744 



Popular Science Monthly 



A Fiendish Plant Which Thrives 

 on Cattle 



A PLANT grows in Persia, which 

 kills by burying itself within an 

 animal's nostrils or sides, the seeds there 

 germinating and imbibing the moisture 





1 



■^ 



-P' -'^t 



A plant which fastens its claws into the 



nose or sides of cattle, kills them and 



feeds upon them 



from the decaying body. No rain falls 

 on the mountain plateaus of Persia dur- 

 ing the whole summer. Vegetation is 

 luxurious in the spring, when water in 

 abundance runs down to the plains from 

 the snow-covered mountain-chains and 

 ridges. A merciless sun, and a dry des- 

 ert atmosphere soon evaporate what 

 moisture is not carefully stored by ar- 

 tificial means, and all plant life withers 

 and dies, except desert thorns and some 

 species of thistles. 



During the spring the fat-tailed sheep 

 and the camels enormously increase the 

 fatty deposit in tail and hump. In two 

 months' time bees store up honey 

 enough for the rest of the year. All 

 nature seems to labor overtime. 



When the spring luxuriance of ver- 

 dure is passing, our fiendish plant begins 



its deadly work. The fully developed 

 seed pods, hidden under the withering 

 foliage of brown and yellow leaves, fas- 

 ten their tiger-like claws in the nostrils 

 of a grazing camel, a wild ass, an ante- 

 lope or a sheep; the animal tries to rid 

 itself of the sharp prongs by rubbing, 

 but the more it rubs the deeper it forces 

 the claw-like tentacles into its tender, 

 tortured skin. In many cases inflam- 

 mation of the entire throat follows and 

 the poor animal, unable to eat or drink, 

 succumbs. That appears to have been 

 the object of this fiendish plant, for it 

 seems that only in the rich fertilizer of 

 a decaying victim can it find enough 

 nourishment for numerous ofifspring, 

 which sprout from the hundreds of 

 black seeds contained in its great, belly- 

 like capsule. This is what the drivers 

 of caravans say, and they hold the plant 

 in fearsome awe, giving it many a bad 

 name in their native tongue, such as 

 "devil's flower," the "killer," and the 

 like. The herds of breeding camels are 

 left on the grazing grounds in a semi- 

 wild condition, and wander over many 

 miles to find sustenance. 



With a wheel on the front, a canoe can be 

 handled easily by a woman or child 



A Wheel-barrow for Canoes 



A CANOE-BARROW, invented by a 

 Philadelphia man, makes the trans- 

 portation of a canoe on land an easy mat- 

 ter. Even a woman can take a canoe 

 down to the water with the barrow. A 

 wheel is attached to a simple metal frame 

 that engages the gunwales and bang- 

 plate of the canoe at one end. It may 

 be attached to an empty or loaded canoe 

 while resting in its natural position on 

 the ground. 



