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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 1904)
Art ) SHESS r 68 (OSS 1 IE IJrHEis Jfl 1 s mm A! AM vv 8 T I HAT plants mourn for the departure of a loved one of their kind Is the newest discovery of a French savant who has made study of the psychology of plant life. Prof. B. Le Fevre. head of a school at Sumry, In the province of Kharkoff, In Russia, has made the report of his Investigations to a Parisian scientific periodical. The professor is a botanist and gardener fort thr pleasure of the work. One morning he was watering some lobelias clustered In a corner of a conservatory when all at ince a feeling of sadness swept over him. There was no reason for It that he could define, yet an acute melancholy seized him, and not until he had left that portion of the room Old the feeling gradually depart. The next morning, while watering these particular plants, ithe old sensation came over him. It was not associated with the odors of the plants, for these were familiar to him and always pleasant .to his senses. The next morning and the next this feeling of acute sadness came over him In the lobelia window, and finally he spoke to his wife of the phe nomenon. Suddenly she remembered that three days before a friend had called and been so pleased with the flowers that she had given a pot of them to the friend, who had taken them away. Plfnts Mourn for Missing Neighbors. The time of the gift and of the resulting sadness in the gardener were Identical and the professor set himself to watch. He rearranged the potted flowers, leaving no gap In them that would be noticeable to the eye. Day after day for more than a week he felt the traces of sadness in less degree until finally he could attend the flowers without a sense of melancholy. The result of the professor's observations are summed up In the belief that these flowers were In mourning for the plants that had been given away. This gift caused the ema nation of an aura of sadness such as has been recognised as possible to the human body under similar conditions. The professor has always been extremely sensitive to psychlo conditions, and it U his conoluslon that the auras of sndness emanating from the flowers were' sufficient to touch the eeooeee 000999 oeosso psychic something In his own, person that responded In kind to tne innuence or sadness. Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms Interdependent. Prof. Le Fevre's discovery is not at all out of line with lome of the philosophies advanced from time to time In the effort to establish kinship between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The herbivorous animal and the carnivorous plant lave been puizles In their relationships In all times. The sponge, occupying a position seemingly half way between the animal and vegetable worlds. Is not wholly accounted for. The protoplasmic bases for both animal and plant life virtu ally are the same. The makeshifts, and cunning, and strategy ol the Individuals In the vegetable world are not approached by the Individuals In the animal world. And always the close relationship of the two kingdoms with regard to atmospheric necessities of the two have made studies for the sofilogtst and botanist alike. Nothing In nature Is more wonderful than the balance that exists between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms In the matter of that essential, air. Carbonic acid thrown Into the air le the result of breathing In animals. Oxygen, freed of the poisonous carbonic acid, results from the breath ing of plants. It has been estimated that 45,000,000 tone of carbonic acid are thrown upon the world every twenty-four hours by the breathing animal life of the giobe, while an average of 25,000,000 square miles of leaf surface la at all times taking up this animal poisoned air and purifying it for animal uses again. This feeding of plant life on these poisons Is one of the subtle plans of nature. The plant cannot go to the food, so the wind brings the food to the plant Just as the currents of the stream bring food to the mouth of the basking trout In fertilization the bird, Insect, and the wind are agents. Vegetable Kingdom Strongly Competitive. In all the processes of the vegetable world under all condi tions it has been said that the vicissitudes of the animal world by comparison approach a state of absolute rest and security. The competitive conditions In which the strong crowd for place and the weak crowd and cling for mere existence Is something to provoke a new Anti-Cruelty to Vegetables society and make clay eaters of the vegetarians If the philosophy of Prof. Le Fevre Is to be proved. Vegetation Is said to have existed upon the earth before the animal kingdom developed from the original protoplasm. Directly or Indirectly, all animal life finds sustenance In the vegetable kingdom. Where the carnivorous animal feeds upon animal kind, it Is for the most part the flesh of herbivorous animals. Thus by proxy he is nourished by vegetable life. In like manner the pitcher plants that consume flies and IV i Z t IT m as a TSssj' l.h V A "1 -'.V At vv 5tf imwwvv insects take from the bodies of these Insects the nourishment that a short time before was In the sugars of plant life. Carnivorous Flam's Killed by Indigestion. Considering the carnivorous plants In their relation to those animals feeding upon the fruits of the vegetable world, some one has remarked that one of the family of pitcher plants may be fed so many files that It will die of an acute indiges tion. One of these plants under observation had