Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1893 — QUEER TREES. [ARTICLE]

QUEER TREES.

Some Wonders of the Vegetable World In the Got eminent's Collection. The Department of Agriculture, says the Washington Star, has an interesting collection of queer plants. Among the most remarkable of the plants is the loce-bark tree of Jamaica, the inner bark of which is composed of many layers of fibres that interlace in all directions. Caps, ruffles, and even complete suits of lace are made from it. It bears washing with common soap, and when bleached in the sun acquires a degree of whiteness equal to the best artificial lace, with .which this surprising natural product compares quite favorably as to beauty. Another curiosity is known in tho tropics as the sand-bark tree, and also as the monkey dinner bell. It has a round, hard-shelled fruit, about the size of an orange, which, when ripe and dry, bursts open with a sharp noise like the report of a pistol. Its Juice is poisonous. The South American trumpet treo might furnish a buud with musical instruments, inasmuch as its hollow branches are used for horns and also for drums. The “dumb omie” is so called because its fleshy, cane-like stems render speechless anyone who happens to bite tnem. There is also a tooth-brush tree from Jamaica. Tooth-brushes are made from it by cutting pieces of the stem to convenient lengths, and fraying out the ends. It also supplies, conveniently enough, an excellent tooth - powder, which is prepared by pulverizing the dried stems.