IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE.
“CAMELS” IN PLANT KINGDOM. When it comes to living without water, there are “camels” of the plant kingdom as well as of the animal kingdom, says Dr. F. L. Pickett, of the botany department of Washington State College. He has discovered ferns and mosses in the semi-arid region of the Northwest that will live indefinitely without moisture. While the ordinary plant will not grow without at least a 4 or 5 per cent, moisture content, these ferns and mosses may have their water content reduced to one-tenth of 1 per cent, and live in this condition indefinitely. “Some of these plants, known to have been kept between the leaves of a folder in a perfectly dry state for seven years, began to grow when water was applied,” Dr. Pickett said. "There is also a wild onion growing in thia section of the country which conserves its water supply through the dry season by means of‘a corky layer on the outside of the bulb.” Dr. Pickett has made an exhaustive study of the adaptation of plant to conditions of extreme desication.
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Southland Times, Issue 21195, 23 September 1930, Page 8
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185IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE. Southland Times, Issue 21195, 23 September 1930, Page 8
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