WONDERS OF THE RESURRECTION PLANT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 13

WONDERS OF THE RESURRECTION PLANT.

FLOBAL CURIOSITIES. Enterprising florists are now attracting the attention of the public by displaying new and surprising specimens of the resurrection plant. What is generally known as the rose of Jericho, is, perhaps, the most widely known of these curiosities in plant life, and other varieties have recently been added to the list of rcsurreotion oddities. The rose of Jericho is said to be imported from the valley of tho river Jordan, and is the resurrection plant mentioned in the Bible. Tho plant, when received from its native home, is simply a bunch of leafless and seemingly lifeless sticks or brandies, clustered together tightly. When placed in a glass of water, however, the branches expand, seed buds unfold, and soon tho green foliage starts out, and the plant really

grows. The Mexican resurrection plant is the Huffy fem-liko variety often noticed in saucers of water in the florist's window. This delights the children, as the plant ia so quickly resurrected from a dry, hard ball to a green living plant. When it is dormant, it is a dry, shrunken, rounded ball of tightly folded leaflets, dry and dead. It is dropped in a bowl of tepid water, and soon ono frond-like tip curls slowly outward, then another and another, and in a short time there is floating in the dish a beautiful metallic-green plant; a great loose-expanded rosette of line fern-like leaves, odd and beautiful. This experiment can be repeated many times, the plant curling together tightly when dry and expanding into new life when soaked in water. The asteriscuspygniffius is the only resurrection plant that develops blossoms. In reality, it is tho blossom that is resurrected from a dry, hard, shelllike substance to a full-blown flower. The A dry sticks holding these buds are leafless, ■ and the whole affair seems insignificant, 1 dead and worthless, but when placed in " water the stems take on now life, the dead flower buds show signs of green, and soon the petals expand and display their fluffy centres. These three varieties of resurrection plants may be kept indefinitely and their strength does not seem in tho least exhausted by repeated l'CsnweciTOßS;" »» —rhUmbdphiu Rteord.