1874 ] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
3 A 7 
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Some “Very Wonderful” Plants. 
There are a great many curious things told about plants 
nowadays. Some plants shut up and droop their leaves 
when touched, and some time ago I told you about a 
plant that kept its leaves in constant motion whenever 
the weather was warm enough. Then there is the 
Venus’s Fly-trap of North Carolina, that actually catches 
flies and other insects and appears to absorb their juices, 
or as we may say actually feed upon animal food. These 
stories about plants are very wonderful, and there are 
others quite as strange ; but they are true, and any one 
who will take the trouble can sec for himself that they 
are true. But our great-grandparents and their grand¬ 
parents were told stories about plants that were many 
times more wonderful titan any that I have ever told you. 
When they were boys and girls, and were allowed to have 
a peep into the rare old books of their day—for children 
were not then of consequence enough for any Doctor 
Fig. 3.—A FERN ROOT. 
Fig. 1.—THE GOOSE-TREE. 
Gray of the time to write about" flow Plants Behave” 
for them, or any other Doctor to tell them about things 
in the Agriculturist; indeed they had no Agriculturist. 
People talk about the “good old times,” but I think they 
must have been very stupid old times for hoys and girls. 
Depend upon it, we live in the very best possible times. 
But we must not forget to tell about the wonderful things 
the boys and girls of the old times saw when they were 
allowed to look at the books. Just think of a “goose- 
tree ” 1 Yes indeed, a tree which bore eggs for fruit, and 
which always grew conveniently near the water, so that 
when the fruit was ripe and broke open the little goose 
that was inside could fall into the water and swim away 
as nicely as cculd be. “ You do not believe it ? ”—Well, 
here is the picture which plainly shows the whole thing. 
Yes, as strange as it may seem, this story of the way in 
which some kinds of water-fowl were produced was be¬ 
lieved not by ignorant people alone, but the men of two 
and three centuries ago who were considered the most 
learned of their time gave full and minute accounts of 
the matter, describing the tree, egg, and bird, and even 
claiming to have seen the young bird within the egg. I 
know of three different books, each of which has an en¬ 
graving showing the same thing each in a different way. 
You wonder how these people could have been so de¬ 
ceived ; but you must recollect that in those early days 
THE TARTARIAN LAMB. 
there was much less known about plants and animals 
than at present. Many a bright boy and girl who reads 
this really knows more about geography than Columbus 
did, and so with other things our young people know 
better how to use their eyes than did even the learned 
doctors of the old times. It is believed that this whole 
story grew out of the fact that there is a salt-water animal, 
a kind of barnacle, which line a white shell-like covering 
that is shaped something like an egg, and is perhaps 
as large as a robin’s egg. Each of these has a sort of 
stem, twice as long as itself, by which it is attached to a 
piece of wood or any other support. The animal within 
this shell has curious feelers, shaped something like a 
hand with many long and delicate fingers. This barnacle 
seems to be the foundation of the whole story. Those 
who saw that the shell contained something alive did not 
use their eyes and 
examine the mat¬ 
ter carefully, but 
took the fisher¬ 
men’s stories 
about their hatch¬ 
ing out birds to 
be true. Quite as 
absurd is the 
“traveler’s tale” 
of the Tartarian 
Lamb, a most curi¬ 
ous thing which 
was part plant 
and part animal. 
According to the story, this lamb grew upon a stem about 
three feet high, which was attached to it at the belly. 
When the little lamb wished to feed, all it had to do was 
to bend the stem over until it could graze away at the 
grass all around it. This was a very pretty ar¬ 
rangement, as when satisfied with eating it had 
only to rock and dandle away upon its stem, a thing 
that the lambs of the present day are unable to 
enjoy. To be sure the contrivance had its dis¬ 
advantages, for when all the grass within reach 
had been eaten up the poor little thing could 
only “ up and die,” and how any seed was pre¬ 
served for the next year’s crop the few travelers 
who had seen the plant fail to state. As the Tar¬ 
tarian lamb was only found in the far-off desolate 
plains of the Volga, it was a long time before the 
real truth of the matter could be made out. If 
you would like to know what the little lamb was 
like, here is a picture (figure 2) of one from a 
drawing made of a specimen in the British Mu¬ 
seum. Its fleece was got “as white as snow,” 
like the celebrated one tflht “Mary had,” but was 
yellow, and it does not look much as if, like 
Mary’s lamb, it was “ sure to go.” Like the goose- 
tree, this lamb plant when properly examined turns 
out to be a very simple affair. The underground 
stems of some of our native ferns look very much 
like the one shown in figure 3. Perhaps some of you 
have seen in a plowed clearing fern stems that are a good 
deal like the figure—I have, hundreds of them—as they 
are a long while in decaying. This stem grows along 
underground, and the leaves come up from it year after 
year. This Tartarian lamb was made from a similar fern 
stem, which is, as some of them are, clothed with long, 
coarse hairs. When all but four of the leaf stalks are cut 
away, and the thing turned upside down, it can, with a lit¬ 
tle trimming, be made into a good enough lamb to serve 
as a foundation for the story. If those travelers who 
brought home the tale of this wonderful lamb 
had been taught to use their eyes properly 
when they were young they would not have 
been deceived by such a stupid trick—at least 
so thinks • Tins Doctor. 
