CP Beginnings

Ken Cusson (ccskenc@redshift.com)
Mon, 07 Oct 1996 21:16:01 -0700

Jim Lucke wrote:
>
> What the heck, as long as some other new CP'ers are confessing that they're
> just growing a few flytraps from the grocery store, I might as well join in.
> Amazing how so many got the same start (me too): I had a carnivorous plant
> kit from North Carolina Biological Supply Company when I was a teenager. It
> came to a bad end when it was left in the Texas sun for a couple of hours. I
> got started with an article in National Geographic around 1966, I think.

Jim,

Reading your message brought back many fond memories. I too,
"worshipped" the North Carolina Biological Supply Company's catalog when
I was in High School (my HS Biology teacher told me about it). I
also read the article you mentioned (actually there were two: "Plants
that eat Insects!", 5/61 and "Malaysia's Giant Flowers and
Insect-Trapping Plants", 5/64, both written by Paul A. Zahl). I teamed
up with a friend of mine and we did a Science Fair project on VFT's. I
was "hooked" on CP's from then on!

In fact I was so badly hit in HS that I talked the HS librarian into
getting a copy of Lloyd's classic book, "The Carnivorous Plants". I then
proceeded to check it out (my sophomore year) and didn't turn it in
until my senior year (yeah, I kept renewing it until the librarian said
keep it until someone asks for it). I must have read that book over 100
times -- trying to understand it!

I, too, must confess to killing many a VFT ... there was so much bad
information in those days!

Thanks for reminding me of days gone by!