The Devil Plant of Mississipi.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4855, 20 January 1894, Page 6

The Devil Plant of Mississipi.

«. {Philadelphia Times.) There has recently appeared in this vicinity a most peculiar growth, known as the " devil plant," which is so deadly as to i render all insect life and vegetation in its neighbourhood lifeless. It ia most innocent in appearance, being of a tender green, clinging close to the earth, and sprinkled with small red bloEsomß, cupBhaped, and holding in their near ta a eingle drop of moisture. Ifc ia in this singular dew, which tho eun ha3 no power to dispel, that the plant's moßt blighting influence ia said to lie. Bees by the hundreds have been found dead in the blosßoms. Indeed, tha hiveß of the neighbourhood are nearly depopulated by the noxious flowers. A gentleman who is noted as a botanist in these parfc3 taated this dew, and declared that it -was of a sickening sweetness, without odour, and viscid like liquid gum. It was allowed to dwell on his tongue, which soon began to burn him so as to iaige a blister, and the member swelled up and became discoloured and very painful. Tho bees have not been the only sufferers by this growth, bub every insect approaching it seems to become paralysed, and after a beat or two of the wings above thiß creeping upas drops dyinpr among its cruel leaves. Cattle which have eaten of it dio in a few hours ia the greatest agony with a eort of exaggerated tetanus, the skin drawn tense, and the eyes protruding from the head. All ordinary remedies fail to restore one in these attacks. Vegetation also seems to shun the " devil plant," and whole traots of meadow are now lying ecorched and dead from the insidious j approach of this unknown growth. Under ■ the microscope the leaves exhibit innumer- | able little mouths, or suckers, of such tenacity as to sting the hand on which j the leaf is laid, leaving a dull, red mark, j like the wound of a scorpion. The people | of the vicinity eay this plant is the forerunner of disaster, it having made previous appearances just before the outbreak of tha war and on each occasion of the ooming of yellow fever. An effort has been made to bum it out, but, protected by ita singular daw, this has failed. The dead bodies of cattle which have died o£ eating it, on being examined, show that j the digestive organs are swollen 'to four times their natural size, and look as if they had been burned; the heart is congested, and the : blood of a dark unusual tinge, with an j odour like benzoid. The plant is of rapid growth, covering acres in a few days, | requiring little hold, and going over every j obstacle in it3 way, the roots being of threadlike fineness, and extending only an inch or two below the surface of the ground, but exhibiting extraordinary tenacity once they seiza hold of a apot, enwraxming pebbles, old roots, &c, like clinging linger*.