpine plants—Their history—Arctic Britain—Edelweiss—An Alpine garden. I T is impossible to understand and very difficult to explain the sort of life and consciousness which is enjoyed by plants. That they do live is obvious; we know instinctively that they enjoy fine weather
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CHAPTER VIII SCRUB
CHAPTER VIII SCRUB
Famous countries which were covered by it—Trees which are colonizing the desert—Acacia scrub in East Africa, game and lions—Battle between acacia and camels, etc.—Australian half-deserts—Explorers' fate—Queen Hatasu and the first geographical expedition recorded—Frankincense, myrrh, gums, and odorous resins—Manna—Ladanum—Burning bush—Olives, oranges, and perfume farms—Story of roses—Bulgarian attar of roses—How pomade is made—Cutting down of forests and Mohammed. A scrub or Half-desert does not
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CHAPTER IX ON TEA, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, AND TOBACCO
CHAPTER IX ON TEA, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, AND TOBACCO
English tea-drinking—Story of our tea—Assam coolies—Manufacture in India and China—Celestial moisture—Danger of tea—The hermit and his intelligent goat—Government, coffee and cafés—Chicory—Chocolate—Aztecs—Kola and its curious effects—Tobacco—Sir Walter Raleigh—Great emperors and tobacco—Could we grow tobacco?—Story of a Sumatra cigar—Danger of young people smoking tobacco. O N every day throughout the year English people drink about 600,000 lb. of tea. That is about 270 tons, which would form,
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CHAPTER X ON DESERTS
CHAPTER X ON DESERTS
What are deserts like?—Camel-riding—Afterglow—Darwin in South America—Big Bad Lands—Plants which train themselves to endure thirst—Cactus and euphorbia—Curious shapes—Grey hairs—Iceplant—Esparto grass—Retama—Colocynth—Sudden flowering of the Karoo—Short-lived flowers—Colorado Desert—Date palms on the Nile—Irrigation in Egypt—The creaking Sakkieh—Alexandria hills—The Nile and Euphrates. A CROSS the whole of Africa, at its very broadest part, from the dominions of the Emperor of the Sahara at Cape
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CHAPTER XI THE STORY OF THE FIELDS
CHAPTER XI THE STORY OF THE FIELDS
What was Ancient Britain?—Marshes and bittern—Oak forest—Pines—Savage country—Cornfield—Fire—Ice—Forest—Worms—Paleolithic family—The first farmers—Alfred the Great's first Government agricultural leaflet—Dr. Johnson—Prince Charlie's time—Misery of our forefathers—Oatmeal, milk, and cabbages—Patrick Miller—Tennyson's Northern Farmer —Flourishing days of 1830 to 1870—Derelict farmhouses and abandoned crofts—Where have the people gone?—Will they come back? W HEN the eyes of man first beheld Britain
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CHAPTER XII ON PLANTS WHICH ADD TO CONTINENTS
CHAPTER XII ON PLANTS WHICH ADD TO CONTINENTS
Lake Aral and Lake Tschad—Mangrove swamps of West Africa—New mudbanks colonized—Fish, oysters, birds, and mosquitoes—Grasping roots and seedlings—Extent of mangroves—Touradons of the Rhone—Sea-meadows of Britain—Floating pollen—Reeds and sedges of estuarine meadows—Storms—Plants on ships' hulls—Kelps and tangles in storms—Are seaweeds useless?—Fish. T HE way in which the savage, rugged, inhospitable Britain of the Ice Age changed into our familiar peaceful country formed the subject of the last
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CHAPTER XIII ROCKS, STONES, AND SCENERY
CHAPTER XIII ROCKS, STONES, AND SCENERY
An old wall—Beautiful colours—Insects—Nature's chief aim—Hard times of lichens—Age of lichens—Crusts—Mosses—Lava flows of great eruptions—Colonizing plants—Krakatoa—Vesuvius—Greenland volcanoes—Sumatra—Shale-heaps—Foreigners on railway lines—Plants keep to their own grounds—Precipices and rocks—Plants which change the scenery—Cañons in America. A T first sight, and when one is striding along at some four miles an hour, there seems to be nothing at all interesting in an old wall. But if one stops
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CHAPTER XIV ON VEGETABLE DEMONS
CHAPTER XIV ON VEGETABLE DEMONS
Animals and grass—Travellers in the elephant grass—Enemies in Britain—Cactus versus rats and wild asses—Angora kids v. acacia—The Wait-a-bit thorn—Palm roots and snails—Wild yam v. pig—Larch v. goat—Portuguese and English gorse—Hawthorn v. rabbits—Briers, brambles, and barberry—The bramble loop and sick children or ailing cows—Briers of the wilderness—Theophrastus and Phrygian goats—Carline near the Pyramids—Calthrops—Tragacanth—Hollies and their ingenious contrivances—How thorns and spines are
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CHAPTER XV ON NETTLES, SENSITIVE PLANTS, ETC.
