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Post by Swampirella on Feb 20, 2020 20:04:50 GMT
The Devil-Plant - Lyle Wilson Holden (Weird Tales May 1923)
(Not to be confused with the story of the same name by John M. Reynolds from Weird Tales Sept. 1928)
The narrator, Rodriguez, describes his early contact with Silvela Castelar. Both orphans and of Spanish blood, they were educated by their guardians at a famous boys' school and become friends until the machinations of Castelar cause him to be kicked out in disgrace. Unable to attend another school or find work, he leaves for America, working his passage on a cattle ship.
He manages to become junior partner in a large business house in Baltimore. Once again, Castelar arrives & begins working at the company. A few months later, a large sum of money is discovered missing and evidence points to the narrator. He is arrested but lacking evidence is acquitted.
Naturally his career is ruined. He begins life anew in the wilds of Australia, becoming a respected and prosperous citizen. He meets and becomes engages to Mercedes, "an olive-hued immigrant from my old province of Andalusia". You won't be surprised to learn that four weeks before the wedding day, Castelar arrives. Naturally he and Mercedes hit it off and will soon be betrothed.
Pretending friendship, Rodriguez continues to smoke, read and hunt with Castelar, while brooding over how to kill him. One day, while wandering in a wild and unexplored part of the country, he finds an "octupus plant" known by the Aboriginal natives as a "devil tree". He and Castelar share a love of botanical investigation. He convinces Castelar that the plant "has a rare and delicious nectar which has a wonderful rejuvenating power" causing one to feel young again and desirable to others. Of course, this is irressitable to Castelar and he insists they set off to find it the next morning.
In the late afternoon they find it. "It was, in appearance, like a huge pineapple about ten or twelve feet in height. from the top strang the broad, dark green leaves, trailing downward to the ground and enclosing the plant in a kind of cage. Inside these leaves, at the top of its bulky body, could be seen two round, fleshy plates, one above the other. Dripping constantly from these was a golden, intoxicating nectar, the fatal lure that tempts the victim to his fate. Surrounding these plates were long green tendrils or arms like those upon an octopus. A slight pressure upon one of these disks woudl cause the serpent-like tendrils to enfold the victim in their deadly embrace, while the sweet fluid rendered the poor wretch oblivious to danger until it was too late".
Rodriguez cunningly urges Castelar to leave the plant alone and return with him. He refuses & drinks the golden juice, wanting "to be loved beyond all men". Rodriquez watches as Castelar is enfolded by the tendrils, one of which catches his hand and removes the skin before he quickly pulls it back. Castelar wakes when a tendril touches his cheek and cries for help, but Rodriguez tells him he couldn't help him even if he wanted to, and now feels his debt to him is "paid in full". As he leaves (no pun intended) Rodriguez hears Castelar screaming "Mercedes!" like a lost soul.
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 20, 2020 20:19:38 GMT
Just came across this; 14 stories including among others M.R. James (The Ash-Tree) H. G. Wells (The Flowering of the Strange Orchid) Arthur Conan Doyle (The American's Tale) Nathaniel Hawthorne (Rappaccini's Daughter) Edith Nesbit (The Pavilion) Somehow Carlos Cassaba/Michel Parry's The Roots of Evil just sounds more appealing, although they share the Wells and Hawthorne stories.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 21, 2020 16:28:10 GMT
Just came across this; 14 stories including among others M.R. James (The Ash-Tree) H. G. Wells (The Flowering of the Strange Orchid) Arthur Conan Doyle (The American's Tale) Nathaniel Hawthorne (Rappaccini's Daughter) Edith Nesbit (The Pavilion) Somehow Carlos Cassaba/Michel Parry's The Roots of Evil just sounds more appealing, although they share the Wells and Hawthorne stories. The British Library are really putting out some good stuff of late. But I'm biased, having always enjoyed the evil vegetation sub-genre - think early episodes of The Avengers with Steed hacking at tendrils with a brolly or Tom Baker-era Dr Who fighting off The Crinoid or some other green plague.