A Strange Bird. 
You perhaps think that the bird in the pic¬ 
ture is not a beauty, but no doubt its mother 
thought it one of the dearest little chicks that 
ever came out of a shell. It is said, you know, 
that “every crow thinks her own young the 
whitest,” and it is likely that this fondness for 
one’s own was shared by the mother Dodo. 
Yes, Dodo is its name—don’t call it doodoo, it 
should sound like “so-so.”—Its scientific 
name is Didus, but you had better stick to 
Dodo, for fear you should get the names mixed 
and say “dido,” which every youngster knows 
is a very bad thing to “cutup.” Why do we 
tell you about the Dodo ? certainly not on ac¬ 
count of its good looks; but it is very interest¬ 
ing for a reason that we will try to show. You 
are aware that in some places, especially on 
the Connecticut river, the rocks show the foot¬ 
prints of enormous birds. These birds trod 
upon the sand and, being heavy, made a deep 
track ; the water brought down more sand and 
filled up these tracks, and after many years the 
sand became hardened into sandstone, and 
those who get out the sandstone to build brown- 
stone houses, every now and then came across these 
enormous foot-prints, made longer ago than any of us can 
think. Then again in some parts of the country there 
are found the bones of huge birds, which were much 
larger and different from any living birds ; yes, even the 
bones of birds with teeth were found last year. All this 
goes to show that at one time there were birds (as well 
as other animals) quite different from any that are to be 
seen now, and all that we know about them is what can 
be learned from their bones, or fossils as they are 
called. In the island of Mauritius there are bones of a 
very large bird, but the bird itself is not to be found. 
Unlike the birds that were just spoken of as having lived' 
so long ago, this bird of the Mauritius was known to be 
living less than 200 years ago. It was discovered by the 
Portuguese sailors but a few years after the famous voy¬ 
age of Columbus, and was later taken to Europe, where 
its portrait was painted several times, and it was de¬ 
scribed by several writers. A head and a foot saved 
from a stuffed specimen are yet in the British Museum. 
There is-every reason to believe that this bird, not an in¬ 
dividual of which is known to be living now, and which 
we can only know from its bones, was quite at home on 
the island of Mauritius, and so abundant that the sailors 
used to catch them for food, though they found them 
rather tough eating. Here we have a case in which a 
bird, now found only as a fossil, has lived until very re¬ 
cent times, and that makes the bird a very interesting 
one, and helps us to see in our imagination a few ages 
back, when the huge Shanghai-like creatures took their 
walks along the sandy shores of the Connecticut valley. 
The name Dodo was probably given by the Dutch sail¬ 
ors. Five paintings of the bird were known to be in 
different galleries and museums in Europe, and a few 
years ago a sixth was discovered, which has recently 
been figured in the London Field, from which we borrow 
the picture. The bird has evidently some unpleasant 
thing sticking to its bill from which it is trying to remove 
it by the use of its claiv. The Dodo was evidently not a 
very swift bird; the naked part of its leg was as big 
around as it was long; it could not fly as it had no wings 
to speak of; its body was covered all over with a mouse- 
colored down and it had for a tail and wings a few long 
feathers; it weighed about 50 pounds. Naturalists have 
been puzzled to know in what family of birds the Dodo- 
belongs, but they now consider it to be most nearly 
related to the pigeons than to any others. What nice 
pets a coop full of pigeons like this would be, and what 
a lot of corn such a bill would devour 1 
Aunt Sue’s Puzzle-Box. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of fourteen letters. 
My 9, 7, 12, 10 is to suffer. 
My 1, 2, 3, 11 is an article of dress. 
My 6, 4, 5, 8 is the outer part. 
My 13, 14, 2, 6, 11 is a building. 
My whole is the familiar name of a bird. 
Katie, 
HIDDEN COUNTIES. 
1. Oh ! Ed, get off, or don’t kick so. 
2. Smith’s cottage was burnt last spring. 
3. I was surprised to see that fop open the door. 
THE dodo’s PORTRAIT. 
4. Indeed, Sal, I need a new book. 
5. I am glad to hear that the lost ark was found. 
6 . She works hard in the shop all day. 
7. The meal was as bitter as gall at Indiana. 
Jessie Mat Flower. 
Fi ouy ewih ot eb pahyp foulresy virset ot kame sertho- 
liyppa. Mary A. H. 
