Wichita eagle., 1890-01-03
TWO WONDERFUL TREES.
THEY ARE THE LIVING WONDERS
Of THE WORLDS FORESTS.

The Swinging Tree Of Australia. which
Causes Great Suffering TO All Who Touch
It-..1he Devil Of Trees" Which Is q
verftable Cannibal.
One Of the most remarkable-not the most
remarkable-trees known to the botanist is
the singing tree Of Queensland, Australia
It hardly attains to the dignity Of a tree, sell
dom growing to be more than 10 or IL feet In
height, which, even in this country of less
luxuriant vegetation, would rank it with the
shrubs and bushes Whether the tree is a
foot or 70 feet in height it always grows in a
cone shape, with whitish, birch colored limbs
and trunk, with saucer shaped dark colored
leaves and flaming red berries. The edge Of
the peculiarly shaped leaf is deeply notched,
each point being provided with a thorn like
that of the thistle. This thorn is the famous
''stingn about which travellers tell wonderful
stories.
A puncture from one of these thorns leaves
no mark, but the pain is said to be madden
ing in the extreme. If one is stung on the
right hand, the pain extends all over that
side of the body. causing excruciating agony
for hours or even days afterwards having,
in fact, been known to cause loss of the senses
and even partial or total paralysis. An Aus
tralian hunter tells of how ne was reminded
during every damp spell for period of nine
years of slight wound on the wrist, caused
by one of the withered leaves OF this tree
blowing from one of the bushes-and touching
him il its flight If horse, while grazing, &C
cidentally touches his nose to one of these
leaves he exhibits every symptom of an ami
NAL suffering from hydrophobia. He rushes
open mouthed at every moving thing-tree.
man, weed or anything that attracts his at
tention-and almost invariably must be dis
posed Of in the same manner as If suffering
from the terrible malady above mentioned
Dogs that have been stung on the legs by the
poisonous spikes of the singing tree chew off
the limb above the wound and seem to think
the pain caused by the amputation slight
compared to that caused by the sting
THE CANNIBAL TREE.
The cannibal tree, which / am strongly
tempted to call the most wonderful of Gods
many wonders in vegetable life, contests for
space to spread its horrid leaves with the
singing monster above mentioned in many
parts of the South Australian jungles. If
the singing tree could be appropriately
styled the demon of the antipodian wilds, the
cannibal tree is surely "a thousand devils
painted brown as Wilson says of the feelers
Of the devil fish. 1t grows up In the shape of
a huge pineapple and seldom attains height
Of over s feet, IN rare instances 8 to II. Its
height has no control Of its diameter, as the
reader may imagine when told that one Of 8
feet is frequently to feet through at the
ground. The leaves, which resemble wide
boards Of dark olive green more than any
thing else, are frequently 10 to 12 fest long
and 20 inches through in the pulpy part, next
to the trunk. These thick, board like leaves
all put out from the top of the tree and hang
down to the ground, forming a kind of UNI
brella around the stem.
Upon the apex of the cone, around which
all these mammoth leaves center, and looking
much like the pistils of huge flower, are
two concave figures, resembling dinner plates
strung one above the other on stick. These
are constantly filed with sickening, intoxi-
eating honey distilled by the tree.
The natives of South Australia worship
the cannibal tree in the name of 1.-The Devil
of Trees" and perform many uncanny rites
about its death dealing leaves, not ikfre-
quently going so far as to sacrifice one of
their number to the blood-thirsty monster.
AN AWFUL SCENE.
A description of a scene of this kind, writ
ten by Cherrie, the Scotch traveller, and
printed in The South Australian Register,
March II, 1875, l give below:
"* My observations on this occasion
were suddenly interrupted by the natives
chanting what Hendricks told me were pro-
pitiatory hymns to the great tree devil.
With still wilder shrieks and chants they now
surrounded one Of the women and urged her
with the points of their javelins until, slowly
and with despairing face, she climbed up the
huge leaves of the tree and stood upon the
conceived honey receptacle in the center.
'Tisk tisk!' drink drinkD cried the men.
STOPPING. she drank of the viscid fluid in the
cup. Rising instantly, with wild frenzy in
her face and convulsive cords in her limbs,
she made an effort TO spring from the fatal
spot But, oh, mol The atrocious cannibal
tree, that demon that had stood SO inert and
dead, came to sudden and savage life. The
delicate but long paipi, like the threads
in the center of flower, danced above her
head with the fury of starved serpents; then,
as if they had instincts of denoniac intelli-
gence, they fastened upon her in sudden coils
around and around her neck and arms, and
while her awful screams aud yet more awful
drunken laughter rose wildly, TO be instantly
strangled down again into a gurgling moan.
the tendrils, one after another, like great
green serpents, with brutal energy and in
fernal rapidity, rose, protracted themselves
and wrapped her about in fold after fold, ever
tightening with the cruel swiftness and saw
age tenacity of anacondas fastening upon
their prey.
1T was the barbarity of the LAGOON
without its beauty-this strange, horrible
murder. And now the giant leaves, which
had hung so limp and lfsless to the ground,
rose slowly aud stifiiy Ike the arms of der
rick, and erected themselves like huge
pointed church spire big in the air, approach
ing 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 thumb screw. A mo-
ment more, and while could see the bases
of these great levers pressing more tightly
toward each other from their interstices,
there triekled 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 10 the tree, clasped it, and with
cups. leaves. hands and tongues, each one
obtained enough of the liquid to send him
mad and frantic John W. Wright in St
Louis Republic.
Religious Lessons Thrown Away.