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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1960)
o o THURSDAY. JUNE 30. 1960 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, ORE. r 'Worlds y v. w Around ' ' By Lynn M. Watkins ... ' I aSry f Tex imbi .(' ' . z:S& The Gooloqical Story Behind Ceiimon Leavei You would have been very unobserving not to have seen in hotel lobbies and in plant ings of tropical plants the sturdy vine with the huge, shiny green leaves; , leaves that are deeply cut and per forated with many irregular openings. The sturdy vine had Its origin in Mexico and Central America a very long time ago and is named monstera : de liciosa because a delicate flavored fruit grows on the vine. Called also a cerimon, it is a member of the Arum family. It is unusual because of its large leaves and the deep' cuts and perforations in the leaves. In its native land in a tropi cal Jungle, the leaves often are four feet long and three feet wide. Perforated Leaves The openings in the leave: and their deeply cut edges serve a very definite use. Here we find a specialized type of plant adaptation to its environment. We must project our thoughts back across millions of years of geological time; back to the very beginning of plant growth. It was dark in the jungle. Those plants that grew close to the ground were hungry for sunlight. They struggled upward. But the forest giants grew ever higher and denser. The plants on the jungle floor couldn't make it. So, they re signed themselves to the low er, more-shady level. Over a period of undetermined time, they increased the individual size of their leaves, thereby presenting more leaf Surface to what sunlight came through. The development of the leaves over a long period of time took on gigantic propor tions. Along the vertical stem of the vine one great leaf overlapped the one below it, but all arranged themselves to catch every trace of sun light. The vine struggled up ward, leaning on a tree for support. It sent out tiny, clasping fingers that held it in place. No Realiiation The plant, having no sense, never realized what it was doing in developing its huge leaves. As one giant leaf put out from the parent stem, one above the other, a problem of another sort presented itself. In its attempt to increase its leaf area, it overdid it, and the leaves, overlapping, acted like the shingles of a roof funneling the water away from the root system. Something had to happen, and once again, the plant be gan another phase of its de velopment. This time .holes and deep, leaf-edge cuts slow ly appeared. Now the rains came again and again over years and years, and the water ran through the open ' ings in the leaf. Adaptation. This, then, seems the ob vious explanation for the per forations; perhaps it all hap pened like that; maybe it didn't, but the holes are there in all the leaves of the ceri mon; plant evolution n r" lions of years of plant growth from the dark rain-jungles to the tropical display in a mod ern hotel lobby. (Released by The Register and Tribune Syndicate. 1960) Governors Call for Medical Program Glacier Park, Mont. -fllPD-The nS$n's governors, in a surprise but narrow vote, called on Congress Wednes day to enact a medical in surance program for the aged based on the Social Security payment system. The medical aid resolution, amended at the last minute, was adopted by a roll call vote of 30-13-barely the re quired two-thirds majority. The National Governor's conference1 also acted on al most a score of other reso lutions including one calling for continuation of the in terstate highway construction program with financing which will not mean an increase in the three-cent federal gaso line tax. Man's Best Friend Navigates Automobile Newark, N.J. - A Newark man was hit by his own car in his own driveway. Victor Knaph was treated for a fractured ISg. He stop ped the car next to his house and got out too close to the garage door. 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