p. 77 | A Laughing-Plant

International Tract and Missionary Society · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Feb 4, 1886

A Laughing-Plant

A LAUGHING-PLANT, that is, not a plant that laughs, but one that creates laughter, is described in Vick's Floral Magazine: "Its seeds produce effects like those produced by laughing-gas. The flowers are of a bright yellow, and the seed pods are soft and woolly, while the seeds resemble small black beans, and only two or three grow in a pod. The natives dry and pulverize them, and the powder, if taken in small doses, makes the soberest person behave like a circus clown or a madman; for he will dance, sing, and laugh most boisterously, and cut the most fantastic capers, and be in an uproariously ridiculous condition for about an hour. When the excitement ceases, the exhausted exhibitor of these antics falls asleep, and when he awakes he has not the slightest remembrance of his frisky doings."—Sel.