LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

You may wonder why carnivorous plants have evolved the various devices for capturing insects and other small animals. Whether it is the complete explanation or not, we do know that these plants usually grow in swamps and bogs where available nitrogen is scarce. It may be that the several devices for trapping insects are adaptations which permit the plants to supplement their nitrogen-poor intake from the soil with the nitrogenous compounds from digested animals.

For nearly 200 years insectivorous plants have attracted the attention not only of lay people but also of scientists, including the great evolutionist Charles Darwin who wrote one of the masterly books on the subject. Because of the considerable attention they have commanded and their widespread collection, combined with the fact that their swampy habitats are fast disappearing before the onslaughts of civilization, these remarkable plants face the danger of extinction. Obviously we need to take steps to conserve these bizarre plants.

Carnivorous plants are remarkable enough in their own right, but because of their unusual structure and fascinating behavior, there appear periodically stories in the press about the discovery or existence of tropical man-eating trees whose massive tentacles reputedly fasten onto humans -- usually females -- crush their bodies in their viselike clasp, and then leisurely digest their succulent bodies. As a fair representative of this kind of science fiction we offer the following wire-service news story which appeared a few years ago, datelined London:


SCIENTISTS SEEK
MAN-EATING TREE

Madagascar Tribes Worship It, Giving
It Young Girls as Living Sacrifice
Explorer Says

A band of British explorers, including one woman, will land on the islands of Sinbad the Sailor in a few weeks to search for the mysterious Madagascar "Sacrifice Tree," which devours human beings.

The so-called man-eating tree, which actually is said to take the lives of young girls rather than men, is not a product of the imagination, high authorities declare.

Captain V. De La Motte Hurst, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, has been convinced that it not only exists, but that each year it devours several of the most beautiful maidens of the island. The superstitious tribes offer the girls to the tree as sacrifices, he said.

"I have been told about the tree by many chiefs of the island and I have no doubt of its existence," Captain Hurst said. "It eats human beings, but since the natives worship it, they are reluctant to reveal its location."

The tree, as described to the captain, is similar to a colossal pineapple. It is about eight feet tall and six feet around the base. It has long tendrils, which reach upward, each about as thick as the arm of a man.

"The leaves are large and concave, and are lined with "claws." From the tree comes an intoxicating liquid, which the natives drink to around the hysteria which leads up to the sacrificial ceremony.

"While the natives dance around the tree, a young girls is forced to drink the liquid," Captain Hurst said. "Then she is compelled to get up into the middle of the tree.

"The tree's tendrils and leaves are hyper-sensitive and as soon as the weight of the sacrificial maiden is pressed against them, the tendrils entwine her. The leaves raise slowly and completely hide the girl.

"The pressure of the tendrils and leaves is like a vise and it is said the body of the girl is crushed. I am told that the leaves remain in that formation for five or six days and then slowly reopen. Only the bones of the victim are found."

Captain Hurst's expedition will land at Morundava, a small village ont he coast of Madagascar. It will pass through the territories of half a dozen tribes, some of which are hostile.

The expedition hopes to take a motion picture of the tree sacrifice.

Needless to say, no motion picture nor further report of the expedition has appeared in the years since this story was published. Did this story inspire the play "Little Shop of Horrors"?