Dyrrhachium

“ The difficulty is to find a leaf without these black spots; so that people have come to regard them as part of the regular colour scheme of the foliage. Nevertheless, each of these blots is a colony of the parasitic fungus, Rhytisma, whereof the life-history is still subject for investigation. It is not evident how the colonies are regularly distributed, each clear of the other, all over the leaves of a lofty tree, nor how, seeing that they fall to the ground with the leaves in autumn, the fungus manages to get access in the following summer to the loftiest branches. ”

“ Dryander, Schæffer and Hedwig have, on much better grounds, asserted their vegetable nature, detected their seeds, and in many cases explained their parts of fructification. In fact, they propagate their species as regularly as any other organized beings, though, like others, subject to varieties. Their sequestered and obscure habitations, their short duration, their mutability of form and substance, render them indeed more difficult of investigation than common plants, but there is no reason to suppose them less perfect, or less accurately defined. ”

“ According to some, it is a tufted shrub, white, destitute of thorns, and with leaves like those of the olive, only softer; which eaten boiled, are an agreeable food. The root, they say, taken in doses of one drachma in hydromel, allays gripings of the bowels, and is a cure for ruptures and convulsions. ”

“ Should this, for any reason, fail, self-fertilisation will almost certainly be effected by means of the pollen from the innermost stamens. If a large number of plants of the White Dryas be carefully examined some will be found with flowers containing both stamens and carpels, as above described, while others, less numerous, have flowers with stamens only. These will of course produce no seeds. Some plants, again, will be seen to bear both kind of flowers. The White Dryas is found in the mountainous districts of Europe and in the Arctic regions of the new and old worlds. ”

“ It appears, therefore, that the roots serve only to imbibe water; though, no doubt, they would absorb nutritious matter if present in the soil ; for as we shall hereafter see, they absorb a weak solution of carbonate of ammonia. A plant of Drosera, with the edges of its leaves curled inwards, so as to form a temporary stomach, with the glands of the closely inflected tentacles pouring forth their acid secretion, which dissolves animal matter, afterwards to be absorbed, may be said to feed like an animal. But, differently from an animal, it drinks by means of its roots ”

“ The origin of such a vast thickness of vegetable remains, so unmixed, on the whole, with earthy ingredients, can be accounted for in no other way than by the growth, during thousands of years, of trees and ferns in the manner of peat—a theory which the presence of the Stigmaria in situ under each of the seven layers of anthracite fully bears out. ”

“ The subterranean passages of the coal-mines near Dresden are illuminated by the phosphorescent light of the rhizomorpha phosphoreus, a peculiar fungus. On the leaves of the Pindoba palm grows a species of agaric which is exceedingly luminous at night; and many varieties of the lichens, creeping along the roofs of caverns, lend to them an air of enchantment by the soft and clear light which they diffuse. In a small cave near Penryn, a luminous moss is abundant ”

“ About the year 1786, we received from Philadelphia, seeds of a plant collected at a considerable distance from that city, announced to us as new and rare, and which produced the present species of Dracocephalum: Mr. Watson, Nurseryman at Islington, obtained the same plant from Carolina, about the same period.
It is a hardy perennial, multiplying considerably by its roots, which creep somewhat; it must be planted in a moist soil, and shady situation, for such it affects, and in such only will it thrive. ”

“ Er hat einen platten, leichten, spreuartigen, dem der Birenklau ähnelnden Samen in einer Kapsel, eine große, der großen Osterluzei ähnliche, dicke und bittere Wurzel. Er steht auf den höchsten Bergrücken und an schattigen und wasserreichen Stellen. Die Wurzel hat erwärmende, adstringierende Kraft, hilft auch in der Menge von 2 Drachwen mit Pfeffer, Raute und Wein genossen gegen den Biß giftiger Tiere, vom Saft tut es 1 Drachme; ferner gegen Seitenschmerzen, bei Sturzverletzungen, inneren Rupturen und Krämpfen. Mit Wasser getrunken ist sie Leber- und Magenkranken heilsam. ”

