THE SKETCHED

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 1 March 1921, Page 51

THE SKETCHED

SOME PECULIAR PLANT PROPERTIES. SIDE-LIGHTS ON THEIR HABITS AND GROWTH. By Herbert Mace, in the World’s Work. It is fairly generally conceded to-day that the forms of plants are intimately connected with the possibilities of their survival or propagation. Thorns, spines, and prickles, for example, are found commonly on plants whicH, growing in places where all herbage is scanty, would, infallibly be devoured but for some such protection. Plants living in sandy wastes and deserts are notorious for tne extraordinary nature of their armament, and the connection is so obvious that it could scarcely be disputed. Ihe immense variety 7 in form and colour of flowers the generative organs of plants, it should always be remembered —is also bound up in the most indissoluble manner with the problem of survival. Plants which, owing to extraordinarily prolific production of the pollen or fertilising material, may safely trust to the normal distribution of it by the atmosphere for adequate seed, have very insignificant flowers, mostly of pale green or yellow shades and often without anything distinctive in the way of petals to cause them to stand out from tneir surroundings. On the other hand, entomophiius flowers —flowers in which insects play an essential part in propagating - lUave unbounded variety of form and colour, besides displaying other pronounced properties to attract insects. Of these properties nectar is the most universal and remarkable. It is probably the most nutritious and digestible of all foods, and insects of the most varied orders and diverse modes of life make it a staple diet. In providing that the visits of insects to their nectaries shall not be without benefit to themselves, flowers have developed the most wonderful and striking forms. Most of these forms are directed to securing that insects shall not gain access to the nectar without coming into contact, in the one case, with the male organs, by which they are unconsciously dusted with the pollen, or, in the other, with the female organs, to which they, in turn, transfer it. With these ordinary forms, interesting though they are, we cannot deal, and it is rather to the apparently contradictory forms that special attention is directed. The strangest of these variations is the secretion of poisonous nectar. It would appear to be, according to our present information, inimical to the best interests of the plant. Indeed, so unusual is the feature that even plants of which the roots, leaves, and fruit are poisonous, such as the Belladonna, produce harmless nectar. The most notorious plant with poisonous nectar is the Azalea pontica, iound in Asia Minor, which proves fatal to many bees and other insects. Another plant which bears a bad reputation amongst beekeepers on this account is the common yellow jasmine. Apart from these cases, in which the honey appears always to be poisonous, certain plants which yield ordinarily a wholesome nectar appear at times to develop poisonous properties. The most noticeable of these is the lime, a tree greatly favoured by insects of various orders and worked very freely by bees. From time to time instances are reported of heaps of dead bees, both of the hive species and the wild humble bees, founc in great numbers under the flowering i limes. Possibly some climatic condition; may be responsible for this singular effecl of 'what appears ordinarily a perfectly wholesome nectar. While on the subject of nectar, the ' species of the genus Protea, South Afn can plants of great beauty, may be men [ t-ioned as remarkable for the enormom : amount of honey secreted by them. Ii Protea mellifera, the amount secreted i so great that the natives collect it witl a small spoon, and when the flow is a 1 its best have no difficulty in gettinj t enough for a meal in this manner. . —Strange Devices for Catching Insects.— ’ The pollen of flowers is usually of ; ? dry, dust-like nature, and although cling ing to the hair of bees and other insect as any similar material would do, i readily detachable by contact, to permi ? of its ready transference to the flowe " which is to'be fertilised by it. Hence singular exception is worthy of notice It occurs in the Asclepias or milkweeds and has been specially remarked of As clepias syriaca. In this plant the grains of pollen ai packed into a mass, enclosed in a kind < bag. These hags are united in pairs b a hue thread, in the centre of which is a sticky gland. When collecting polle a from these plants, bees frequently fin is themselves entangled in it, sometimes s 3- hopelessly so as to die. The same resu is produced in another way by the Brist n foxtail grass, the spikelets of which a ' surrounded by strong curved bristles, which the legs of bees visiting the flowe lc | for the purpose of obtaining pollen a to caught and securely held, ill Devices for catching insects are commi e among plants of many orders. Perha ie the most familiar of these are the Silen )n or catchflv plants, which bear their flowe Llt on long slender branching stems. At t n ' base of these stems is a hand of vise , u substance, varying in extent according i r . the species, which effectively captures a lie insects attempting to crawl up the sten re The generally accepted object of tl re sticky band is to prevent the access od small ground insects to the flowers, fr< mi which they would be able to rob t no honey without effecting the fertilising p ° l ' cess. It may also be that certain se< n k eating insects which bore into the c< ice sules are kept at bay by this device. More remarkable still are the pla:

