The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 17, No. 471, January 15, 1831 by Various
page 43 of 52 (82%)
page 43 of 52 (82%)
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water" are not unknown to inferior creation, is a fact interestingly
confirmed to us in the happy incidents detailed by Mr. Campbell, in his _Travels in South Africa_, where a species of mouse is described to us, as storing up supplies of water contained in the berries of particular plants; and, in Ceylon, animals of the _S_ímia tribe are said to be well acquainted with the _N_epénthes distillatòria, and to have frequent recourse to its pitcher. The mechanism of the "rose of Jericho" (Anastática hierochuntìna] shows the susceptibility of plants to moisture in a very remarkable manner; and I have submitted some experiments made with this extraordinary exotic, the inhabitant of an arid sandy soil, to the Horticultural Society of London. That succulents should be found clothing in patches the surface of the burning desert is a phenomenon not the least wonderful in the geographical history of vegetation. In Cockburn's _Voyages_ we find an interesting account of a tree in South America, which yielded a plentiful supply of water by a kind of distillatory process: this tree was met with near the mountainous district of Vera Paz. The party were attracted to it from a distance, the ground appearing wet around it; and the peculiarity was the more striking, as no rain had fallen for six months previous. "At last," says he, "to our great astonishment, as well as joy, we saw water dropping, or, as it were, distilling fast from the end of every leaf of this wonderful tree; at least it was so with us, who had been labouring four days through extreme heat without receiving the least moisture, and were now almost expiring for want of it." The testimony of travellers is too often enshrined among the fabulous; and their credentials either altogether rejected by some, or at least received "cum grano salis." Bruce of Kinnaird forms the most remarkable example of this kind, and the caricature of Baron Munchausen consigned the whole to sarcasm |
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