been fed two flies a day and thrived upon them. Three files fed to It on one occasion caused It to show signs of distress, and when it had recovered from this Indigestion five flies killed It Tef In the opinion of botanists of the new school all these Insect devouring plants acquired the habit out of the exigen cies of their conditions. Considering the ingenuity of all plant life in their struggles for existence, the botanist sees nothing strange In this departure from the original scheme of nature. The parasite plant feeding upon the plant that otherwise would have crowded It out of existence Is Just as strange to him as Is the other adaptation to circumstance. That the plant does show Its tempers and moods to the animal world is distinctly patent to the botanist In those flowers that close their petals at certain hours of the day or that open only at certain times. Most of these phenomena are In connection with the processes of fertilization. For these purpose the smooth skinned insects are useless and It Is found that many flowers that depend upon the bee for carry ing pollen open their petals early In the morning, closing them tight again before the dew has cleared enough for the ants tr get abroad. Structurally many flowers are such that one moth may carry pollen better than another, therefore these larger flowers open at night when some of the larger moths fly freest jft, J. Plants Coquet with Animal World. Almost universally these flowers are white or of light marking, the more easily to be distinguished by these agents of the animal world. To say that these flowers are not court ing would be to neglect plain English. Darwin has shown that there are certain blossoms naturally white that turn to color after the bee has taken the honey from the cells. There again is the example of the vegetable world coquettlnR with the animal world and saving the time of the bee, which recognizes the meaning of the change of hue in the petals. But with these things credited to the flower of the plant, what Inay be said of the leaves of the same vegetable repre sentative? The botanist will tell you that the leaf of a plant Is of much higher type than is Its flowei1; that the petal of the beautiful rose Is simply an aborted leaf. If the flower of a plant may express its preference for a certain type o' Insect to the exclusion of Insects of another type may not the leaves and stems of the same plant feel emotions as ascribed by Prof. Le Fevre? There are indications of sociability I nearly all plant life. Are there higher emotions to be cred ited to the vegetable world than hitherto has been dreamed of in our philosophy? ' 99999999909999999999099C99999S999999999999S99909C9CCC99999999 s r t w ay w sW W W '"s w w w m SCARCE WATER. BOX MYSTERY. SLIPPER BOATS. ITALIAN 70TEM. WOVEN BY WORMS. F'' ;iV ' ". - " . v. : .''V " - -1 - . V. i, A . . ; " T " v: , . v. . . At a London music hall a man 6 feet tall Is packed Into a box two feet high by two feet long and eighteen Inches wide, to the wonder of the audience. EGYPTIAN HUMOR. A' V- ' tt.r . t ': Lil Just why a horse's head should be the 9 emblem of Naples Is uncertain. One theory Canton has literally the largest floating; population of any city In China. Many thousands of people, called Tinkla, having nc says 'twas chosen on the same principle that homes, on the land, live on boats and rafts on the Pearl river, ana gain a subsistence by fishing and raising poultry. Indian tribes choose their totems. I;- ri . L 11 SAME LENGTH HOW HE'S CHANGED. FOREIGN BORN POPULA TION OP U. S. T lie ancient Egyptian liked to ridicule men by picturing them a animals. There Is ex tant a famous caricature of this kind repre senting a condemned soul, doomed to return to its earthly home In the form of a pig. B c 0 I Are you ready to believe without measuring the lines A B and C D that thty are exactly the same length? Few Roman houses have a water supply of their own. In the poorer parts of the city ie women have to carry all the water used the household from the city wells, which are In some cases far distant from the house. BUTTERFLIES, NOT SNOW. .1 r. Crttt. Some ambitious silkworms of the neighbor hood of Venloe hnve woven by themeelvcs a ribbon three yards long and three inched wide. When they reached the chrysalis stage, Instead of weaving round cocoons on the twigs prnpared for them, they preftrred to travel up and down th smonth4iiper ride of a strip of woimI nine feet long and threa inches wide. Hack and forth tliy went, spinning their slllfen' web, until at Inst they made a beautiful ribbon, transparent in its ceivUT, and gfddt-n yellow at the heavier edfres. The scarf is amazingly strong for a fabric so delicately woven. PORTO RICO COFFER. In ye olden times a chimera was a regular nightmare, and not, as he Is today, a poet's dream. WHO CAN DO IT t BROKEN VASE. p- ffffll I IW M F"' I "' I VMs iLLL The problem consdsts In putting ail the parts of the design together III such away that they make a vase ot flowers. Do not out the paper. Simply fold It . On a trip between Chauaey and Granville Islands, with a strong wind b-vin seaward wiwia Duturniea were carried out to sea In such numbers they aDDeared ilk flake of Divide this Into (our parts of the same shape and siitt In such a way that there will be in the first part a black doll and table, in th second a w hite doll and table, in the third a white horse and bull and In the fourth a black horse and ball.. ihmm imir w ffl ffl 1 0 Foreign born ot eacb leading nationality at each census 1830 to 1000. The berries' are about one-fourth the natur al else.