manufacture by the plant of carbohydrates out of carbon dioxide and
water in the presence of light. The strength of light needed for this
process varies somewhat with the particular plant and its conditions.
The phenomenon is one of the most vital in creation, the transformation
of the sun’s energy into the fuel of animal life. Without it life would
be impossible.
Some plants work under high light intensities, such as those which
must adapt themselves on the desert areas of the southwestern United
States. Others thrive best in the subdued light of a dense forest. One
curious little moss grows in caves where there is almost no light at
all. It is equipped with a plate of cells forming a battery of lenses
capable of focusing the scattered light on the bodies especially
concerned in carbohydrate formation. These are the chloroplasts which
contain the mysterious substance, chlorophyll, which acts as a catalyst
for action of sunlight on carbon dioxide and water. The shape and
arrangement of cells containing the chloroplasts are such that the
amount of chlorophyll exposed to the sunlight can be varied.
A specially devised apparatus has been constructed in the Smithsonian
laboratory for quantitative studies of the way plants absorb carbon
dioxide under different lighting conditions. Not only is the process
greatly effected by the intensity of the light, the experiments show,
but the wave length also is of paramount importance. The experimental
plants are grown with their roots in a nutrient solution and their
tops extending into a double-walled glass tube. They are furnished
light from surrounding lamps, so that the intensity and wave lengths of
the light can be varied as desired. Through the tube, air containing
different amounts of carbon dioxide can be passed. Thus every element
of the process is under rigid control of the experimenters.
The experiment already has shown that the correct combination of wave
lengths is of the utmost importance in making up synthetic light. Thus,
regardless of the intensity, the ordinary electric light when used
alone has been demonstrated to be a poor light source. Its maximum
energy occurs in the infrared region, below the limit of visibility,
while that of sunlight falls in the green-blue region. If tomato
plants are grown under high powered Mazda lamps in the Smithsonian’s
special growth chambers, especially when the humidity is high, their
leaves turn pale and almost white. Chlorophyll disappears under these
conditions.
_Venezuela’s Nocturnal Orchid_
A flower that opens only by moonlight is one of Venezuela’s plant
curiosities. It is an ivory-white, velvety orchid which depends
entirely on nocturnal butterflies to sip its nectar while pollenization
takes place.
The plant is one of 800 species of Venezuelan orchids. Among these
is probably the prettiest and rarest of the orchid family, the
mother-of-pearl flower, which can sometimes be found in the deep
jungles of the Gran Sabana area at altitudes of more than 3,000 feet.
Still another high mountain variety has square petals with fringed
edges. Another, found in the jungles of the Upper Orinoco, has blossoms
measuring up to 16 inches in diameter. A unique Venezuelan orchid grows
only in water.
Throughout the world there are more than 20,000 species of orchids, the
great majority of which are found only in mountainous regions of the
tropics. A few, however, grow as far north as the Arctic Circle.
_The Plant That Strikes Men Dumb_
A plant cultivated in the gardens of the Venezuelan National University
at Caracas might well be a boon to pestered husbands and harassed
mothers.
It is described under the popular Spanish name of “planta del mudo.”
It looks like sugarcane. According to the probably exaggerated claims,
anybody who chews the stem is stricken dumb for at least 48 hours,
presumably due to some paralyzing effect on some part of the vocal
apparatus. It is not known whether anybody has tried to extract the
marvelous talk-stopping principle.
American botanists are unable to identify the plant. They explain,
however, that the northern portion of South America long has been known
as the world’s greatest storehouse of plants with strange physiological
effects. There is one, for example, alleged to grow hair on bald heads,
another which makes everything look red.
_Combat of Moth and Shrew_
A strange fight between a grey shrew, smallest of North American
mammals, and a black “witch moth” has been described by Laurence M.
Huey of the San Diego Society of Natural History.
The moth, with a wing spread of about four inches and a body size
almost equal to that of the shrew, was placed in a cage with the
mammal. The shrew proved too much for the insect after the odds had
been equalized by clipping a great part of the latter’s wings.
“Even with this severe handicap”, reports Mr. Huey, “the moth still was
very strong and, as its body was so large, the shrew attacked it by
grasping one of its wing stubs, tugging with main strength, and hanging
on like a bulldog. Once, in a burst of spirited action, the shrew was
pitched half way across the cage. This only caused a more determined
attack and the moth finally was killed and eaten.