CHAPTER XV ON NETTLES, SENSITIVE PLANTS, ETC.
Stinging nettles at home and abroad—The use of the nettle—Sham nettles—Sensitive plants—Mechanism—Plants alive, under chloroform and ether—Telegraph plant—Woodsorrel—Have plants nerves?—Electricity in the Polar regions—Plants under electric shocks—Currents of electricity in plants—The singing of trees to the electro-magnetic ear—Experiments—Electrocution of vegetables. T HE common nettle is one of our most interesting British plants. It is exposed to great danger; one sees it growing not only in
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CHAPTER XVI ON FLOWERS OF THE WATER
CHAPTER XVI ON FLOWERS OF THE WATER
The first plant—Seaweeds in hot baths—Breaking of the meres—Gory Dew—Plants driven back to the water—Marsh plants—Fleur-de-lis—Reeds and rushes—Floating islands—Water-lilies— Victoria regia —Plants 180 feet deep—Life in a pond, as seen by an inhabitant—Fish-farming—The useful Diatom—Willows and Alders—Polluted streams—The Hornwort—The Florida Hyacinth—Reeds and Grass-reeds—The richest lands in the world—Papyrus of Egypt—Birds and hippopotami—Fever and ague. W HAT was the first green plant? When
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CHAPTER XVII ON GRASSLANDS
CHAPTER XVII ON GRASSLANDS
Where is peace?—Troubles of the grass—Roadsides—Glaciers in Switzerland—Strength and gracefulness of grasses—Rainstorms—Dangers of drought and of swamping—Artificial fields—Farmer's abstruse calculations—Grass mixtures—Tennis lawns—The invasion of forest—Natural grass—Prairie of the United States, Red Indian, Cowboy—Pampas and Gaucho—Thistles and tall stories—South Africa and Boers—Hunting of the Tartars—An unfortunate Chinese princess—Australian shepherds. W HERE should one seek for peace on ea
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CHAPTER XVIII POISONS
CHAPTER XVIII POISONS
Poisoned arrows—Fish poisons—Manchineel—Curare—A wonderful story—Antiaris—Ordeals—The Obi poison—Oracles produced by poisons—Plants which make horses crazy and others that remove their hair—Australian sheep and the Caustic Creeper—Swelled head—Madness by the Darling Pea—Wild and tame animals, how they know poisons—How do they tell one another?—The Yew tree, when is it, and when is it not poisonous? E VEN to-day all embryo chemists and doctors are required to "pass" in the recognition of the more
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CHAPTER XIX ON FRUITS
CHAPTER XIX ON FRUITS
Bright colours of fruits—Unripe fruits and their effects—An intemperate Fungus—Oranges—Prickly pear and the monkey—Strong seeds—Bill-of-fare of certain birds—A wood-pigeon and beans—Ants and seeds—Bats, rats, bears, and baboons—The rise in weight of a Big Gooseberry—Mr. Gideon and the Wealthy Apple—Crossing fruits—Breadfruit and banana—Dates—Figs—Olives—Pineapples by the acre—Apples and pears—Home and Canadian orchards. A T Christmas time and during late autumn, there is but little colour in the
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CHAPTER XX WANDERING FRUITS AND SEEDS
CHAPTER XX WANDERING FRUITS AND SEEDS
Ships and stowaway seeds—Tidal drift—Sheep, broom, migrating birds—Crows and acorns—Ice—Squirrels—Long flight of birds—Seeds in mud—Martynia and lions—The wanderings of Xanthium—Cocoanut and South Sea Islands—Sedges and floods—Lichens of Arctic and Antarctic—Manna of Bible—The Tumble weeds of America—Catapult and sling fruits—Cow parsnips—Parachutes, shuttlecocks, and kites—Cotton—The use of hairs and wings—Monkey's Dinner-bell—Sheep-killing grasses. T HE ways in which fruits and seeds are scatt
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CHAPTER XXI STORY OF THE CROPS
CHAPTER XXI STORY OF THE CROPS
Bloated and unhealthy plants—Oats of the Borderers, Norsemen, and Danes—Wheat as a wild plant—Barley—Rye—Where was the very first harvest?—Vine in the Caucasus—Indians sowing corn—Early weeds—Where did weeds live before cultivation?—Armies of weeds—Their cunning and ingenuity—Gardeners' feats—The Ideal Bean—Diseased pineapples—Raising beetroot and carrot—Story of the travels of Sugar-cane—Indian Cupid—Beetroot and Napoleon. I T is difficult to understand the amount of labour and toil that has be
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CHAPTER XXII PLANTS AND ANTS
CHAPTER XXII PLANTS AND ANTS
Meaning of Plant Life—Captive and domesticated germs—Solomon's observations denied by Buffon but confirmed by recent writers—Ants as keepers and germinators of corn—Ant fields—Ants growing mushrooms—Leaf-cutting ants—Plants which are guarded by insects—The African bush—Ants boarded by Acacias and by Imbauba trees—Ants kept in China and Italy—Cockchafer v. ant—Scale insects—A fungus which catches worms. T HE world of plants supports all animal life, from the mite to the elephant. There are most i
