Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1884 — CURIOSITIES OF NATURE. [ARTICLE]

CURIOSITIES OF NATURE.

Th» Jumping Call, the AorobuUo Itean. Hn«f Seeds ih»t Kxplode. “Here is a curiosity,” said a botanist. It was a little ball of wood or fiber that when held in the palm seemed endowed with life, rolliug over and over an'd flying into the air. “I’ve had people come to me with these,” continued the speaker, “and say they were bewitched. Oue man believed he had discovered spontaneous generation; another wrote an exhaustive paper which he tried to read at all the learned societies, showing that here was the beginning of both animal and plant life. In fact, the little gall, for that in what it is, has attracted a good deal of attention.” “So it is only a plant," said a reporter. “Not exactly a plant., but the unnatural growth of vegetable matter on trees, bushes, or shrubs, oaused by the secretion in the bark of an insect egg that hatches opd causes the growth. In this case, the gall is little larger than a mustard seed. “The gall is produced in this way: The eggs of a very small dark-eolored inßeot, known as cynips, are deposited in the leaf, and, from Home soorotion introduced into the wound, the vegetable matter entombs the insect in a ball of fiber separate from the leaf, from which it finally dro]>s. The larva’s movements in restraint create the curious activity. “There are many kinds of galls, and though they aro injurious to trees they are invaluable to man, and are staple commodities. The ordinary oak galls of commerco are made by a oynips. When thoy are green, blue, or black, the insect is in thorn, but when white it has escaped. England is the center of the trade, and receives galls from Germany, Turkey, Egypt, China, and Bombay. The galls are used for a variety of purposes. One sort of blasting powder is made of powdered galls and ohlorate, but the most valuable product is ink. This is mude from them almost entirely. “Seeds often jump about in the same mysterious way. In Mexico strangers see a curious seed known as devil’s bean, or jumping seed. In appearance it is a small triangular body. The first time I saw these seeds I was sure that they were arranged with mechanical springs, as they not only rolled about, but jumped several inohos in the air. But open one of the seeds and the mystery is explained. The Bhell is hollowed out, containing nothing but a white larva, that has eaten out nearly all the interior and lined it with silk. Its motions occasion the strange movements. “Homo seeds move by an entirely different process—that of exploding. A friend of mine got some seeds in India once, and placed them’ on his cabin table. All at once came an explosion like that of a revolver, and he received a blow on the forehead that drew blood, while a looking glass opposite wns shattered. The seeds had become heated, and all at once the covering exploded, scattering the seeds in all directions. That is their manner of dispersal, and a large number of plants havo a similar method of scattering thoir seed.” —New York Sun.