“Another moth, with a body about three-quarters of an inch long, was
placed in the cage. It had lost many of the scales from its wings and
was partially disabled. It could fly feebly, however, from one side of
the cage to the other. The shrew, apparently by its sense of hearing,
kept following the course of the moth until its flight carried it about
two inches above the little mammal. Then, with an almost invisible
quickness, the animal sprang and seized the moth in the air, much as
a basketball player leaps to catch a ball high over his head. A few
crunches with the sharp-toothed jaws dispatched the moth.”
_The Ferocious Snake Weasel_
From South Africa comes a report from Dr. Raymond B. Cowles of a fight
between a deadly reptile and a little known mammal, the inyengelizi, or
snake weasel.
The habitat of the snake weasel, unknown in any zoo, is the Umzumbe
Valley in Natal Province, where it is one of the rarest of carnivores.
Natives either refuse to bring in inyengelizis or demand exorbitant
prices for their skins. All parts of the body are used in the native
pharmacopoeia and elders wear a narrow strip of the fur to ward off
evil and bring good luck.
Little is known concerning the habits of the animal except that it
apparently frequents burrows of subterranean animals in gardens,
sometimes is ploughed up, and will attack and kill large snakes.
A reliable Zulu described to Dr. Cowles a fight between one of them and
a deadly mamba about seven feet long. He said he had been watching the
snake, basking in the sun in a coiled position. After a few moments a
movement in the bushes caught his attention and he saw an inyengelizi
cautiously stealing towards the snake. When within a foot or two the
animal suddenly leaped upon the reptile and fastened its teeth just
behind the head where it clung during the ensuing wild struggle.
After a few minutes it succeeded in killing the snake, whereupon it
relinquished its hold, performed its toilet, and left without eating
any of its prey.
_The Rabbit That Swims_
Life history and habits of a swimming rabbit are the subject of a
report to the American Society of Mammologists. The animal is the
little known marsh rabbit of the South Carolina coast. It spends most
of its life on the tidal marshes and hence, alone of the rabbit family,
has become a partially aquarian animal. Almost strictly nocturnal in
its habits, its ways of life hitherto have eluded naturalists.
By far the best known trait of the species is its liking for water.
Individuals sometimes are encountered in day time far out in one of
the coastal rivers. In summer when the water is warm they take to it
readily. They seldom are observed, however, swimming in cold water.
In fall and winter the little animal leads a precarious existence. It
is the favorite food of the great marsh hawks, continuously circling
over the swamps. When Spring comes the birds leave for the North, the
sedges grow tall so as to conceal completely the timid little animals,
and they are left in peace until the frosts of Autumn.
Generally the marsh rabbit is a home-loving creature but floods in the
fresh water area of its habitat sometimes force a migration. It is a
natural swimmer. On land it walks with a swimming motion. Other rabbits
are practically helpless in the water and try to swim with the hopping
motions they use on land. The rare special type appears to be holding
its own in spite of its many enemies.
_Gorilla Warriors of the Belgian Congo_
A study of mountain gorillas in a part of the world which they have all
to themselves has been reported by Captain C. S. R. Pitman, British
zoologist.
The only humans who ever penetrate the dense forests on the Uganda
border of the Belgian Congo, where these animals are found, are
pigmies, with whom the great apes live on the best of terms. Captain
Pitman is one of the few white men ever to have entered the area.
The mountain gorilla is probably the highest of all the gorillas, next
to man. One of the two or three ever in captivity was an infant kept
at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D. C. Its brain was the
largest ever found in an infra-human creature; it almost matched the
smallest normal human brains.
Capt. Pitman found the gorilla quite a likeable and peaceful animal. He
says:
“Around the male gorilla, on account of its enormous size and strength,
coupled in recent years with frequent lapses from grace provoked
by unnecessary and undue interference, there has been woven and
unfortunately published a fantasy of inaccuracy and exaggeration—so
much so that the very homely old male is visualized as an object of
dread. The male gorilla, as the family head, is most solicitous for the
welfare of his wives and children—a very human trait. On the threat
of danger, he accepts full responsibility for the well-being of his
charges.
