Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — A Poisonous Orchid. [ARTICLE]

A Poisonous Orchid.

Few departments of botany are more interesting than that in which are considered the various ways in Which nature provides for the protection of certain plants. A singular defensive quality has been discovered in a comparatively common orchid, one of the oldest of cultivated species. This plant has decided poisonous properties. The poison is localized in the stems and leaves, and those who are imprudent enough to handle the orchid instantly find themselves attacked by a special cutaneous Irritation, which resembles In some measure that which appears In persons who have handled-poison ivy. The of-” feusive substance consists of an oily matter secreted by the glanular hairs. This matter is found, as In the Chinese primrose, deposited between the cellular wall and the cuticle of the terminal cellule of the hair. It is set free by the rupturp of the cuticle. This poisonous secretion seem? to perform the function of protecting the reproductive portion of the plant, for the virulence of the poison and the quantity secreted increase , as the plant develops, and attain a maximumdurlng the formation of the seeds.