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CHAPTER XXIII THE PERIL OF INSECTS
CHAPTER XXIII THE PERIL OF INSECTS
The Phylloxera—French sport—Life history of the Phylloxera—Cockchafer grubs—Wireworm—The misunderstood crows—Dangerous sucklings of greenflies—"Sweat of heaven" and "Saliva of the stars"—A parasite of a parasite of a parasite—Buds—The apple-blossom weevil—Apple-sucker—The codlin moth and the ripening apple—The pear midge—A careless naturalist and his present of rare eggs—Leaf-miners—Birds without a stain upon their characters—Birds and man—Moats—Dust and mites—The homes of the mites—Buds, insect
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CHAPTER XXIV RUBBER, HEMP, AND OPIUM
CHAPTER XXIV RUBBER, HEMP, AND OPIUM
Effects of opium—The poppy-plant and its latex—Work of the opium-gatherer—Where the opium poppy is grown—Haschisch of the Count of Monte Cristo—Heckling, scotching, and retting—Hempseed and bhang—Users of haschisch—Use of india-rubber—Why plants produce rubber—With the Indians in Nicaragua—The Congo Free State—Scarcity of rubber—Columbus and Torquemada—Macintosh—Gutta-percha. S UPPOSING that in China or Japan you meet a native who shows the following symptoms:— (1) Eyes hollow and surrounded by
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CHAPTER XXV ON CLIMBING PLANTS
CHAPTER XXV ON CLIMBING PLANTS
Robin-run-the-Hedge—Bramble bushes—Climbing roses—Spiny, wiry stems of smilax—The weak young stem of a liane—The way in which stems revolve—The hop and its little harpoons—A climbing palm—Rapidity of turners—The effect of American life on them—Living bridges—Rope bridges in India—The common stitchwort—Tendrils—Their behaviour when stroked or tickled—Their sensibility—Their grasping power—The quickness with which they curve and their sense of weight—Charles Darwin—Reasonableness of plants—Corkscr
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CHAPTER XXVI PLANTS WHICH PREY ON PLANTS
CHAPTER XXVI PLANTS WHICH PREY ON PLANTS
The kinds of cannibals—Bacteria—Spring flowers—Pale, ghostly Wood-flowers—Their alliance with fungi—Gooseberries growing on trees—Orchid-hunting—The life of an orchid—The mistletoe—Balder the Beautiful—Druids—Mistletoe as a remedy—Its parasitic roots—The trees it prefers—The Cactus Loranthus —Yellow Rattle and Eyebright, or Milk-thief, and their root-suckers—Broomrape and toothwort—Their colour and tastes—The scales of the toothwort which catch animalcula—Sir Stamford Raffles—A flower a yard acr
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CHAPTER XXVII PLANTS ATTACKING ANIMALS
CHAPTER XXVII PLANTS ATTACKING ANIMALS
Brittle Star v. algæ—Fungus v. meal-worm—Stag-headed caterpillars—Liverwort v. small insects—Natural flower-pots—Watercups of Bromeliads—Sarracenia and inquiring insects—An unfortunate centipede—Pitcher-plants: their crafty contrivances—Blowflies defy them and spiders rob them—Bladderwort's traps which catch small fry—Hairs and their uses—Plants used as fly-papers—Butterwort v. midges—Its use as rennet—Sundew and its sensitive tentacles—Pinning down an insect—Suffocating and chloroforming the su
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CHAPTER XXVIII MOSSES AND MOORS
CHAPTER XXVIII MOSSES AND MOORS
Peat-mosses and their birds—Moorlands—Cotton-grass—Scotch whisky—Growth of peat-moss—A vegetable pump—Low-lying and moorland mosses—Eruptions and floods of peat—Colonizing by heather and Scotch fir—Peat-mosses as museums—Remains of children and troopers—Irish elk—Story of the plants in Denmark—Rhododendrons and peat—Uses of peat—Reclaiming the mosses near Glasgow. I N Great Britain in this present year one finds exceedingly few places where the influence of man cannot be traced. Over most of the
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CHAPTER XXIX NAMES AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XXIX NAMES AND SUPERSTITIONS
Giving names the first amusement—Curious and odd names—A spiteful naturalist—The melancholy Bartzia—Common names—British orchids—Dancing girls and columbines—Susans—Biblical names—Almond, apple, locust—Spikenard—Tares—Effects of darnel—Daffodil—Acanthus leaf—Ghost-disturbing branches—Elder or bour tree—Its powers and medicinal advantage—Danewort—Mandrake—How to pull it up—The insane root—Its properties—Plants which make bones pink—The betel nut—Henna—Egyptian and Persian uses—Castor oil—Leeks, o
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