“If the danger is real the females and young are sent off, while the
father waits to take on all comers until satisfied that the remainder
of the band are out of harm’s way. Sometimes, when the danger is sudden
and overwhelming, the youngsters are sent up trees to hide until the
trouble is over. It is strangely reminiscent of the records of some
of the early African explorers relative to tribal customs. When the
womenfolk were to be seen busily engaged in their usual vocations in
the precincts of a village all was well and no hostility contemplated
on the part of the local inhabitants.
“But an absence of women and children was interpreted as unfavorable,
signifying that they had been removed to a safe place to enable the
warriors to fight unhampered. And so it is with the old male gorilla,
for as soon as he bids his family seek safety he is out for mischief,
although without direct provocation he is unlikely to attack. There are
black sheep in every fold and solitary examples both male and female,
which probably have been outlaws for a very good reason, have been
known to be abnormally aggressive.”
_The Biggest “Rat” in the World_
Close relative of the porcupine, but without quills, is the aquatic
coypu, or nutria, of South America. It has become quite valuable in
recent years because of its soft fur. Weighing about 20 pounds, it
often is referred to as the “biggest rat in the world”. It shares with
the porcupine large, orange-colored incisor teeth which give it a
frightful appearance. Like its barbed northern cousin it is a strict
vegetarian, living exclusively on water weeds in its native habitat.
Before the last war coypu farms were being established through much
of Europe. However some apprehension was felt that it might cause
considerable damage to crops if it escaped from its enclosures.
_The Suicide Marches of Lemmings_
Mass death marches of lemmings long have intrigued biologists and
psychologists.
The Lapland lemming is a short-tailed animal, related to the meadow
mouse, that looks like a miniature rabbit. Through the sub-Arctic
winter it lives completely buried under snow through which it burrows
in search of mosses and lichens.
It is extremely prolific; females produce two litters of from four to
six offspring every year. The numbers soon become far too great to
subsist on the sparse supply available in the Scandinavian mountains.
Then, irregularly in periods of from five to ten years, occurs one of
the weirdest phenomena of animal life. Acting apparently on a common,
sub-conscious, simultaneous impulse, the entire lemming population
starts a mass migration out of the mountains to the lowlands. The
animals proceed in a straight line, a few feet apart, each usually
tracing a shallow furrow in the soil. They are a devouring scourge,
stripping the earth of all vegetation in their path. Their progress
seems irresistible. No obstacle stops them. If they come across a
man they glide between his legs. If they meet with a haystack they
gnaw through it. If a rock stands in their way they go around it in a
semi-circle and then resume the straight line of their march. When they
come to a lake, river or arm of the sea they swim directly across, vast
numbers being drowned on the way. If they encounter a boat they climb
over it, so as not to be diverted from a straight line. Curiously,
they seem to avoid human habitations. They resist fiercely all efforts
to stop them. They will bite a stick or hand, crying and barking like
little dogs. Multitudes are destroyed every mile of the way. When the
migrating horde reaches the sea it moves straight on—to inevitable
destruction.
A few linger behind and eventually make their way back to the mountain
habitat. Numbers are so reduced that they are seldom observed. Then a
new generation starts and builds up for the next migration.
_The Ferocity of the Tiger_
Symbol of ferocity in the animal world is the tiger. When troops of the
American 101st Division entered the German city of Halle in 1945 it
probably was considered effective psychological warfare tactics on the
part of the Nazis to open the zoo cages and let loose the tigers. So
far as known, however, the animals did not attack any Americans.
Whether the reputation of the tiger is entirely justified is debatable.
“The tiger”, says Dr. William M. Mann, long-time director of the
National Zoological Park in Washington, “is one of the finest animals
that lives. In the cage he is the most snobbish of all aristocrats, his
contempt for those who jostle in front of his bars being nothing less
than magnificent. He is dignity itself. He condescends to no boyish
antics to attract attention as does the chimpanzee, to no begging
for sweets as do the bear and elephant, to no pacific, philosophic
acceptance of fate such as that of the hippopotamus. You cannot win his
favor by a stick of candy. He is above rage or gratitude.”