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Post by kooshmeister on Apr 7, 2020 22:46:31 GMT
It doesn't often come up in discussions of killer plants, but Joseph Payne Brennan's grotesquely effective The House on Stillcroft Street merits a mention. The narrator moves to stay with a friend of his, Hugh Corvington, while he works on a novel (like his successor, Stephen King, a good amount of Brennan's protagonists are authors). To help him think, he enjoys long walks around the block, and takes a peculiar interest in one old house on Stillcroft Street. The yard is full of exotic plant life that isn't native to the region, and the exterior of the building is covered in a weird kind of purplish green, very fleshy ivy that for some reason instills a very Lovecraftian instinctual revulsion in the author, and he says as much to Corvington later. He learns that the house belongs to an eccentric named Millward Frander whose hobby is collecting rare and exotic plants... and that no one has seen Frander in some days, not since he imported that new ivy which seems to have overtaken his house. Concerned about the guy, Corvington and his house guest decide to go pay Mr. Frander a visit and do a neighborly wellness check. What they find inside the Frander residence will haunt them until the end of their days and cause Stillcroft Street to go down in infamy. I loved this story. As I've mentioned, I've become a fast fan of Mr. Brennan's brisk writing style and his ability to evoke dread and uneasiness with very little effort through his word choices (something that is actually brought up here as the characters lean on the fourth wall a bit; in describing the ivy to Corvington, the narrator calls it "greedy," and a visibly disturbed Corvington comments something like, "Funny you should use that word. 'Greedy.'"). Someone else on here compared the story to " The Ruins but in a house," and this is a very apt description! So I think The House on Stillcroft Street is my favorite killer plant story. Come Into My Cellar a.k.a. Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar! is another one I like. I especially love the conversation about intuition and knowing something's wrong between Roger Willis and Hugh Fortnum. It's especially effective in the Ray Bradbury Theater episode based on it, although I'm a little annoyed that the actor playing Roger isn't credited. I mean, an actor is credited, but the kinda stoutly-built, mustached guy in the passenger seat ain't Frank C. Turner! Not unless the guy gained and then lost a ton of weight. Someone in post-production goofed. That or the guy's name is Frank C. Turner, but he's just a different Frank C. Turner from the very gaunt guy who played Alvin Marsh in It and Dr. Shepherd in The Fly II, and it's IMDb who goofed. Oh well.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 1, 2020 0:45:18 GMT
Just came across this; 14 stories including among others M.R. James (The Ash-Tree) H. G. Wells (The Flowering of the Strange Orchid) Arthur Conan Doyle (The American's Tale) Nathaniel Hawthorne (Rappaccini's Daughter) Edith Nesbit (The Pavilion) Somehow Carlos Cassaba/Michel Parry's The Roots of Evil just sounds more appealing, although they share the Wells and Hawthorne stories. Here's the table of contents (oddly, the folks at British Library don't make it easy to find the contents for some titles in this series). Rappaccini’s Daughter--Nathaniel Hawthorne The American’s Tale--Arthur Conan Doyle Carnivorine--Lucy H. Hooper The Giant Wistaria--Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Flowering of the Strange Orchid--H.G. Wells The Guardian of Mystery Island--Edmond Nolcini The Ash Tree--M.R. James A Vine on a House--Ambrose Bierce Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant--Howard R. Garis The Voice in the Night--William Hope Hodgson The Pavilion--Edith Nesbit The Green Death--H.C. McNeile (a.k.a. Sapper) The Woman of the Wood--Abraham Merritt The Moaning Lily--Emma Vane Many of these stories are available in other anthologies, including the seemingly obligatory "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid." However, four were new to me: Hooper's "Carnivorine," Gilman's "The Giant Wistaria," McNeile's "The Green Death," and Vane's "The Moaning Lily." I enjoyed all of them, but especially the last one--with its transparently Freudian flower and over-the-top dialogue, it's a pulp classic (it originally appeared in Wonder Stories). And for anyone questioning the inclusion of Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night," editor Daisy Butcher is well aware that the story is about fungi rather than plants.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2020 7:53:34 GMT
Here's the table of contents (oddly, the folks at British Library don't make it easy to find the contents for some titles in this series). Thanks for the info, CB. Can't help thinking that by not listing the TOC they may actually be missing a sale or two. Advertising it as including the mandatory MRJ, Hawthorne, Wells, Conan Doyle standards is of little interest to any but relative newcomers and completists. Promote that it includes obscurities and lesser-anthologised stories and suddenly you've gained the attention of we cobwebby old lags.
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Post by humgoo on Sept 1, 2020 9:02:35 GMT
And for anyone questioning the inclusion of Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night," editor Daisy Butcher is well aware that the story is about fungi rather than plants. They should have felt more obliged to account for the inclusion of "The Ash-tree", which is certainly not guilty of anything!
