The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1874-05-27

home of tile clietah and a variety of yeno-
nous serpents. Great ferns bent over its mar
gin, and its surface was spotted with leaves
and flowers of the lotus. A path, diverging
from its southern side, struck boldly for the.
heart of the forbidding and seemingly impen-
etrable forest. Heinrich led the way along
this path, I followed closely, and behind me
a curious rabble Of 1Ikodos, men, women and
children. Aftersw We wcre fairly in the forest,
the shade overhead was SO dense that the jun
gle and underground almost disappeared and
instead there was damp, Doggy turf, cold,
spongy, and yielded to the tread. The stalks
of the tall trees rose like columns, the vines
hanging down from them in festoons, and
their roots running over the ground in every
direction made walking difficult.
Suddenly all the natives began to cry
/" Tepe Tepc {" and Hcnrick, stopping short
said, " Look 70 The sluggish, canal-like
stream here wound slowly by, and in bare
spot in It's bend was the most singular of
trees. I have called it Crinolda, because
ing resemblance to the well-known fossil the
crinold lilystone, or st. Cuthbert's head. 1t
was now at rest, however, and win try to
describe. It TO you. II you can imagine a
pineapple eight feet high and thick in proper
tica resting upon its base and denudcd of
OF the tree, which, however, was not the col
or of an anana, but dark, dingy brown, and
apparently hard as iron. From the apex of
this truncated cone Cat least two feet in diam
eter) eight leaves hung sheer to the ground,
like doors swung back on their hinges. These
leaves, which were joined to the top of the
tree at regular intervals, were about eleven or
twelve feet long, and shaped very much like
the leaves Of the American aguava, or century
plant. They were two feet through in their
thickest part, and three feet wide, tapering to
a sharp point that looked like cows horn,
very convex on the outer (but now under)
surface, and on the inner NOV upper surface
slightly concaye. This concave face was
thickly set with very strong, thorny hooks,
like those upon the head of the teazle. These
leaves, hanging thus limp and lifelcss, dead
green in color, had in appearance the massive
strength of oak fiber
The apex of the conc was a round, white,
concave figure, like a smaller plate set within
a larger one. This was not u flower but re-
ceptaclc, and there exudcd into it clear,
treacly liquid honey-sweet, and possessed of
violent Intoxicating and soporific properties.
From underneath the rim $50 to speak, of the
undermost plate series of long, hairy, green
tendrils stretched out in every direction to-
ward the horizon. These were seven or eight
feet long each, and tapered from four inches
to a half inch in diameter, yet they stretch
out stiffly as iron rods Above these from
between the upper and under cup, six white,
almost transparent, palpi reared themselves
toward the sky, twirling and twisting with
incessant motion, yet constantly
reaching upward. Thin as reeds, and frail as
quilts apparently, they were yet five or six
feet tall, and were SO constantly and vigorous
ly in motion, with such subtle, snuous, sill
ent throbbing against the air, that they made
me shudder in spite of myself with their sug-
gestion of serpents fiayed yet dancing on their
tails. ~
Here were not corola, pistils, statmens,
flower, mind you, nor nothing like it. For
unknown, new species as it is, is
highest akin to the cycadace@, and perhaps
its exact prototype may be found among the
fossil cycade, though confess / do not re-
any one that presents all it's peculiar
features. The description am giving you
now is partly made up from subsequent
careful inspection of the plant. My observa-
tions ON this occasion were suddenly inter
rupted by the natives, who had been shrek
ing around the tree in their shrill voices, and
chanting what Henrick told me were propiti-
atory hymns to the great tree devil.
With still wilder shrieks and chants they
now surround one of the women, and urge
her with the points of their javelins until
slowly, and with despairing face, she climbed
up the rough stalk of the tree and stood on
the summit Of the cone the palpi twining all
about her. Tsik tsik +" drink drink ~
cried the men, and STOPPING, she drank Of the
viscid fluid in the cup, rising instantly again
with wild frenzy in her face, and convulsive
chorea in her limbs. But she did not jump
down, as she seemed to intend to do. Oh no
The atrocious cannibal tree that had been SO
inert and dead came to sudden savage life
The slender, delicate palpi, with the fury of
starved serpents, quivered a moment over her
head, then, as if instinct with demoniac intel
ligence, fastened upon her in sudden coils
round and round her neck and arms then,
while Der awful screams and yet more awful
laughter rose wilder, to be instantly strangled
down again into gurgling moan,the tendrils,
one after another, like great green serpents,
with brutal energy and internal rapidity rose,
retraced themselves. and wrapped her about
in fold after fold, ever tightening, with the
cruel swiftness and savage tenacity Of anacon-