“ Dryander, to a genus so nearly related to Banksia, from which indeed it differs chiefly in Inflorescence, but in that respect so widely as to be at once distinguishable: there is also something in the habit, especially in the leaves of the great number of species, by which, independent of the parts of fructification, the genus is pretty certainly indicated ”

“ The draba verma, which, in a few weeks, shoots, and puts forth its leaves, flowers, and fruit, is not less a plant than the palm. The insect that exists but for a day, is as much an animal, as the elephant that lives for centuries. As to the seeds of the fungi, it is probable that nature meant to withdraw from our eyes the dissemination of these plants, by making the seeds almost imperceptible; and it is likewise probable, that naturalists have seen nothing but their capsules. ”

“ As few plants are at present known to possess glands specially adapted for absorption, it seemed worth while to try the effects on Drosera of various other salts, besides those of ammonia, and of various acids. Their action, as described in the eighth chapter, does not correspond at all strictly with their chemical affinities, as inferred from the classification commonly followed. The nature of the base is far more influential than that of the acid; and this is known to hold good with animals. ”

“ On the portion of the second edition of the 'Hortus Kewensis' printed after the death of Dryander, in 1810, he bestowed the same attention which had been devoted by Dryander to the earlier portion, and by Solander to the first edition, adding largely to the elucidation of certain Families and Genera. ”

“ The damper spots are spongy with mosses, Hypnum fluitans, Polytrichum commune, and Sphagnum, ranging in colour from deep red to bright green, with pale green cushions of Leucobryum and Aulacomnion palustre, and amongst them Drosera rotundifolia, Carex ampullacea, Eriophorum angustifolium, and the clustered sword-like leaves of Narthecium. The streamlets which issue from the hill-side ripple noisily down their shallow, stony channels, or contract and sink down, and are hidden for awhile beneath overhanging grass and rushes. ”

“ At the same season, too, medical men pound the leaves, and make them up into lozenges, the same being done with the flowers also, and the root. All the parts of this plant are administered together, in doses of one drachma, for the stings of serpents of all kinds. Taken in drink, too, they bring away the dead fœtus, act as an emmenagogue and diuretic, and disperse calculi of the bladder. The anthemis is employed, also, for the cure of flatulency, affections of the liver, excessive secretions of the bile, and fistulas of the eye; chewed, it heals running sores. ”

“ We may briefly mention that group of botanical phenomena, by which the botanist Noll has been led to the concept of what he calls “morphaesthesia,” or the “feeling” for form; a concept, the full discussion of which would lead to almost the same conclusions as our analysis of the harmonious systems has done. In the Siphoneae, a well-known order of marine algae with a very complicated organisation as to their exterior form, the protoplasm which contains the nuclei is in a constant state of circulation round the whole body, the latter not being divided by proper cell-walls. ”

“ The glands of Drosera absorb matter from living seeds, which are injured or killed by the secretion. They likewise absorb matter from pollen, and from fresh leaves; and this is notoriously the case with the stomachs of vegetable-feeding animals. Drosera is properly an insectivorous plant; but as pollen cannot fail to be often blown on to the glands, as will occasionally the seeds and leaves of surrounding plants, Drosera is, to a certain extent, a vegetable-feeder. ”

“ Concluding Remarks.—The linear leaves of Drosophyllum differ but slightly from those of certain species of Drosera; the chief differences being, firstly, the presence of minute, almost sessile, glands, which, like those of Dionaea, do not secrete until they are excited by the absorption of nitrogenous matter. But glands of this kind are present on the leaves of Drosera binata, and appear to be represented by the papillae on the leaves of Drosera rotundifolia. Secondly, the presence of tentacles on the backs of the leaves ”