which catch insects, not merely to protect c themselves from their unwanted atten- i tions, hut actually to use them as food— c in other words, carnivorous plants. c The common sundew, which is found i freely in our moorland districts, is the r most familiar of these. On the upper t part of the leaves of this plant grow t numerous glandular hairs, secreting a v viscid substance to which small insects c alighting on the leaf adhere. To ensure t further the security of the victim, the surrounding hairs curve'over towards the prisoner and enclose it in a kind of cage, where it remains until its life juices are absorbed by the plant. { An even more remarkable insect-eating , plant is the Dionea, or Venus’s flytrap, a 1 North American species a few times re- t moved from the sundew in relationship. In Dionea the leaves are composed of i two semi-ovals, which aTe hinged on their < straight sides to the midrib. The outer ] edge of the leaf is furnished with stiff c spines, while in the centre of each half are three glandular hairs of the same nature as those of the sundew. On these hairs being touched, the two halves of the leaf close in an upward direction and, aided by the spines on the edges, securely hold any intruder. As in the sundew, a digestive fluid removes the juices of the insect, after which the two halves open once more in readiness for further victims. —Flowers that Open at Night.— Another departure from the general rule which is intimately associated with the visits of insects to flowers is the opening of certain blossoms at night. Ordinarily speaking, a flower appears to expand more or less in accordance with the amount of sunshine, giving rise to the impression that the sun directly causes the expansion. In view of numerous cases of an entirely contrary nature, it may be doubted whether this is really the case. The opening of the greater number of flowers during bright sunshine may be merely coincidental and consequent upon the fact that it is ill bright sunshine that the majority of insects are abroad, for it 's obvious that it would he useless for an entomophilous flower to be open when insects are not flying. —Reversal in Order of Growth.— As instances showing the contrary action, the evening primrose only opens its yellow blossoms after the sun fias gone down, the nicotianas and the night-scented stock expand their petals after dark, the silenes and the Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon open in the early morning and close before midday. In each of these cases it has been definitely shown that the time of opening is connected with the habits of some special insect, which chooses that particular hour for its wanderings. Th is the campions are specially associated with a group of night-flying moths, while only certain long-tongued moths, common to their native habitats, are able to gather the honey from the tubular flowers of the tobaccos, and thus visit them regularly and effect their fertilisation. Similarly, the scent of many flowers remains entirely dormant till evening, when their rich fragrance pours out on the night air and attracts the insect crowds to the feast of nectar. It is natural to suppose that the stem of a plant appears above ground first followed bv leaves, and finally flowers and fruit, and in a thousand instances this is the case. It is so much the case, in fact, that the uninitiated fail entirely to connect certain flowers with thp leaves which appear later in the season. The coltsfoot pushes up its flower stem in March, and scarcely a trace of this flower stem is left when the large, coarse leaves appear above the surface. The butterbur, again, well known by its giant leaves, somewhat resembling rhubarb, is familiar as a ditch-side plant throughout the summer, but the pale yellow flowers, which come very early in the season, are known to few. —Poisonous Properties of Plants. — Very’ remarkable indeed are the effects produced by some of the properties of plants upon hunian beings. Apart from ; the more virulent and fatal poisons, there ’ is an almost limitless list of chemical sub- , stances having direct effect upon various > parts and organs of the human body. ’ Alcohol very widely prevalent in the plant world, but especially 7 associated with the vine ; nicotine, present in tobacco 1 plants to the extent of as much as 5 per cent.; iodine, a drug singularly powerful 5 in its application to human needs; and 3 opium, obtained from popies, the effect 1 of which on the mental faculties is well L ’ known. All these are familiar, but none 1 the less extraordinary, properties of wellknown plants. > Less known are the strange effects produced bv a species of fungus not uncommon in some of our English woods. This ® is the Fly Agaric, or amanita, which, if * eaten in the ordinary way 7, is exceedingly y poisonous, and has often proved fatal. s But in Asiatic Russia this fungus is commonly used to produce a form of intoxid cation, being dried, and swallowed like a ° pill. ■- Not only are the ordinary symptoms of y drunkenness, such as giddiness and hilae rity, produced, but the victim loses al n sense of proportion, a trifling object being ;s magnified to an extraordinary degree ' e Wild, ecstatic dancing is indulged in, am after perhaps a whole day of these pre 111 sumablv pleasant sensations, a final stupo: ,s is produced. ;s A strange thing in connection with thi: rs substance is that the urine of a victin le intoxicated in this manner appears to re fain all the original properties of th k° fungus. >y Users of this evil stuff have been know: to shut themselves up, and, with only 1,8 few of the fungi to start with, to indulg in a week of this grossly depraved dc ™ bauchery. , 0 _ —lnflammable Vapours.— d- Volatile vapours are often produced i ,p- plants in great abundance. The powerft aroma of such flowers as lilies, violets, an its lavender, which can often be produce

