Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/772

 744

��Popular Science Monthly

��A Fiendish Plant Which Thrives on Cattle

A PLANT grows in Persia, which kills by burying itself within an animal's nostrils or sides, the seeds there germinating and imbibing the moisture

��� ��1

��■^

��-P' -'^t

��A plant which fastens its claws into the

nose or sides of cattle, kills them and

feeds upon them

from the decaying body. No rain falls on the mountain plateaus of Persia dur- ing the whole summer. Vegetation is luxurious in the spring, when water in abundance runs down to the plains from the snow-covered mountain-chains and ridges. A merciless sun, and a dry des- ert atmosphere soon evaporate what moisture is not carefully stored by ar- tificial means, and all plant life withers and dies, except desert thorns and some species of thistles.

During the spring the fat-tailed sheep and the camels enormously increase the fatty deposit in tail and hump. In two months' time bees store up honey enough for the rest of the year. All nature seems to labor overtime.

When the spring luxuriance of ver- dure is passing, our fiendish plant begins

��its deadly work. The fully developed seed pods, hidden under the withering foliage of brown and yellow leaves, fas- ten their tiger-like claws in the nostrils of a grazing camel, a wild ass, an ante- lope or a sheep; the animal tries to rid itself of the sharp prongs by rubbing, but the more it rubs the deeper it forces the claw-like tentacles into its tender, tortured skin. In many cases inflam- mation of the entire throat follows and the poor animal, unable to eat or drink, succumbs. That appears to have been the object of this fiendish plant, for it seems that only in the rich fertilizer of a decaying victim can it find enough nourishment for numerous ofifspring, which sprout from the hundreds of black seeds contained in its great, belly- like capsule. This is what the drivers of caravans say, and they hold the plant in fearsome awe, giving it many a bad name in their native tongue, such as "devil's flower," the "killer," and the like. The herds of breeding camels are left on the grazing grounds in a semi- wild condition, and wander over many miles to find sustenance.

���With a wheel on the front, a canoe can be handled easily by a woman or child

A Wheel-barrow for Canoes

A CANOE-BARROW, invented by a Philadelphia man, makes the trans- portation of a canoe on land an easy mat- ter. Even a woman can take a canoe down to the water with the barrow. A wheel is attached to a simple metal frame that engages the gunwales and bang- plate of the canoe at one end. It may be attached to an empty or loaded canoe while resting in its natural position on the ground.

�� �