A Laughing Plant.
This is not a flower that laughs, but one that creates laughter, if thfe printed stories of travellers are to be believed. Its grows in Arabia, and is called the plant, because its seeds produce effects like those produced by laughinggas. The flowers are of a bright yellow, and the seed-pods are soft and woolly, while the seeds resemble black beans, and only two or three grow in pod. The natives dry and pulyerise them ; and the powder, if taken in small does, makes the soberest person behave like a circus clown or a madman ; for he will dance, sing, and laugh, and cut the most fantastic capers, and be in an uproariously ridiculous condition for about an hour. When the excitement ceases, the exhausted exhibitor of these antics falls asleep ; and when he awakes he has not the slightest remembrance of his frisky doings.
— yick's Floral Magazine.'
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18851219.2.69
Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 1778, 19 December 1885, Page 27
Word Count
151A Laughing Plant. Otago Witness, Issue 1778, 19 December 1885, Page 27
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