ontinuously over a long period, even fhen the plants have, apparently, been ompletely dried up, is sufficient evidence >f this, but perhaps the limit is reached a a plant which grows in the Mediteranean region. Overpoweringly strong is he scent from this flower, known as Dicamnus fraxinella, and the amount of r apour produced is so great that in still, Iry weather the atmosphere surrounding he plant becomes inflammable. JAPAN’S NEW RELIGION. When a nation is ripe for a new religion, he new revelation is likely to he at hand, rapan, like many other countries in these roublous after-war years, is said to be bowing signs of religious restlessness. L’wo Shinto sects of comparatively recent irigin are growing at the expense of ilder branches of the national faith. And low comes another offshoot of Shintoism lulled Omoto-Kyo, which may be transated as the religion of the Great Foundation or the Fundamental Faith. Since the war, according to Dr Edwin E. Slosson, who writes about the new Japanese religion in the Independent, it has been gaining ground rapidly in spite of the efforts of the Government to suppress it. Indeed, he says, “if the Japanese Government will only persecute it long enough to solidify 7 the new sect in common defence, it may become a power in the world.” In being originated by a woman, in its emphasis on faith-healing, and in its effective use of printing—it has a monthly organ and a daily newspaper which aims at journalistic perfection—it bears a certain resemblance to the Christian Science movement in this country. Among other characteristics of the new sect are communism, millenarianism, mysticism, and patriotism. The romantic story of the origin of Omoto-Kyo is related by Dr Slosson as follows: “In the village of Ayabe, 50 miles from Kyoto, in the province of Tamba, there lived a poor ragpicker called O Nao Baasan, or Old Woman Nao. She was the widow of a drunken carpenter named Masagoro Debuchi, who had left her with no property but with eight children to support. All day long she wandered about the village gathering up scraps of rags and paper to get food for her family, but never failed to pray in the Shinto shrine morning and night. Her piety was at length rewarded, for on New Year’s Day, 1892, she became imbued with the spirit of Kuni-toko-tachi, the Earth God of Shintoism. She straightway began to prophesy, shouting unintelligible warnings to people she passed on the street. Although almost illiterate, she scribbled her revelations on the walls of buildings and such bits of white paper as she could find. People called her crazy, and paid no attention to her forebodings of fires and wars. She proclaimed to her neighbours that Ayabe was built upon holy ground, and that unless they evacuated the village a mighty conflagration would sweep all their homes. This prophecy came true, but the sceptical police simply arrested her for incendiarism on the supposition that she had furnished the fulfilment of her own prophecy. She was imprisoned for a time, and later turned over to her relatives on .condition that they keep her safely locked up. This they did, and the room in which she lived until she died, in 1918, is known as Zashiki Ro, the Parlor Prison, now . sacred shrine. To the end of her life she kept busily writing, and her visions fill 10*000 volumes of manuscript, according ti her followers, though the critics of the cult sav there were fewer than 3000 volumes originally. Much of . the manuscript is illegible, and much of what can be deciphered is incomprehensible, but her disciples read into it or out of it messages of marvellous import, The writings of the Mother Founder form the Bible of the new faith, and are known as ‘ O Fude Saki,’ or the ‘Flourish of the Honourable Brush.’ In these she is said to have prophesied the wars of Japan with China in 1895 with Russia in 1905, and with Germany in 1914. But the Kyoto police claim that they compelled Deguchi, the high priest of the cult, to confess on crossexamination that most of the manuscript was written after these events instead of before.” No part of the sacred hook, so far as the writer in the Independent knows, has been vet translated into English. But piecing together such fragments of the teachings as he can find, he gives us this summary of the new gospel: “The world is on the eve of blossoming like the plum-flower. One of the great gods shall soon appear in person, welcomed bv blooming flowers and evergreen pines, and he shall reign over the whole earth and bring it peace. Japan is a divine ecuntrv, and must he divinely ruled. Foreign countries are under the control of beastly devils