Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1918 — That Remarkable Sheep. [ARTICLE]

That Remarkable Sheep.

Some of the most singular plants in the world are the vegetable sheep of New Zealand. These are known to science as raoulia eximia, and although they are of such a strange habit of growth they a l * members of the daisy tribe. The vegetable sheep grow at jiigh altitudes, usually on some bleak mountain slope, which may be 5,000 feet above sea level. The whole plant is a compact mass of.stems densely covered with small wooly leaves. So closely do the raoulias resemble sheep that experienced shepherds will often cHmb a long way up the mountain, thinking that they see some missing member of their flock huddled against a rock, only to. discover that they have been deceived by a plant! During'a recent exhibition at Christchurch, in New Zealand, some ‘specimens of the vegetable sheep were collected for fi»e'show. The plants are often large and heavy, and it required the efforts of half a dozen strong men to secure some fine examples of raoulias. -s