A REMARKABLE PLANT.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume X, Issue 944, 16 September 1891, Page 3

A REMARKABLE PLANT.

A. most remarkable plant, called the aqua bulbo or water-cask plant, has recently been described by an African traveller, who was accompanied by a chemist and a botanist. The little green creeping plant, which resemble? the common ground ivy m some respects, inhabits a region far from any stream of water, and where, as far as the eye can roach, nothing was to be seen but heaps of sand. The bota"ist of the company m examining one of these plant fonnd thus unexpectedly growing m the centre of a sandy African desert, no" ticed what he supposed was a green bulbous fruit growing under the thick leaves of the creeper, almost resting ur.,on the sand underneath. In making an effort to pluck one of these for preserva tion it burst with a sharp report throwing water m the face and over the clothes of the intruding nnt uralist. The chemist of the party analyse J the water found m some •■ t' the bulbs, and declared it to be as pure as distilled rain water. Each bulb or berry contained from about two to four tablespoonfuls of water. It is, therefore, not only a curious bat might prove a most useful plant to meet with while crossing the almost interminable sand plains m the deserts of Africa.