St. Bernard and the Newfoundland. Both of these, together with the
Spaniels, Setters and the sagacious Poodles make up the Spaniel group.
While as a class they are not remarkable for docility or endurance,
these defects are more than compensated by a superior intelligence,
fidelity, courage, keen scent and great speed. Much has been written
about the qualities of the Newfoundlands and St. Bernards. The first
are said to be the best of all water dogs, possessed of great beauty
and an exceptional fund of good nature, gentleness and gratitude.
The heroic deeds of the others are inseparably linked with their
native home, the Hospice of St. Bernard. The intelligence and courage
exhibited by these dogs among the avalanches and frozen wastes of their
mountain homes have given them a place in history and earned for them
the title of "The worthiest of them all."
The Setter, which is illustrated in this article, is an excellent type
of a certain class of the Spaniels. The animal is an excellent hunting
dog and gains its name from its habit of crouching close to the ground
when pointing game.
* * * * *
Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas to-night!
Christmas in lands of the fir-tree and pine,
Christmas in lands of the palm-tree and vine.
Christmas where snow-peaks stand solemn and white,
Christmas where corn-fields lie sunny and bright,
Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas to-night!
--Phillips Brooks, "A Christmas Carol."
A FAVORITE HAUNT.
Children, as a rule, especially those born and raised in the rural
districts, have some favorite haunt where they especially delight to
spend their time and where certain pleasant associations are formed,
the memory of which is treasured in after years.
The writer was no exception to this rule, and he will endeavor to
describe a certain "Deserted Limestone Quarry," which, in his case, was
the favorite haunt of childhood. A perusal of the following will give
my readers an idea of the general appearance of the locality. In the
center was a large body of deep water, bounded on three sides by steep
banks, interspersed with huge rocks and sandstone boulders. On the
fourth side was a cart road leading to the double stone lime kiln, then
out of use. The south bank was bordered by a piece of woodland, through
which ran a little rippling brook, and the other three sides by pasture
fields. Within the deep gulch, and extending around about two-thirds of
the body of water, was a combined cart road and pathway, at the extreme
end of which, lying under two large, overhanging rocks, was a spring
of most delicious water. It was quite deep, but you could see the
golden sand and white pebbles at the bottom very plainly. Hanging from
the banks above mentioned were numerous sumach bushes and blackberry
briars. Such were the natural surroundings of my favorite haunt. A
charming place, indeed; quiet, retired, and a veritable paradise for
the admirer of nature's beauties.
Now a few words regarding the many little friends with which I
associated, and whose habits and daily lives I studied. Within the
lime kiln a pair of Pewees built their nest; among the briars on the
bank, the Song Sparrows reigned; in the piece of woodland referred to
were the nests of a Green Heron, of Blue Jays, Crows, Cat Birds, Wood
Thrushes, Crested Flycatchers, etc. I also observed Belted Kingfishers
on many occasions, but never found a nest. Owing to the large number of
insects around the water the quarry was a favorite feeding ground for
King Birds, Pewees and Swallows, and they could be seen skimming over
the surface of the water from early dawn to the twilight of evening.
Aside from this large bird population, there were land and water
turtles, snapping turtles, frogs in all stages of transformation,
sun and catfish, many beautiful butterflies, and a family of little
gray rabbits. I had the pleasure of seeing the latter when they were
scarcely larger than small kittens. Along the borders of the woods were
gray squirrels, ground squirrels and ground hogs. Thus, in this one
particular, opportunity was afforded for the study of a large number
of natural history subjects. Here, too, was the pleasant odor of fresh
green spearmint and the sweet scent of wild roses. In the early spring
time a profusion of wild violets (blue and yellow), dog-tooth violets,
blood roots, spring beauties, anemones, "jack-in-the-pulpit," belwort
and hare-bell were to be found in the strip of woodland, and later in
the season the pasture fields were covered with buttercups and daisies.
Were all details entered into, a volume could be written concerning
this old quarry and the many happy hours spent there, but I will not
burden my readers with further reminiscences of my favorite haunt.
Berton Mercer.
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS.
This name has been given to certain plants which have developed the
curious habit of capturing insects and using them for food. This
behavior seems at first sight most unplantlike, but it is discovered
that the actual food of all plants is practically the same as that of
animals. The chief peculiarity of carnivorous plants, therefore, does
not lie in the food which they use, but in the methods which they have
worked out for securing it.
