Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1901 — The Compass Plant. [ARTICLE]

The Compass Plant.

The compass plant is one of the most interesting growths on the great prairies of North America, and many fine specimens may be seen in botanical gardens. It is from three to six

feet high, bears a pretty yellow flower and lives through a number of years. The name is derived from the fact that the edges of its radical leaves always point north and south, and the faces are therefore turned east and west. Hunters, travelers and horsemen on the trackless prairies depend in great part upon this plant to get their bearings. Even on dark nights it serves as a guide. If the lost traveler can feel the edges of the leaves, he can at once locate the points of the compass. Longfellow in his beautiful poem of Evangeline refers to this plant when heroine over the western prairies in search of her exiled Acadian lover. Scientists ascribe the action of the leaves of the plant in always pointing north and south as due to the effect of light