Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". Possibly. If these persons were of a Calvinist persuasion, the plant assuredly found them hard to digest. Possibly not: if so, how then did botanists hear of the plant's existence? One wonders why said missionaries were searching for converts in such an inaccessible area. If the main idea is to get as many folks as possible to see the (metaphorical) light, wouldn't it be much more effective to do one's holy work where folks, in fact, are? Y'know, like cities, towns, and/or villages? The missionaries' denomination was not disclosed. Perhaps dendrophilia or animism was part of their theosophy. At any rate, the plant itself is truly mammoth and well worth a view. David Attenborough should be proud. ---In fact, I think it would be a capital idea to send D.A. to the Philippines to encounter his botanical namesake! Now there's a TV show I would watch.
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". The usual worry in situations like this is that new plant Xxxxx is sacred to Tribe Yyyyy, and the missionaries persuade them to destroy the plant as part of their conversion, so as to cut their links with their non-christian past. It has happened all too often in the past :-(( Could happen so easily here if e.g. the Tribe made sacrifices to this carnivorous plant . . .
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". You read too much fiction :). The missionaries were just out backpacking on Mt. Victoria, Palawan. I find the blue mushrooms more interesting. Sigh!!! I miss the Philippines and its itchy scratchy confusing messy-looking rainforests.
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". Glad to know that they still exist somewhere in the world. Still think that David Attenborough should go find his namesake. And film it!
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". Nowadays a more likely habitat would be the planting strips at a fast food joint. Near where patrons tend to discard partly eaten delicacies like wieners and burgers. Discarding of partly eaten missionaries is probably not common enough to provide a new niche.
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". It's nice to see we all still have a sence of humor. Salamat one and all. barb
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". The whole point of being a missionary is to spread the word - not keep it in the cities.
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". Missionaries have made many such discoveries. Father David summed up his labours in an address delivered before the International Scientific Congress of Catholics at Paris in April, 1888. He had found in China all together 200 species of wild animals, of which 63 were hitherto unknown to zoologists, and 807 species of birds, 65 of which had not been described before. He made a large collection of reptiles, batrachians, and fishes and handed it over to specialists for further study. Also a large number of moths and insects, many of them hitherto unknown, were brought to the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. What Father David's scientific journeys meant for botany may be inferred from the fact that among the rhododendrons which he collected no less than fifty-two new species were found and among the primulae about forty, while the Western Mountains of China furnished an even greater number of hitherto unknown species of gentian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_David
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". That is amazing - and a nice tribute. Makes me wonder just how many flora and fauna are named after Sir David. Must be a bunch!
Re: "Botanists Discover New Meat-Eating Plant". It has happened, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor's_Oak