They are all green plants, and hence are able to make food for
themselves, but they live in surroundings which are poor in some of the
material which they need in the manufacture of food, so that they have
learned to supplement their food by capturing insects or other small
animals. When it was discovered that these plants not only captured
insects, but secreted substances for digesting them, it was thought to
be a very astonishing fact. It is found, however, that all plants have
digestive substances to act upon their food materials, and that animals
are not peculiar in this regard. It would seem, therefore, that the use
of such food as the bodies of insects and the digesting of this food
are not facts which are peculiar to carnivorous plants, but belong to
all plants as well.
It is interesting, however, to observe the various devices which plants
have adapted for capturing their prey, and it is these various devices
which form the subject of this paper.
Prominent among the carnivorous plants are the pitcher plants, whose
leaves form tubes, or urns, or pitchers of various forms, which contain
water, and to which insects are attracted and drowned. There is a very
common pitcher plant in our northern bogs, in whose urn-like leaves
insects are found drowned, but which does not have such elaborate
arrangements for their capture as other forms. Perhaps the most famous
of the pitcher plants is one which is common throughout the southern
states. The leaves are shaped like slender hollow cones, and rise
in a tuft from the swampy ground. The mouth of this conical urn is
overarched and shaded by a hood in which are translucent spots like
small windows. Around the mouth of the urn are glands which secrete a
sweet liquid, and drops of this nectar form a trail down the outside
of the urn. Inside, just below the rim of the urn, is a glazed zone
so smooth that insects cannot walk upon it. Below the glazed zone is
another zone thickly set with stiff downward-pointing hairs, and below
this is the liquid in the bottom of the urn. If a fly is attracted by
the nectar drops on this curious leaf, it naturally follows the trail
up to the rim of the urn where the nectar is abundant. If it attempts
to descend into the urn it slips on the glazed zone and falls into the
water; and if it attempts to escape by crawling up the side of the urn,
the thick-set, downward-pointing hairs prevent. If it seeks to fly away
from the rim it flies towards the translucent spots in the hood, which
look like the way of escape, as the direction of entrance is in the
shadow of the hood. Pounding against the hood the fly falls into the
water. This southern pitcher plant is known as a great fly catcher, and
is frequently used for this purpose in the south.
[Illustration: PITCHER PLANT.
(Nepenthes.)
PRESENTED BY LINCOLN PARK COMMISSIONERS.
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO.]
The very largest of the pitcher plants is one which grows in the swamps
of California, whose leaves sometimes become as much as two or three
feet high, the huge pitchers forming the most capacious receptacle for
insects of all kinds and sizes. Its general plan is like that of the
southern pitcher plant described above, in that it has an overarching
hood with translucent spots, and a trail of nectar which leads to
the dangerous rim. It has become further elaborated, however, in that
the hood extends into a gaudy fish-like appendage, whose colors and
flapping serve to attract the flying as well as the creeping insects.
The pitcher, also, instead of being straight, is spirally twisted, and
has a wing-like expansion which serves as a guide in the spiral ascent
to the rim, and leads the victim with definiteness and certainty to
the region of danger. The fish-tail appendage is also smeared with the
nectar secretion, so that any flying insect lighting upon it is enticed
under the overshadowing arch and is almost sure of capture.
The most common pitcher plants of the tropics are the Nepenthes, one
of which is shown in our illustration. It will be noticed that each
leaf when fully formed consists of three distinct regions, namely, the
leaf-like blade, which is continued into a tendril which coils around
a support, and the tendril in turn ends in a curiously-formed pitcher,
which has a more or less complete lid. These pitchers are often mottled
with bright colors, and as they swing at the ends of the tendrils
they seem to attract the attention of roving insects. Around the rim
of the pitcher a very definite row of glands may be observed, which
secrete the nectar to which the insects are attracted. The arrangements
within the pitcher are such as have been described for the ordinary
pitcher plant. These pitchers of Nepenthes are usually found containing
insects, and often very many of them, whose bodies are being slowly
digested and the products absorbed by the plant.
Another group of carnivorous plants consists of the sun-dews which
grow in swampy regions and are quite common in our sphagnum swamps.
