SAVED BY A PLANT

Evening Star, Issue 19456, 14 January 1927, Page 14

SAVED BY A PLANT

FACES TURNED TO THE SUN A party of travellers who recently returned to Texas owed their lives, when lost in a terrible storm that swept the prairies, to a plant which has, on more than one occasion, been responsible for saving human beings. This plant, which was first brought to the attention of the scientific world by General Menjamin Alvord, is one of the most remarkable in the world. Known as the compass plant, it received its name from the strange property exhibited by its leaves of presenting their faces to the rising and setting sun. The compass plant is a perennial, and during its first year bears radical loaves only. In its second year it is a flowering herb, with four to five leaves measuring from 12in to SOin in length. It is found mainly on the rich prairies of the Mississippi Valley, and its peculiar powers were well known to hunters and settlers long before General Alvord discovered it. When lost on dark nights they would search for it, and, by feeling 'its leaves, obtain their bearings. A plant which is said to be able to predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions bears the scientific name of Abrus precatorius. It is a native of Cuba, has no flowers, and consists of a long stalk from which branch numerous twigs, containing rows of delicate-look-ing leaves. The leaves frequently change color or close, while the twigs bend themselves into curious positions. This plant is highly sensitve to electric and magnetic influences, and by being able to interpret the movement of the plant in response to electric currents the scientist is enabled to predict great convulsions of Nature.