in human form. Even Japan has now become a land of beasts. This dirty world must be cleansed and made fit 'to be the abode of the gods. Occidental civilisation is based upon individualism—that is to say, selfishness. All its literature and moral codes are inspired bv selfishness. It has stolen society and stolen the State, and would steal the world and the universe itself. All this must be destroyed by the abolition of individualism. The people of the world are clamouring for reform, but re- [ form is onlv the reform of formality. Such reform is like a hous built on the sand. The reform designed by our gods is the reform of man himself.” ; The Omoto cult has it organiser and its i theologian as well as its prophet. The first-named is found in O Nao’s son-in- - law. Ue was trained for the Shinto priesthood. and it is said to he due to his r ability in practical affairs that the Socialistic colony at Ayabe has been a success. e The chief theologian of the new sect is Dr Asano, formerly instructor in English in a naval engineering school who is developing and systematising the revelations of the founder. His brother, Vice-Admiral n Asano, has joined him in the colony and il brought with him many retired naval and d military men. The followers of Omotod Kvo, we read, are looking for a day of

judgment, which, “according to the Honorable Brush of O Nao, is due in 1922.” When the great dhy conies ‘‘only the rock that supports the sacred district of Tamlia shall remain secure and tlie chosen remnant who have gathered in this city of refuge will repopulate and regenerate the world.” i>r biosson continueo : ‘‘Suite these will pretun.iably be all •Japanese, 'this doctrine connects the new cult with the parental Shintoism, which is essentially a religion of patriotism. Omo*to-Kyo then appears as an imperialistic socialism, and as such appeals both fB the soldier and the workman. The Japanese Government is much alarmed over the spread of these doctrines in the army and is taking stringent measures to suppress the propaganda. General Nagasaka, commander of the military police, says : ‘lt appears true that the number is growing among both the men and the officens, mostly those upon the reserve list, who are becoming tainted with the hideous doctrine of the Omoto-Kyo.’ . . . “The Omoto cult regards money as the root of all evil and denies the right of private property. Like the early Christians they hold all things in common. Land is divided up between the families somewhat as was done by the Mormons at. Salt Lake. The villages are neatly kept and the hills are . adorned with tasteful temples surrounded by trees and flowers that promise to make Ayabe a rival in beauty to the theosophical community of the Purple Mother at Point Lorca. Every day is Friday for the followers of OmotoKyo, eince they never eat flesh, but only fish. Prayer is substituted for medicine. Disease is believed to be caused by evil spirits in the form of animals, generally a fox, a serpent, or a dog, but the malignant obsession may be expelled by divine power. “Like the Perfectionists of the Oneida Community the disciples of Omoto-Kyo hold that one may attain to a sinless state even in this life, and, like mystics of all faiths, they believe that those who are sufficiently pure and devout may in .a state of trance gain the power to see and hear divine beings. The gods reveal themselves to the seers of Omoto-Kyo in the grotesque form with which they have been clothed by the oriental imagination These are the gods of the dragon, because they are dearest to the earth of all the gods.” With all their mysticism, the leaders of this sect are up 1 to date and practical enough to make good use of the press. We read in The Independent:— “Besides books and its monthly religious organ, Omoto Jilro, the publication department issues in Osaka an evening paper, the Taislio Nichi-niclii, which, if it keeps to its promise, will Tival The Christian Science Monitor in the extent aVid completeness of its news.” DREAD OF BECOmMQ A MILLIONAIRE. “Mr Austin Hopkinson, M.P. for Mossley, who recently told the House of Commons that in no circumstances should the ‘appalling fate of becoming a millionaire ever overtake him, has offered Iris residence, Rycroft- Hail, to the ratepayers of Audenshaw free of any condition, with three acres of freehold land,” says the Chronicle. “He suggests that the Hall would provide a dignified council chamber ; the rest of the buildings could be used by clubs and societies for social functions, while the ballroom could become a source of revenue. The gardens include a bowling green and five tennis courts. The gift is yalued at about £20,000. “ I expect to make further gifts of land and property during the next few years,’ he says, ‘if this is found beneficial to the district where I hope to live for the rest of my life.’ Mr Hopkinson is a bachelor, and intends to live in a bungalow, which he is building near the Hall. “During the war he fought' first as a cavalry officer, and after being discharged unfit, joined up again, and was a private when elected M.P. “Mr Hopkinson is a self-made man. and worked in a coal mine, and as an engineer until he invented the coal-cutting machine which has, made his fortune. “The profit-sharing scheme which he has introduced at the Delta Engineering Works is his safeguard against the fate of becoming a millionaire, which he dreads. ”