While the pitcher plants depend upon luring insects to their death
by drowning, the sun-dews depend upon stickiness. The leaves form
small rosettes on the ground and are of various shapes. In one of the
most common forms the leaf blade is round, and the margin is beset by
prominent bristle-like hairs, each with a globular gland at its tip.
Shorter gland-bearing hairs are scattered over the inner surface of
the blade. All of these glands secrete a clear sticky fluid which
hangs to them in drops like dewdrops, and since these dewdrops are not
dispelled by the sun the plants have been called the sun-dews. If a
small insect, in flying or creeping across the plant, happens to touch
one of the sticky drops it becomes entangled, and then there follows
a curious scene. If the insect is small, the single bristle-like
hair, in whose sticky drop it has become entangled, will begin to
bend inwards and will finally press the captured insect down upon
the body of the leaf where the short glandular hairs receive it. If
the insect is strong enough, however, to escape from a single sticky
drop, neighboring hairs will bend toward the one which has captured
the insect, and by adding their mite of strength and glue, succeed in
detaining it until they all bend inwards and press it down upon the
leaf. In some cases the whole half of a leaf will roll inwards in this
attempt to secure an insect. In this position the captured insect is
gradually digested and its nutritive substances absorbed.
Perhaps the most famous and remarkable of the fly-catching plants
is the Venus fly-trap, known only in swamps near Wilmington, North
Carolina. This fly-trap does not depend upon drowning the insects, or
upon sticking them fast, but upon its quickness of movement. Of course
this seems most wonderful in plants, which are not ordinarily endowed
with powers of quick motion. Dionaea, for this is the name of the Venus
fly-trap, has a cluster of small leaves rising from the marshy ground,
just as is the case with pitcher plants and sun-dews. The lower part of
the leaf is like any ordinary blade, but above becomes pinched almost
in two, and then suddenly flares out again into a round blade-like
expansion which is constructed like a steel trap, the two halves
snapping together and the marginal bristles interlocking like the teeth
of a trap. A few sensitive hair-like feelers are developed on the leaf
surface, and when one of these is touched by a small flying or hovering
insect, the trap snaps shut and the insect is caught.
Many interesting experiments have been performed with Dionaea to show
its quickness and its recognition of suitable food material. For
example, although it will snap shut at the touch of a pencil point, or
any other indigestible substance, it soon opens again; while in the
case of a digestible substance the trap remains closed until digestion
has taken place. It has been claimed further that when the trap has
closed its bristles do not interlock closely at first, so that between
the crevices very small insects may crawl out and escape. In such an
event the trap opens again and waits for other prey. If this be true,
it follows that the leaf does not undertake the rather long process of
digestion until an insect of suitable size has been captured, one which
cannot escape through the meshes of the bristles. Digestion is slow
work with Dionaea as with an anaconda, being said to occupy not less
than two weeks.
Among the common marsh plants in certain regions are the bladderworts,
so-called because their bodies are kept afloat in water by means
of numerous little bladders. While these bladders are used in this
fashion, they also serve as most effective traps for certain very
small water animals related to the insects. Each bladder has a sort of
opening which is guarded by a door like that of an ordinary rat trap.
From the side of this entrance hairs are floating and waving in the
water, and within the transparent bladder are other waving tufts of
hairs. For some reason these things are attractive to the minute water
animals, and they push aside the easily-moved trap door, and entering
the bladder find escape impossible, for the door, which was easy to
push aside on entering, cannot possibly be moved outwards.
It must not be supposed that carnivorous plants are peculiar in the
kind of food they use, but merely in the source from which they obtain
it. There are other green plants which supplement their food supply
by preying upon other plants. For example, the mistletoe is able to
manufacture a certain amount of food for itself, but it adds to this
supply by absorbing prepared food from the trees upon which it grows.
The dodder is another illustration of a high grade plant which begins
life independently, but presently breaks its connection with the soil
and becomes entirely dependent upon the plants around which it twines
and from which it absorbs.
A great many plants are known as root-parasites, that is, they absorb
from the underground parts of other plants. This is notably the case
with the orchids and heaths, which have the appearance above ground of
being entirely independent, but which really are quite dependent upon
the underground parts of other plants.
