INTERESTING TO KNOW THAT—

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 43, 20 February 1935, Page 20

INTERESTING TO KNOW THAT—

(Sent in by Clarice Rllcy, Thames Street, Ohakuno Junction.) In 1801 onlv 801b or cocoa was grown in the Gold Coast Territory of Africa, but that to-day something like 500,000,0001b is grown annually. All because a wise native brought cocoa seeds to his country in 1870. Howler monkeys inhabit tho tropical jungle of South America. Under favourable conditions their roar can be heard at a distance of more than two miles. They howl at the least disturbance, and a great deal of the time for no apparent reason at all. The females and young, led by a loud-voiced male, greet the coming of day in a combined chorus that makes the woods ring. "To beat about the bush" is a relic of the days of hawking, when men beat the bushes to drive out the birds. Large branches of trees arc sometimes broken off by the weight of thousands of locusts resting on them, and that, although locusts have plagued humanity for thousands of-years, no one has yet thought out a method of exterminating them. The name given to the continent of Europe means "broad-face" and referred to a wide plain, which is exactly what thia continent is. The name Brazil comes not from the nuts found in that country, but from a tree. The name comes from a Portuguese word, "braza," meaning "live coal," for not long after the country was discovered it was found to contain a wood which gave a ''"•'■fhfc red dye, and this was called brazil wood or "live coal" wood. The perfume of roses comes from within the petals. An oily chemical is manufactured within the tiny cells, and it is this oil that gives off the odour. But roses were not scented for the benefit of mankind. Mother Nature intended that the perfume should attract insects, and that the insects should fertilise the blossoms. —Copied.