Racist Comics and Exotic Shrubs: The Corners Edition (Forty-Seven and -Eight)

Wikipedia's featured articles for last couple days take us from a classic, yet racist, comic series to an exotic shrub.

On Feb. 16th,

Tintin in the Congo... is the second volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle [The Twentieth Century] for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from May 1930 to June 1931. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Belgian Congo to report on events in the country. Amidst various encounters with the native Congolese people and wild animals, Tintin unearths a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster Al Capone.

Following on from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and bolstered by publicity stunts, Tintin in the Congo was a commercial success, appearing in book form shortly after the serial's conclusion.... In the late 20th century, Tintin in the Congo came under criticism for its perceived racist colonial attitude to the Congolese and glorification of big-game hunting, and attempts were made in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States to restrict its availability to children.

On Feb. 17th,

Banksia paludosa, commonly known as the marsh or swamp banksia, is a species of shrub in the plant genus Banksia. It is native to New South Wales, Australia, where it is found between Sydney and Batemans Bay, with an isolated population further south around Eden. There are two recognised subspecies, the nominate of which is a spreading shrub to 1.5 m (5 ft) in height, and subsp. astrolux is a taller shrub to 5 m (16 ft) high found only in Nattai National Park. 

Native mammals, such as the brown antechinus and sugar glider, are important pollinators of B. paludosa. Several species of honeyeaters visit the flower spikes, as do ants and the European honey bee. The response to bushfire depends on the subspecies; subspecies paludosa regenerates from underground lignotubers, while plants of subspecies astrolux are killed by fire and regenerate from large stores of seed which have been held in cones in the plant canopy. B. paludosa is sometimes seen in cultivation, with dwarf forms being registered and sold.