“ The vegetation of the truffle is still more singular: this extraordinary tubercle has neither roots, stem, leaves, flowers, nor seeds; it derives its nourishment through the pores of its bark. But it may be asked, how is it produced? why is there commonly no kind of herb in the places where this species of fungus grows? and why is the land there dry and full of crevices? These things have never been explained. No plant so much resembles animals, as that [Pg 364] species of membranous moss called nostoch; it is an irregular substance, of a pale green colour, and somewhat transparent ”

“ The Orchids and many other tree-parasites bear flowers of exquisite beauty. Can we be quite sure that the trees do not like to adorn themselves with gorgeous ornaments of this kind? Such a desire would be quite natural.
Plants which are low and weak in the scale of evolution are very prone to enter into symbiotic relations. The Lichens are compound organisms in which green Algal cells live between fungous threads. The Fungus sucks up the water and mineral salts from the soil and the Alga combines them with carbon dioxide from the air to form palatable food for both. ”

“ The protoplasm in the closely inflected tentacles was not in the least aggregated, but towards their bases it was collected in little brownish masses at the bottoms of the cells. This protoplasm was dead, for on leaving the leaf in a solution of carbonate of ammonia, no aggregation ensued. Propionic acid is highly poisonous to Drosera, like its ally acetic acid, but induces inflection at a much slower rate. ”

“ During its second year from seed one basal leaf is sent up, followed in the third year by another smaller leaf and the flower.
Description of the Rhizome, or Rootstock.
The rhizome (rootstock) and rootlets of Golden Seal, or hydrastis, as it is also known in the drug trade, are the parts employed in medicine. The full-grown rhizome, when fresh, is of a bright yellow color, both internally and externally, about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in length, and from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch in thickness. ”

“ To Drimia, a new genus of Professor Jacquin, and a mutilation of Hyacinthus, it is most allied; but, we have not thought fit to alter its known station, as, without doubt, the multiplication of genera, or altering the place of known plants, adds but to the difficulties of a most intricate, though pleasing study. It is a hardy green-house bulb; delights in a mixture of peat earth and sandy loam; increases by offsets, and flowers in October or November. Our figure was made from a plant in the Nursery of Mr. ”

“ Dwarfing and aggrandizing plants, by electric currents passed around their roots, has been practiced for twenty years upon a large scale; so that in the great conservatories, one may find tiny plants grown from the cones of the Yosemite great trees, and may also see what have sprung from tiny fungi but are now as large as the old-fashioned cabbages of the days of President Harrison. The dyeing of plants and of their flowers by substances introduced in solution at their roots, is a fine art most successful and pleasing in its application. ”

“ Judging from the evidence above given, the secreting glands of many other plants can absorb salts of ammonia, of which they must receive small quantities from the rain. This is the case with two species of Saxifraga, and the glands of one of them apparently absorb matter from captured insects, and certainly from an infusion of raw meat. There is, therefore, nothing anomalous in the Droseraceae having acquired the power of absorption in a much more highly developed degree. ”

“ Elder, containing not only the stems and branches, but also the leaves and rhizomes, I am constrained to regard it as a distinct though closely allied species.
The rhizomata are slender, being from one to two inches in diameter, and perfectly flattened. They are beautifully covered with a cellular reticulation on the thin bark, and show occasional round areoles marking the points of exit of the rootlets. I have long been familiar with irregular flattened stems thus reticulate, but have only recently been able to connect them with this species of Calamite. ”

“ In our conservatories, where, accord-
ing to Hortus Kewensis, it has been an inhabitant since the
year 1803, it usually puts forth its oval heads of flowers in
March; and continuing its blossoms during the two suc-
ceeding months, is a most desirable plant for greenhouse
cultivation among other compatriots in our possession from
the sterile shores of South-western Australia–a locality, so
desert-like in aspect, yet so rich in the rarer and more
diversiformed species of the great and splendid family to
which our plant belongs. ”