The Romance of Plant Life Interesting Descriptions of the Strange and Curious in the Plant World

Transcriber's note:
    Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. Please see the
    end of this book for further notes.




  [Illustration: A LIVING BRIDGE

  Such a bridge is described by Sir J. D. Hooker in his _Himalayan
  Journals_.]



    THE ROMANCE OF
    PLANT LIFE

    INTERESTING DESCRIPTIONS OF
    THE STRANGE AND CURIOUS IN
    THE PLANT WORLD

    BY

    G. F. SCOTT ELLIOT

    M.A. CANTAB., B.SC. EDIN., F.R.G.S., F.L.S., ETC.

    AUTHOR OF

    "A NATURALIST IN MID AFRICA," "NATURE STUDIES--PLANT LIFE"
    ETC.

    WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

    PHILADELPHIA
    J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
    LONDON: SEELEY & CO. LIMITED
    1907




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I

  THE ACTIVITY OF VEGETABLES
                                                                  PAGE
  Plants which move--Sensitive Plant--A tourist from Neptune--The
  World's and the British harvest--Working of green leaves--Power
  of sunshine--Work done by an acre of plants--Coltsfoot,
  dandelion, pansies, in sunshine and in cold--Woodsorrel and
  crocus--Foxglove--Leaves and light--Adventures of a carbon
  atom--The sap--Cabbages and oaks requiring water--Traveller's
  tree--The water in trees--An oasis in Greece--The associate life
  of its trees and flowers                                          13

  CHAPTER II

  ON SAVAGES, DOCTORS, AND PLANTS

  Savages knew Botany--First lady doctors and botanical
  excursions--True drugs and horrible ornaments--Hydrophobia
  cure--Cloves--Mustard--Ivy--Roses and Teeth--How to
  keep hair on--How to know if a patient will recover--Curious
  properties of a mushroom--The Scythian lamb--Quinine: history
  and use--Safflower--Romance of ipecacuanha--Wars of the spice
  trade--Cinnamon, logwood, and indigo--Romance of pepper--Babylonian
  and Egyptian botanists--Chinese discoveries--Theophrastus--Medieval
  times--The first illustrated book--Numbers of plants
  known--Discoveries of painters and poets                          27

  CHAPTER III

  A TREE'S PERILOUS LIFE

  Hemlock spruce and pine forests--Story of a pine seedling--Its
  struggles and dangers--The gardener's boot--Turpentine of
  pines--The giant sawfly--Bark beetles--Their effect on music--Storm
  and strength of trees--Tall trees and long seaweeds--Eucalyptus,
  big trees--Age of trees--Venerable sequoias, oaks,
  chestnuts, and olives--Baobab and Dragontree--Rabbits as
  woodcutters--Fire as protection--Sacred fires--Dug-out and
  birch-bark canoes--Lake dwellings--Grazing animals and forest
  destruction--First kind of cultivation--Old forests in England
  and Scotland--Game-preserving                                     40

  CHAPTER IV

  ON FORESTS

  The forests of the Coal Age--Monkey-puzzle and ginkgo--Wood,
  its uses, colour, and smell--Lasting properties of wood--Jarrah
  and deodar--Teak--Uses of birch--Norwegian barques--Destruction
  of wood in America--Paper from wood pulp--Forest
  fires--Arid lands once fertile--Britain to be again covered by
  forests--Vanished country homes--Ashes at farmhouses--Yews
  in churchyards--History of Man _versus_ Woods in Britain          55

  CHAPTER V

  FLOWERS

  Man's ideas of the use of flowers--Sprengel's great
  discovery--Insects, not man, consulted--Pollen carried to set
  seed--Flowers and insects of the Whinstone Age--Coal Age
  flowers--Monkey-puzzle times--Chalk flowers--Wind-blown
  pollen--Extravagant expenditure of pollen in them--Flower of the
  pine--Exploding flowers--Brilliant alpines--Intense life in
  flowers--Colour contrasts--Lost bees--Evening flowers--Humming
  birds and sunbirds--Kangaroo--Floral clocks--Ages of flowers--How
  to get flowers all the year round--Ingenious contrivances--Yucca
  and fig--Horrible-smelling flowers--Artistic tastes of birds,
  insects, and man                                                  68

  CHAPTER VI

  ON UNDERGROUND LIFE

  Mother-earth--Quarries and Chalk-pits--Wandering atoms--The
  soil or dirt--Populations of Worms, Birds, Germs--Fairy
  Rings--Roots miles long--How roots find their way--How they do the
  right thing and seek only what is good for them--Root _versus_
  stones--Roots which haul bulbs about--Bishopsweed--Wild
  Garlic--Dandelion, Plantain--Solomon's Seal--Roots throwing
  down walls--Strength of a seedling root                           82

  CHAPTER VII

  HIGH MOUNTAINS, ARCTIC SNOWS

  The life of a cherry tree--Cherries in March--Flowering of
  gorse--Chickweed's descendants--Forest fires in Africa--Spring
  passing from Italy to the frozen North--Life in the
  Arctic--Dwarfs--Snow-melting soldanellas--Highland Arctic-Alpine
  plants--Their history--Arctic Britain--Edelweiss--An
  Alpine garden                                                     97

  CHAPTER VIII

  SCRUB

  Famous countries which were covered by it--Trees which are colon