Sometimes adult tigers are captured in traps and sold to circuses. One
American circus some years ago had a cage of ten. Their keeper made
them perform as another man might spaniels. In the arena they appeared
to be a ferocious group. In the menagerie tent, confined in small cages
like so many kittens, the keeper could put his hand in their months and
rub their teeth. Once he complained bitterly about the tranquility of
his charges. “I cannot make a show with ten tame tigers,” he argued. “I
must have five mean ones to add to the act.”
The tiger had a prominent part in the menageries of Indian and Chinese
monarchs before the Christian era. It first appeared in Europe about
the time of the eastern conquests of Alexander. Well known to the
Romans, the animal was one of the most dreaded of all the beasts that
appeared in the arena.
Despite its supposed ferocity, no great harm has been done in the few
cases in which tigers have escaped from zoos. Often they have returned
of their own accord.
_The Fearsome Porcupine_
There are more than 1,000 minute barbs on each of a porcupine’s many
quills. This is the reason why such a quill is very difficult to
withdraw from the flesh. The armament of quills, from a half inch to
three inches long and developed from hairs of the underfur, renders the
“spiny pig” of northern woodlands almost immune to attack. About its
only enemy in nature is the giant weasel, the fisher, which has learned
the trick of quickly turning the porcupine on its back.
The quills are very lightly attached to the porcupine’s body and become
detached almost automatically when the creature is attacked. That they
can be “shot”, however, is almost certainly a fallacy. A victim must
actually be in contact with the animal.
_The Plant That Stimulates Visions_
In 1560 a Franciscan monk wrote of Aztecs eating a plant called peyotl
“which gives them terrible and ludicrous visions, alleviates hunger and
thirst, gives strength and incites to battle.” It was used, he reported
“to bring about a state of ecstasy in which one had prophetic visions.”
This was the first known reference in literature to the mescal cactus,
_Lopophora williamsii_, whose remarkable effects on the human mind
ever since have aroused wonderment. Many have experimented with eating
the so-called “buttons” of this cactus and have reported all sorts of
terrible and ludicrous visions. But no two experimenters apparently
have the same experience. After nearly 400 years the supposed active
principle, mescaline, has been extracted and the same effects produced
either by swallowing or injection of as little as a half gram.
First comes a decided nausea which lasts about two hours. This
passes and is followed by weird hallucinations. One’s own body seems
distorted, with some parts exceedingly small and some very large. A
common experience is the feeling that only one’s head is the self. The
rest of the body is away somewhere in space. The time sense is badly
distorted. Minutes stretch out into hours and days, days and hours are
contracted into minutes. There are strange optical delusions—lights
flashing before the eyes and floating patches of color. Seldom,
however, are actual hallucinatory objects seen.
The consumer has the impression that he thinks more clearly than at
other times but it has been found that this thought is based more on
the sounds than meaning of words. There is a tendency, for example, to
argue in puns. An invisible barrier seems to separate one from the rest
of the world. This condition lasts for two or three hours, and then
passes away, leaving no after affects. The condition has been likened
to schizophrenia.
Large doses produce catatonic conditions. A person may sit motionless
for a long time in an apparently quite uncomfortable position and
refuse to move. Dogs and cats given mescaline injections crouch
motionless in corners of their cages, only rousing themselves from time
to time to attack invisible assailants.
It recently has been found that only one chemical constituent of
mescaline, beta-phenylethylamine, is responsible for the delusions.
This is quite similar in chemical structure to the body hormone
adrenaline. There have been conjectures that adrenaline may be changed
into the mescaline constituent by some as yet unknown process of body
chemistry and that this change may be the physiological cause of
schizophrenia.
About 40 years ago a peyotl church was set up by Indians in New Mexico.
It followed essentially the Catholic ritual, but with mescal buttons
substituted for bread in communion. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
did not interfere with the rites when its investigations indicated that
the mysterious drug was not habit-forming and apparently caused no
physical injury.
_The Puzzling Platypus_
Fantastic combination of mammal, bird and reptile is the egg-laying,
toothless water animal of New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia,
the duck-billed platypus. It is clearly a mammal but, with a single
exception, it stands quite alone among these warm-blooded animals. The
creatures from which it is a survivor probably have been extinct for
fifty million years.
