Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1887 — CURIOSITIES OF NATURE. [ARTICLE]

CURIOSITIES OF NATURE.

The Jumping Gall, the Acrobatic Bean, and Seeds that Explode. “Here is a curiosity," said a botanist. . It was a little ball of wood or fiber that when held in the palm seemed endowed j with life, rolling over and over and fly- ' ing into the air. “I’ve had people come to me with these,” continued the speaker, “and say they were bewitched. One man believed he had discovered spontaneous 1 generation; another wrote an exhaustive I paper which he tried to read at all the i learned societies, showing that here was I the beginning of both animal and plant life. In fact, the little gall, for that ; 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, caused by the secretion in the bark of an insect egg that hatches and causes the growth. In this case, you see, the gall is little larger than a mustard seed. “The gall is produced' in this way: The eggs of a very small dark colored insect, known as cynips, are deposited in the leaf, and, from some secretion introduced into the wound, the vegetable matter entombs the insect in a ball of liber separate from the leaf, from which it finally drops. The larva’s movements in restraint create the curious activity. “There are many kinds of galls, and though they are injurious to trees they are invaluable to man, and are staple commodities. The ordinary oak galls of commerce are made by a cynips. When they are green, blue, or black, the insect is in them, 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 chlorate, but the most valuable product is ink. This is made 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 j springs, as they not only rolled about, but jumped several inches in the air. But open one of the seeds and the mys- ; tery is explained. The shell is hollowed i 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. “Some 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 & blow on the forehead that drew blood, while a looking glass opposite was shattered. The seeds had become heated, and all at once the covering exploded, scattering the seeds in all directions. That is I their manner of dispersal, and a large number of plants have a similar method of scattering their seed.’*— New York Sun.