I 8 THE PLANT WORLD. 



bark of the \()iin,f;- tree is often perfectly smooth with curious 

 ridges upon it and with its pecnhar color, the trunk of the tree 

 actually resembles a column of iron in appearance as well as in 

 character. O. car/^liiiis grows to be much taller than O. J^ir- 

 giniaiia and prefers the rich woods and banks of streams to the 

 sandv hillsides which / 'iri^^iiilaiia elects. ISoth trees love to be 

 alone and are never found growing in groves as are oak or 

 beech trees. 



THE DEVIL'S TONGUE.* 

 By Olga Whittlesey. 



When the plant first started to grow it was a round, brown, 

 corm with knobs on its hard surface. It was about five inches 

 in diameter. In the middle was a round disk with a little pinky 

 knob in its center which was the plant just beginning to grow. 



The plant was placed in a glass jar with a cloth under it and 

 two glasses holding it firmly against the side of the jar. It was 

 only given water a few times. The first eleven days it grew five 

 inches but the next twenty-two it grew two feet nine inches. 



As the plant grew the corm became smaller until there was 

 room between it and the glasses to put a finger. Meanwhile the 

 little pinky part grew, first slowly and then very fast. Before it 

 was two inches in height it changed in color, becoming a dark 

 speckled green. It grew in one straight, heavy, stalk with little 

 flaps forming the outside covering. Later it became one smooth 

 stalk with a reddish blade at the end. 



In about three days there was a great change in the plant. It 

 had attained the height of five feet six inches and its coloring had 

 changed greatly. The lower part or corm had become wrinkled 

 and the leaves at the bottom of the stalk were very loose. They 

 were a light magenta and the stalk had changed from a mottled 

 green to the light color of the leaves with brown spots. The 

 greatest change of all had taken place in the thick part at the 

 top. From it had come a long tongue-like formation which 



*This is a first-prize compL'titive essay emljodying the original observa- 

 tions of the author (aged 13, a pupil in the Trenton Model School) on the 

 development of the curious aroid AniorphophaHiis Rh'icri. — Ed. 