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Post by helrunar on Sept 1, 2020 12:18:51 GMT
Daisy Butcher is quite a moniker for someone editing a book about vicious plants.
I can't help wondering if she is an evil woman.
H.
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Post by cromagnonman on Sept 1, 2020 13:23:27 GMT
Daisy Butcher is quite a moniker for someone editing a book about vicious plants. I can't help wondering if she is an evil woman. H. Daisy Butcher lol. Almost as appropriate as the midwife Bertha Tugwell. Do people choose their professions or do their professions choose them?
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Post by Shrink Proof on Sept 1, 2020 15:52:02 GMT
Daisy Butcher is quite a moniker for someone editing a book about vicious plants. I can't help wondering if she is an evil woman. H. Daisy Butcher lol. Almost as appropriate as the midwife Bertha Tugwell. Do people choose their professions or do their professions choose them? Good question. Having encountered an ophthalmic surgeon called Piers and a psychiatrist called Dr Goodhead, the jury's still out on that one...
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Post by Swampirella on Sept 1, 2020 15:53:26 GMT
Daisy Butcher lol. Almost as appropriate as the midwife Bertha Tugwell. Do people choose their professions or do their professions choose them? Good question. Having encountered an ophthalmic surgeon called Piers and a psychiatrist called Dr Goodhead, the jury's still out on that one... I had to have a minor biopsy from a Dr. Payne a few years ago I guess it was impossible for him not to live up to his name...
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 2, 2020 10:46:37 GMT
Good question. Having encountered an ophthalmic surgeon called Piers and a psychiatrist called Dr Goodhead, the jury's still out on that one... I had to have a minor biopsy from a Dr. Payne a few years ago I guess it was impossible for him not to live up to his name... I once met someone called Oral Riddle. There was a Headley Meadows at work apparently named after an American cemetery.
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Post by Swampirella on Sept 18, 2020 23:12:03 GMT
I couldn't resist this; a "Plants Hate You" story idea "ripped from the headlines":
From Oddity Central today: "The Qiyi City Forest Garden residential complex in Chengdu, China, was supposed to be a green paradise for its residents, but two years on, the vertical forest concept has turned into a nightmare. Back in 2018, the idea of living among dozens of exotic plants proved very exciting for the people of Chengdu, one of China’s most polluted cities, and by April of 2020 all 826 units in the Qiyi City Forest Garden complex had been sold. Each unit had up to 20 types of plants growing on the balcony, and filtering the city’s air and noise pollution. However, instead of an urban paradise, the eight-tower complex looks like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic film, with balconies overrun by sprawling greenery and plagues of mosquitoes."
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Post by andydecker on Sept 19, 2020 9:23:48 GMT
I couldn't resist this; a "Plant's Hate You" story idea "ripped from the headlines":
From Oddity Central today: "The Qiyi City Forest Garden residential complex in Chengdu, China, was supposed to be a green paradise for its residents, but two years on, the vertical forest concept has turned into a nightmare. Back in 2018, the idea of living among dozens of exotic plants proved very exciting for the people of Chengdu, one of China’s most polluted cities, and by April of 2020 all 826 units in the Qiyi City Forest Garden complex had been sold. Each unit had up to 20 types of plants growing on the balcony, and filtering the city’s air and noise pollution. However, instead of an urban paradise, the eight-tower complex looks like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic film, with balconies overrun by sprawling greenery and plagues of mosquitoes."
This so reminds me of Karl Edward Wagner's "Where the Summer ends". There is something in the green.
(Which story is missing in this thread, if I have seen right. Hm. Often when I see this strange greenery beside the interstate or on public streets I am reminded of this story. What if something malevolent is living under the shrubs and hating you?)
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Post by andydecker on Sept 19, 2020 9:30:53 GMT
Another one.
Eric Williams - The Garden Of Paris: (Weird Shadows from Beyond, 1965, John Carnell, ed) It's Monsieur Delacroix's job to sift UNO crank mail for that rare instance of an anonymous tip which may actually require investigation. M. Abine, whose house overlooks the Zoological Gardens, is insistent that a Soviet cell are using the grounds to commit political assassinations on nights of a full moon. All nonsense, of course. The screams he reports are those of hapless passers-by being fed to a man-eating plant in the Cactus House! Delacroix and Abine learn that Philippe Medan, the MAD BOTANIST who cultivated the monster, is intent on scattering its seeds across the globe.
(Text by dem bones)
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