It is an animal about twenty inches long from the tip of its horny beak
to the end of its broad, flattened tail. It is covered with soft brown
fur. Its four legs are short and five-toed. These toes on the front
foot are joined by webs like those of aquatic birds which extend beyond
the long, sharp, curved toe-nails. On the hind legs of the male are
inch-long, sharp spurs through which run minute canals connected with
a large gland at the back of the thigh—very much like the poison fangs
of a serpent. Yet, so far as can be determined, the gland secretes no
poison and the spurs apparently are seldom used in self defense.
The female lays two eggs at a time, each about three-fourths of an inch
long and a half inch wide, with strong, flexible white shells. These
eggs are not incubated but hatch buried shallowly in sand and straw.
The platypus lives on the banks of ponds and quiet streams where it
digs burrows as much as 20 feet long with two entrances, one below and
the other above the water level. The rear, or land, end of a burrow is
enlarged into a small chamber in which the young are reared.
The creatures pass most of the daylight hours asleep in these burrows,
curled in rather tight balls. The entrances are concealed in grass and
reeds so that the occupants of the burrows are seldom seen. At night
the platypus takes to the water. It swims and dives easily and its
major food consists of worms and other aquatic animals found in the mud
or gravel at the bottom. It has cheek pouches like a squirrel. When it
comes up from a dive these pouches are stuffed with the food it has
gathered, which is extracted and eaten at leisure.
Adult animals are toothless but in each jaw there is a horny ridge.
The young, however, have rootless teeth—a possible clue to their very
remote ancestry. Like a bird the platypus has a very small head. There
is no division of its brain into two hemispheres, as in all other
mammals and most birds. This is a characteristic of the reptile brain.
The creatures can climb with apparent ease. Small groups sometimes are
seen sunning themselves on broad tree trunks overhanging the water.
They are extremely timid but, when captured, soon become quite tame. In
captivity, however, they seldom live long.
The only other member of this animal group is the echidna, or spiny ant
eater, of the same part of the world. It is, however, an inhabitant
of rocky districts where it digs shallow burrows in sand or hides in
rock crevices. The back is covered with sharp, backward-directed spines
which give it the appearance of a small porcupine. It has a long,
tubular snout from which projects the long, slender tongue covered with
some sticky substance. With this it laps up ants and other insects.
Like the platypus, it has short, strong legs with large claws with
which it burrows with considerable speed. Burrowing, where possible, is
its usual method of flight. Its other defense is to roll itself in a
ball, when its sharp spines give it considerable protection. “The only
way of carrying the creature”, says George Bennett (_Gatherings of a
Naturalist in Australasia_) “is by one of its hind legs. Its powerful
resistance and the sharpness of the spines will soon oblige the captor,
attempting to seize it by any other part of the body, to be relinquish
his hold.”
INDEX
Abominable Snow Man, 155
Ants, 6, 31, 36, 62, 71
Aphroditids, 39
Asp, 26
Bats, 121, 124
Bear, 133
Beavers, 185
Bees, 135, 144
Beetles, 142, 158
Birds, 27, 34, 43, 54, 55, 62, 70, 77, 81, 89, 96, 97, 102, 110
Brachiopods, 52
Bryozoa, 15
Caterpillars, 150
Caves, 3, 43, 57
Centipedes, 126
Chameleon, 9
Clams, 111, 113
Corals, 114
Crabs, 18, 125
Crocodile, 176
Ctenophores, 118
Dodo, 55
Dogs, 169
Duck Hawk, 97
Dugongs, 172
Eagle, 103, 162
Elephant, 93, 117, 120, 194
Fireflies, 164
Fish, 13, 33, 72, 89, 99, 143, 148, 156
Flowers, 31
Forests, 20, 42, 119
Frogs, 24, 160, 162, 167, 186
Gorilla, 194
Grasshopper, 113, 128, 130, 157
Guacharo, 43
Hornbills, 34
Horned Viper, 26, 162
Iguanas, 41
Insects, 26, 139, 181, 184
Lemmings, 196
Lizards, 30, 41, 174, 179, 180
Locusts, 128, 130
Manatees, 172
Mantid, 163
Mermaids, 172
Millipedes, 123
Mollusk, 165
Monkeys, 21, 37, 141, 183
Moth, 191
Ocean, 47
Octracoderms, 33
Opossum, 170
Orchids, 122, 191
Oysters, 117
Pearls, 112
Penguins, 5
Pigeons, 27