The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-03

the center Of flower, danced above har
mead with the fury of starved Serpent:
tnen, as II they had instincts of demoniac
lntelhgenee, they fastened upon her in sud-
zen COILS around and around her neck and
arms, and while her awful screams aud YET
more awful drunken laughter rose wildly.
70 De instantly Stralgled down again into a
CUR mig moan, the tendrils, one after
a1other, like great green ssrpents,
with brutal energy and Internal
rapidlty, rose. prOtracted them
serves, and wrapped her about in fold after
Iold. ever tightening with cruel swIftness
and savage tenacity Of anacondas fastening
upon their prey. It was the barbarity Of
the LAGOON without its beauty-this
strange, horrible murder. And now the
giant leaves, which had hung so limp and
llIeless TO the ground, rose slowly and
stiff1y, like the arms Of a derrick, and
erected themselves like a huge pointed
church spTe high il air, approaching
each other and locking their bony
fingers over the dead and hampered
woman with the silent force of an hydraulic
press and the ruthless purpose of a
thumh-screw- A moment more, and while
could see the bases Of these great levers
pressing more tightly toward each other
from their interstices there trickled down
the trunk of the tree great streams of viscid,
honey-like fluid, mingled horribly with the
blood Of the poor victim. At sight of this
the savage hordes around me, yelling madly,
bounded forward. crowded to the tree,
clasped it, and with cups, leaves, hands and
tongues, each one obtained enough of the
liquid to send him mad aud frantic"
THE BREAD TREE
Australia, too, has a species of baobab, or
monkey bread tree, but it is only in Africa.
along the Congo river, that the baobab
grows to perfection. Like the cannibal
tree the baobab grows all out of proportion
Its average hight Is about forty feet, but
like the Dutchinan Of PenZa ice, it is las
big north and south as it is up and down.;
travellers reporting specimens of the
tree ninety feet in circumference. Old
baobabs, with their swinging branches,
resemble a small fores5 more than
they do single tree. Humboldt con-
sidered them the Oldest living organic
mountains on our planet" setting down the
ag S OF several of those examined by him
self at not less than 5000 years. A
70 IN large enough to furnish comfortable
accommodations for thirty men has been
cut out in the trunk of a baobab, which
continued to live and flourish. A tree of
this species planted at Kew Gardens in
England about the beginning of the present
century has been the whole of the eighty
odd years attaining hight of less than i've
feet, which proves to the satisfaction
of any fair-minded man that English
soil is not adapted to the ex eu,ive
culture of monkey-bread. The fruit of the
baobab tree, the monkey-bread itself Is
about the size and shape of a common Hub
bard squash, and is said to be farinaceous
and very nutritious. Taking It's diameter
aud circumference into consideration, and
saying nothing about the hight, the ba-
oabab may be set down as the largest spe-
cies of tree in the world. Within tue last
few years the Mexicans, the East and the
West Indians, and the people Of some of
the other countries of Central and South
America, have been experimenting in
ba bah culture with no small degree of
success.
Those of my readers who are acquainted
with Southeys work will remember his
beautiful description Of the banyan tree in
| his poem, "The Curse of Kehama." For a
great many years the banyan tree was de-
scribed by naturalists as being a species of
| the ba0bab, but is now regarded as a species
wholly different, and as belonging to the
palm family. If it were not for the prom
| Use made in the opening not to designate any
one of the wonderful trees, the appellation
would certainly be applied to the banyan,
which is not tree, but a whole system of
trees. 1t seems to be inclined to grow
| downward instead of upward, as the
trees do with which we are acquainted. 1t
| is said to seldom spring up from the SOIL
| but from the heads of feather, brush, pea
cocktail, and other species of palm, the
| seed having been deposited there by birds
and taken root in the damp, pulpy crown,
so characteristic of trees of the palm
family. The banyan, as limited above,
| does not seem to want TO grow up, but
| down. As soon as the branch begin to
| put forth from the crown of the palm in
| which their germ has found lodging place,
| they commence to hunt for the ground,
each branch taking root as soon as it
touches the damp, moist soil Dit being a
native of India, a fact which l have
neglected to state).
As these roofing branches begin to re-
ceive nourishment they grow with amazing
| rapidity, and send out dozens and hun
dreds of other branches, which, like the
| parent stem, take root and soon form a
| wilderness; single banyan tree on the banks
| of the river Krishna being provided with
| over 4, 900 stems. 800 of them being as large
as the common elms of the Mississippi val
| lev. At one time Kojan Dor sheltered
| $500 soldiers and nearly 5000 horses under
this tree, which may be truly called 1.-THE
| giant of the forest" The natives of some
| parts of India worship the banyan as a
sacred tree. and it is not surprising that the
| deep twilight which always prevails under
| it's dense foliage should impress with IN
spe 4kaole awe the simple Buddhists who
make its shades their dwelling place.
PRovIDENCEs.
| Did you ever stop to think over the wise
| provisions the Creator has made for those
of his people unable to take care of them
selves. The bread trees, the shelter trees,
| and the drink trees all grow in lands where
the people are unable, through ignorance or
| inability, to provide for themselves. The
monkey-bread tree, the fruit Of which is
used by the natives of Africa as well
as by the monkeys, grows where most
needed. The banyan or shelter tree
grows where the little dusky-skin ed
natives of India would be exposed
to the drenching rains and torrld
suns were it not for its friendly
shades: so, too, the COW tree, that botanical
curiosity of South America, grows on the
broad, barren plateaus of Venezuela, where
| it would be next to impossible to fad fluid
sufficient to slack ones thirst were it not for
this wise provision of nature. The sap Of
the COW tree, as its name implies, resembles
milk, both in looks and taste. A slight
balsamic taste has beel reported by some
naturalists who have drunk of the strange
LIQUID: otherwise it was said to have the
| flavor of rich cream and to be very whole
! some and nourishing."
The tree itself frequently attains hight
| of 100 to 125 feet, it not being unusual TO
see a tree trunk of tLis species seventy to
/ kkraVNN q