what does "fire-plant"mean?
"He's feedin' on the fire-plant," Penny murmured.
He pointed to the flat arrow-shaped leaves. Edges showed jagged tooth-marks. Others were bitten clear of the stalk.
"Hit's his spring tonic. A bear'll make for it first thing, time he comes out in the spring." He leaned close and touched a leaf whose ragged edge was turning brown. "Dogged if he wa'n't here a night ago, too. That's how come him to have appetite for a nip o' pore old Betsy."

Question

what does "fire-plant"mean?
"He's feedin' on the fire-plant," Penny murmured. 
He pointed to the flat arrow-shaped leaves. Edges showed jagged tooth-marks. Others were bitten clear of the stalk. 
"Hit's his spring tonic. A bear'll make for it first thing, time he comes out in the spring." He leaned close and touched a leaf whose ragged edge was turning brown. "Dogged if he wa'n't here a night ago, too. That's how come him to have appetite for a nip o' pore old Betsy."

Answer

Many U.S. native speakers wouldn't know this. I wouldn't know it without looking it up. When you post a question like this, you should mention that it is a quotation from Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's 1938 novel, "The Yearling." Wikipedia tells me that it is set in backwoods Florida in the 1870s. When I read it as a kid, all I knew is that it was "out in the country" somewhere. The quoted language is full of dialect, colloquialisms, and vocabulary that belong to the period and the locale.

Answer

I've never heard of fire plant

Answer

get it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_heterophylla

Answers · 3

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