Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — The Leaf of Life. [ARTICLE]

The Leaf of Life.

Thebe’s a certain curious member of the plant family, very common in Jamaica, I’m informed, called the life plant, or leaf of life, because it is almost impossible to kill the leaves. You may cut one off, and hang it up by a thread, where any ordinary leaf would be discouraged and dry up. It will send out long, white thread-like roots, and set about growing new leaves. You may cut otT half a ieaf and throw it into a tight box, wnere it can get neither light nor moisture (necessaries of life to other plants); the the spirited little leaf puts out its delicate roots all the same. Even pressed, and packed away in a botanists herbarium — the very dullest and dryest place you ever did see^—lt will keep up its work, throw out roots and new leaves, and actually grow out of its covers! I’m told that botanists who want to dry this pertinacious vegetable are obliged to kill it with a hot iron or with boiling water.—” Jack-in-the-Pulpit,” St. Nicholas for June. At a recent meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in Calcutta, a piece oi telegraph cable was exhibited, showing that the india-rubber covering had been pierced by grass. The piercing was socomplete, and the contact of the grass with the copper so perfect, that the “ dead earth,” as it is technically called, was produced, and the efficiency of the coble destroyed. The species ot the grass, owing to its dried-up condition, could not be determined. It was suggested, as a probable explanation, “ that the seeds trod become attached to the core when under water, and had afterward germinated when the core was stored.” An average of about 100 bars of silver bullion, each weighing about 180 pounds, addressed to the United States Mint, Philadelphia, and dozens of boxes of coined silver from the Carson Mint, addressed to the United States Sub-Treasurer at New York, are expressed eastward over the Union Pacific daily. The Humboldt (Kan.) paper-mill makes-wrapping-paper from ordinary grass.

RENSSELAER UNION AND JASPER REPUBLICAN. RBNftSICT.AFR- ' . INDIANA.