Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1920 — Queer Plant [ARTICLE]

Queer Plant

“Tul-Tul," as the natives call it, is the most wonderful vegetable plant .tn the world. It grows on certain South Pacific Islands and in appearance is like a jiant turnip, but blood-red in color. To the white man, it is a very tough and tasteless vegetable. To the natives, however, it Is a main item of their diet. They cook it and mix it with their coconut and breadfrnit, for it is supposed to be very nourishing. They cultivate the plant in a rough »ort of fashion in large ditches or swamps. Its most peculiar feature is that It has to be fed, and for this purpose the native children go over the island collecting all decayed vegetable matter. Phis is soaked in plenty of salt water and is then taken in armfuls to the plants and put in the center of the leafitems or on the short, thick stem from which the leaves spread out on every lide. Slowly, but surely, the decayed mat-, ter disappears, the leaves stiffen and’ ipread out erect—signs, apparently, that the plant has dined heartily, for It really is a case of feeding a plant There is no opening of the stem or leaves; the food Is slowly and gradually absorbed to a silent and wonderful manner.—Btoston Post