MURDEROUS FLOWERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4307, 16 March 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

MURDEROUS FLOWERS.

SOME ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY ATTRACTIVE PLANTS. Professor Bottomley, in a recent lecture at the London Institution, mentioned the treacherous nature of ihc common arum lily, or cuckoo-pint, which,, after attracting flies by entertaining them upon the sweet pollen stored in its interior, imprisons them for the purpose of fertilisation. Sometimes when the flower withers the fly escapes alive, although intoxicated, but at others it dies in the clutch of the arum.

Death more certain is meted out to unhappy flies by the pitcher plant (Nephenthesm Dormaniaua), which offers to the insects a cool, refreshing drink, stored in the curious pitchershaped vessel which forms the bloom and gives the flower its name. Upon the invitation being accepted, the insect i.s drowned in the very liquid proffered to it as a beverage, and afterwards assimilated into the substance of the flower. This feat is very well imitated by another plant called Dioneo. muscipula (fly-catcher), and both of th«se may be seen committing their atrocities “in full working order” at Kew.

For wiping out the fly family, however, Rafflesia Arnold! has the biggest reputation. This plant has a largo crimson blossom, giving off the odour of carrion flesh, a perfume irresistible to any fly of taste. In this apparently delightful spot the confiding female deposits its eggs, and goes on its way rejoicing, only to 'find on returning that the rafflesia has dissolved the lot. In this way a single bloom will destroy hundreds of thousands of embryo flies in a year.

A plant which kills men who have known it all their lives is one that is found in thousands of gardens throughout the United Kingdom. This is the variety of ordinary, garden primula known as obconica, and many gardeners have met their deaths at its hands. When potting up this plant the experienced 'horticulturist usually wears gloves, for if there is the least scratch or thorn-pick on the fingers, and one of the leaves happen to touch it, bloodpoisoning is almost sure to follow. When erysipelas intervenes, which is by no means infrequently, it is usually fatal, as there 'appears to be no reliable cure for this disease when arising from such a cause. /

That of people die annually by indiscriminately eating berries and other tilings without any knowledge of their nature is, of course, a well-known fast, hut where the plant itself aids by masquerading under false pretences they are not so much to blame. This is the case with the aconite, which in appearance and flavour very much resembles the horseradish. Two women living in Bedford scraped and ate some of a root with their beef on New Year’s Eve in the belief that they were partaking of horseradish. It turned out to be aconite, and they both died shortly afterwards from the effects of the poison.

That the poppy will kill people who look at it seems rather a Munchausonliko statement to make, but it is, nevertheless, a true one. In Asiatic Tur. key and adjacent districts many huge fields of this flower are cultivated /for the manufacture of opium.. In such quantities the blooms give off ah odour which, although imperceptible to persons who are accustomed to it, is completely overpowering at first. So deadly is this odour that there are over one hundred cases in which visitors to these poppy farms, who have stopped too long to admire, have succumbed to its stupefying powers and .died 1 within a very short time.

In some parts of Southern China criminals are executed by a plant in a very curious way. On© of the numerous species of bamboo to bo found there grows very rapidly, often making as much growth as an. inch an hour. Over one of these plants the victim is bound and left until the bamboo'has sprung up and killed him by piercing his body, which is only a matter of a day or two. In Western Australia is a high kind of outspread oactus, called the ‘‘cannibal tree,” often twelve feet in height. This is said by travellers to have the power of dissolving men in the same way that a pitcher plant dissolves a fly. The extent of its powers has not yet been fully proved, but an unlucky dog, who was selected to undergo martyrdom in the cause of science, was completely assimilated.