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THE THOUSAND-AND-SECOND TALE.
There were others that sprang from the substance of other vegetables;[1] others that derived their sustenance from the bodies of living animals;[2] and then, again, there were others that glowed all over with intense fire;[3] others that moved from place to place at pleasure;[4] and what is still more wonderful, we discovered flowers that lived and breathed and moved their limbs at will, and had, moreover, the detestable passion of mankind for enslaving other creatures, and confining them in horrid and solitary prisons until the fulfilment of appointed tasks.'"[5]
"Pshaw!" said the king.
- ↑ The Epidendron, Flos Aeris, of the family of the Orchideæ, grows with merely the surface of its roots attached to a tree or other object, from which it derives no nutriment—subsisting altogether upon air.
- ↑ The Parasites, such as the wonderful Rafflesia Arnaldii.
- ↑ Schouw advocates a class of plants that grow upon living animals—the Plantæ Epizoæ. Of this class are the Fuci and Algæ.
Mr. J. B. Williams, of Salem, Mass., presented the "National Institute," with an insect from New Zealand, with the following description:—"'The Hotte,' a decided caterpillar, or worm, is found growing at the foot of the Rata tree, with a plant growing out of its head. This most peculiar and most extraordinary insect travels up both the Rata and Perriri trees, and entering into the top, eats its way, perforating the trunk of the tree until it reaches the root, it then comes out of the root, and dies, or remains dormant, and the plant propagates out of its head; the body remains perfect and entire, of a harder substance than when alive. From this insect the natives make a coloring for tattooing."
In mines and natural caves we find a species of cryptogamous fungus that emits an intense phosphorescence. - ↑ The orchis, scabius and valisneria.
- ↑ "The corolla of this flower, (Aristolochia Clematitis,) which is tubular, but terminating upwards in a ligulate limb, is inflated into a globular figure at the base. The tubular part is internally beset with stiff hairs, pointing downwards. The globular part contains the pistil, which consists merely of a germen and stigma, together with the surrounding stamens. But the stamens, being shorter than even the germen, cannot discharge the pollen so as to throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands always upright till after impregnation. And hence, without some additional and peculiar aid, the pollen must necessarily fall down to the bottom of the flower. Now, the aid that nature has furnished in this case, is that of the Tiputa Pennicornis, a small insect, which, entering the tube of the corolla in quest of honey, descends to the bottom, and rummages about till it becomes quite covered with pollen; but, not being able to force its way out again, owing to the
