THE RESURRECTION PLANT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 107, 27 June 1911, Page 6

THE RESURRECTION PLANT.

The resurrection plant, whose bont.iical name is “Anastatica,” is sometimes called “The Rose of Jericho, iso otner plant (says the “Scientific American”; lias been credited with so many extraordinary qualities, and none has been of greater service to quacks and charlatans over since its peculiarities wore discovered, it has 'been called “the resurrection plant” by reason of the fact that when apparently dead and dry it often assumes again the colour of life as soon ■as its root is plunged into water, its buds swell witn new life, the leaves of its calyx open, the petals unfold, inc flower stalk flow's, and the fullbloom fibwers appear as it by magic. ’ j i: is not, strictly speaking, a rose at ail ; the stem divides at tnc base and ;bears spikes of pretty white (lowers, which change' into round limits. When ripe the loaves, tail, the branches grow hard and dry, and fold inward so as in form a bail, in autumn the plant is unrooted by. the storms and carried tow aid the sea. '(lucre it is gathered and exported to Europe, where it is highly prized for its hyihometrie qualifies. All that is necessary is to place the end of its root in water, and soon the plant is seen to begin a now life, develop its parts and untold new roses. Alien the water is removed the spectator sees the magical plant grow- weak; its petals close and tiie loaves pass through the last agonies of vegetable life and die. The resurrection plant grows in the sandy regions of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, and lias long been connected in popular superstition with the Holy Land and the life of Jesus. In certain countries it is still believed that this remarkable flower blooms every year on the day and at the hour of the birth of Christ, and pious pilgrims still' report finding i+ at every spot where'-iV!ary' and Joseph rested on their flight into Egypt.