One of the lowest groups of plants, known as the fungi, have cultivated
most completely the habit of dependence on other organisms. They attack
both plants and animals, and are often exceedingly destructive. Among
the better known of these parasites are the rusts, which attack and
destroy many of our most useful crops. To the fungi there also belong
the well-known bacteria, which are the cause of numerous contagious
diseases both among plants and animals. It will be observed that these
parasites are using exactly the same sort of food as do the carnivorous
plants. This does not appear so striking in this case, simply because
the attacking plants are so much smaller than the organisms attacked
that they do not seem to capture them, although they are often none the
less effective in destroying them.
John Merle Coulter.
MAPLE LEAVES.
October turned my maple's leaves to gold;
The most are gone now; here and there one lingers;
Soon these will slip from out the twig's weak hold,
Like coins between a dying miser's fingers.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
[Illustration: MANDRAKE.
FROM KOEHLER'S MEDICINAL PFLANZEN.
CHICAGO:
A. W. MUMFORD PUBLISHER.]
Description of Plate.--A, B, parts of the plant about natural size; 1,
flower bud; 2, flower; 3, stamens; 4, ovary; 5, fruit; 6, seed coat; 7,
seed.
MAY-APPLE.
(_Podophyllum peltatum L._)
"The blushing peach and glossy plum there lies,
And with the _mandrake_ tempt your hands and eyes."
--Quoted in _Tuckerman's America, p. 33_.
The may-apple is a small perennial herb with long root-stocks or
underground stems (rhizomes), a native of the United States and Canada,
growing in rather moist woodlands. The rhizomes attain a length of
about twelve feet; they are sparingly branched with comparatively few
roots at the nodes. Upon closer inspection one may notice the leaf
scars and stem scars. Early in the spring the bud situated at the
anterior end of the root-stock or rhizome, develops and sends up a
stem upon which the leaves and flower are situated. The entire plant
attains a height of about twelve inches. The leaves are large, peltate
(from pelta, a small shield), margin deeply from five to nine lobed,
lobes pendant thus giving the leaf a semblance to an umbrella. It
is remarkable that the flowerless plants have only one leaf, while
the flowering specimens always have two, which are opposite upon the
stem apex, carrying the flower in the bifurcation as shown in the
illustration.
Each plant bears a single flower upon a drooping stalk. The calyx
consists of six greenish sepals, which, however, drop off as soon
as the flower begins to unfold. The corolla consists of six or nine
petals, which are quite large, thick and pulpy, and of a creamy white
color. Authorities seem to differ as to the odor of the flower. Some
speak of it as very fragrant; others designate it as nauseous and
others express no opinion. Millspaugh, in his "Medicinal Plants," says,
"The odor of the flowers is nauseous; I am always forcibly reminded
of a bad case of ozaena when inhaling their perfume (?)." It is an
undoubted fact that the rhizomes, stems and leaves have a very decided
heavy, nauseous odor, and it is not unreasonable to assume that this
odor is traceable in flower and unripe fruit.
The flowers expand in May and the fruit ripens in August. The fruit is
a berry about the size of a plum. At first green, it changes to a soft
yellow at maturity. It is not unlike a tomato in general appearance.
When fully ripe it has a fragrant odor and tastes somewhat like the
paw-paw (Asimina triloba).
Podophyllum peltatum is variously known as may-apple, Indian apple,
hog apple, wild lemon and raccoon berry in reference to the fruit;
duck's foot (German, Entenfuss) in reference to the form of the leaf;
wild jalap in reference to its medicinal properties, which are similar
to that of jalap. The generic name Podophyllum, meaning foot-leaf,
is given in reference to the leaf. The plant is also quite generally
known as mandrake or American mandrake, but the mandrake proper, so
frequently referred to in the books of Moses and in the works of
Shakespeare, is not the may-apple but Mandragora officinalis L. of the
night-shade family (Solanaceae), a native of southern Europe. Earlier
collectors supposed the two plants to be similar if not identical.
There is only one other species of Podophyllum which is a native of
Europe.
Apart from its beauty the may-apple is highly valued for its fruit,
which is considered a delicacy by the American Indians. Whites
apparently do not care much for the fruit, though it is occasionally
collected and eaten. The taste of the fully ripe fruit is quite
pleasant. Some state it is like that of a tomato, and it certainly is
not very nutritious. It must only be sparingly eaten because of its
decidedly laxative properties. The entire plant is quite poisonous and
it is stated that the cooked leaves have been eaten for "greens" with
fatal results. The Indians have employed the plant medicinally for
centuries.
