Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1889 — CURIOSITIES OF NATURE. [ARTICLE]

CURIOSITIES OF NATURE.

V* Jumping Gall, th® Acrobatic Dean, aaS Seed* 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 with life, rolling o or and over and flying into the air. “I’ve had people ccuie to mo with these,” continued the speaker, “and say they were bewitched. One man believed ho had discovered spontaneous generation;another wrote an exhaustive paper which lie tried to read at all the learned w» i/ties, showing that here was the beginning of Loth animal and plant life, In fact, the little gall, for that is what it is, has attracted a good deal of attention.” “So it is only a plant,” said a reporter. “hot exactly a plant, but the unnatural growth of vegetable matter on tree*, bushes, or shrubs, caused by the se ration in tho bark of an insect egg that hate..os and i-ausoi the growth, in this en e, you see, tho gall is little larger l imn a mustard seed. “Th gall is ]v. d -«e;1 in this way: The eggs ot n very small dark-colored itise :t, am wn a • evnips, are deposited in me leaf, and, from some secretion XnUo.4iu.eu into Lee wound, the v» getable matter entombs the insect in a bail of fiber separate from tho loaf, 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, arid are staple commodities. The ordinary oak galls of commerce aro made by a oynips. 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 iu the same mysterious way. In Mexico stranger* see a curious seed known as deni’s bean, or jumping seed. In appearance it is a stnall triangular body. The first time I taw these seeds I was sure that they were arranged with mechanical springs, as they riot only rolled about, but jumped several inches in tho air, Bu 4 open otoe'of tiie seeds and the mystery is explained. The shell is hollowed out, containing .nothing but a white larva, that lias eaten out nearly all the interior and lined it with silk. Its motions occasion tho 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 a blow .on tho forehead that drew blood, while a looking g’asa opposite wag shattered. Tho seeds had become heated, and all at once the covering exploded, scattering tho seeds in all directions That is their manner of dispersal, and a large number of plants have a similar method of scattering ’heir seed.” —New York Sun