DEVIL TREE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1941, 10 September 1889, Page 4

DEVIL TREE.

I have taken much interest, says a Chihuahua (Mex.) letter to the St. Louis Globe Democrat, in the study of botany during my sojourn in this country, the flora of which presents one of the richest fields for the scientist in the world, and have wandered some distance from town on several occasions in my search for specimens. On one of these expeditions I noticed a dark object on one of the outlying spurs of tho Sierra Madre mountains, and could see that it somewhat resembled in form the weeping willow, but the long, drooping whip-like limbs were of a dark and apparently slimy appearance, and seemed possessed of a horrible lifelike power of coiling and uncoiling. Occasionally- the whole tree would seem A WEITHING, SQUIRMING MASS. _ A bird which I had watched circling about for some time finally settled on the top of the tree, when the branches began to awaken, as it were, and to curl upward. They twined and twisted like snakes about the bird, which began to scream, and drew it down in their fearful embrace until I lost sight of it. I made "the best of my way to the tree, and was just in time to see the flattened carcass of a bird drop to the ground, which was covered with bones and feathers. X approached as closely as I dared, and examined the tree. It was low in size, not more than . 20ft high, but cohering a great afea. Its trunk was of prodigious thickness, knotted and scaly. From the top of this trunk, a few feet from the ground, its slimy branches carved upward and downward ; ndarly touching the ground with their tapering tips. Its appearance Was that of a gigantic tarantula awaiting its peet. On my venturing to lightly touch one of the limbs, it closed upon my hand with such force that when I tore it' loose the skin came with it. I descended, and, closing the passage, returned home. I went back next day, carrying half a dozen chickens With which to > feed the tree. The moment I’tossed in the fowls a violent agitation shook its branches, which swayed ito and fro with a sinuous, snaky motion. After devouring the fowls these branches, fully gorged, dropped to their former position, and the tree, giving no sign of amination, I dared approach it and, take the limbs in my hand. They were covered with suckers, resembling the tentacles of an octopus. The bleed of the fowls had been absorbed by .these suckers, leaving crimson stains on the dark surface. There was no foliage, of course, of any kind. Without speaking of ray discovery to anyone about; I wrote an account of it to the world-famed botanist, Professor Wordenhaupt, of the University of Heidelberg. His reply states that my tree is the Arbor Diaboli, only two specimens of which have ever been known —one on a peak of the Himilayas, and the other on the Island of Sumatra. Mine is the third. Professor Wordenhaupt says that the Arbor Diaboli and the plant known as Venus fly-trap are the only known specimens, growing on the land, of those forms of life which partake of the nature of both the animal and vegetable kingdoms.