The principal use of the American mandrake is medicinal. It is a very
efficient cathartic, due to the presence of a resinous principle known
as podophyllin, which has been given the name "vegetable calomel." It
is no doubt true that this drug is in no small measure responsible for
the decrease in the use of the old-time mineral drug calomel. Both
rhizomes and leaves may be employed, but the former contain more of
the active principle. The drug is rarely given alone because of the
griping it produces; it is combined with hyoscyamus and belladonna,
also with aloes and colocynth. In large doses it usually acts as
an emetic, which would tend to prevent poisoning from an overdose.
Podophyllin has been used in dropsy, scrofula and rheumatic affections.
Applied externally it acts as a powerful irritant, similar to capsicum
and mustard plaster.
Albert Schneider.
* * * * *
I opened the eyes of my soul.
And behold,
A white river-lily: a lily awake, and aware--
For she set her face upward--aware how in scarlet and gold
A long wrinkled cloud, left behind of the wandering air,
Lay over with fold upon fold,
With fold upon fold.
And the blushing sweet shame of the cloud made her also ashamed,
The white river-lily, that suddenly knew she was fair;
And over the far-away mountains that no man hath named,
And that no foot hath trod,
Flung down out of heavenly places, then fell, as it were,
A rose-bloom, a token of love, that should make them endure,
Withdrawn in snow silence forever, who keep themselves pure,
And look up to God.
--Jean Ingelow, "A Lily and a Lute."
INDEX.
Volume VIII--June, 1900, to December, 1900, inclusive.
Almond, The (Illustration) (Albert Schneider), 188
Ant, An Hour With An (Harriet Woodbridge), 156
Antelope, The Prong-Horned (Illustration), 179
Aster, The Late Purple (Illustration), 62
Aster, The New England (Illustration), 62
Asters, The (Charles S. Raddin), 62
Autumn [Poem] (Frederick William Faber), 149
Autumn [Poem] (William Cullen Bryant), 145
Autumn [Sonnet] (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 98
Banana, The [Illustration] (William Kerr Higley), 95
Bantams, The Ways of Some (May H. Prentice), 152
Bass, The Calico [Illustration], 82
Bee Balm or Oswego Tea [Illustration], 117
Bird Family, A Few of the [Poem] (James Whitcomb Riley), 125
Birds and Poets [Selection] (John Burroughs), 128
Birds, Natural Rights of (Lynds Jones), 8
Bird Study (Olive Thorne Miller), 78
Bird, To the Vesper [Poem] (Frank English), 73
Birds, What Do We Owe the? (Lynds Jones), 72
Black-Eyed Susan or Ox-Eye Daisy [Illustration], 111
Bob White [Poem] (Effie L. Hallett), 128
Bob White, A True Story of a Wayward (Charles Thompson), 113
Brittany [Illustration], 34
Buffle-Head, The [Illustration], 154
Carnivorous Plants (John Merle Coulter), 228
Castles in the Air (Charles Elmer Jenney), 175
Cattle, 32
Chat, Chatter of a (Elizabeth Nunemacher), 168
Christmas To-night [Poem] (Phillips Brooks), 226
Columbine, The [Illustration] (James Jensen), 100
Daisies, Sunflower and (Albert Schneider), 110
Day and Night [Poem] (Thomas Bailey Aldrich), 132
Debt, How We May Best Pay the (Lynds Jones), 122
December, [Sonnet] (Helen Hunt Jackson), 193
December, King [Poem] (Walter Thornbury), 193
Deep, The [Poem] (John G. C. Brainard), 139
Dog and Its Ancestors, The [Illustration], 224
Eagle Lore (Phebe Westcott Humphrey), 53
Editor's Note, 144
Fashion, Cruel Treatment of Birds Demanded by (Lynds Jones), 150
Favorite Haunt, A (Berton Mercer), 227
Fish, The Flying, 144
Fish, The Growth and Variation of (Seth E. Meek), 84
Fish, The Origin of the [A Bird-Fish Story] (Albert Schneider), 90