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

The C6nnlDal Tr6eS-Sacred Trees
Bread and Milk Trees-The Worship
of Trees Among Heather Nations.
From the st. Louis Republic.
Reader, are you lover of the rare and
curious in naturel Are you particular how
your curiosity is gratifsd-whether by
looking at a sheep with three tails, pig
with two legs, or at a chicken with four
legs and two headsl l believe you would
much rather see one man that weigh 500
pounds, and is nine feet high, than to see
forty that would, collectively, weigh tons
and measure 200 feet In hight If put one
above the other. If you are feeling in the
mood outlined above am of the opinion
that have something to tell you about
trees that you will find both interesting
and instructive, whether you have seen the
SHOWS of dozen or more than four score
winters.
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TREES.
To us of the Mississippi valley there is
nothing remarkable about the elms, the
oaks, the hickorys, the different species of
the walnut, or even the beech, with its
clean, trim contour, fair bole and hand
some instep,h as it stands ankle-deep in the
snowdrifts of January, or as its roots put
on new slippers of brightest moss when the
first warm winds begin to blow in March.
We see the black locust tree with its won
derful defense of long, jagged thorns,
pointing in every direction to protect the
tender bark, and wonder at the manifold
device the All-seeing Que has put in opera
ton for the protection of his weaklings in
lower nature, and perhaps go SO far as to
question why the feeble in higher nature
are not in some way protected from the
rubbings and chatngs of a hardened
world.
The sweet gum tree itself may not excite
our wonder, but there is whole sermon in
its curiously fashioned seed-pod, which looks
for the world as If it had been carved out
by the chisel and knife in the hands of some
deft-fngered artist. The chestnut tree and
its fruit, too, we would consider q remark
able illustration of how nature adapts her
self to surroundings, were it not for the fact
that we have been acquainted with it from
childhood. Some will, no doubt, say:
What is there 50 remarkable about
q common chestnut, either tree or fruit?
Nothing at all, to US, because, as
have already stated, we have grown up
together" as it were But to the native of
Nubia it would be as queer as his native
whisthng tree would be to us. 1t is
familiarity that breeds contempt. The
little, pointed, brown nut of the chestnut
tree, safely hidden in its downy bed, and
protected from all prying eyes until after
1t has matured, breaches a more eloquent
sermon than man, with all his cupidity, is
capable of doing.
But, as l have already acknowledged,
things with which we are familiar lose all
the interest we might have had for them
had we been differently situated. This
being the case, l shall proceed to talk of
things far more interesting to the reader
than day dreams or metaphorical musings
There are but few trees in America which
the average reader would consider note
worthy for anything except size or his
torlcal associations. Consequently we
must look to the dense forests of foreign
wonderlands for the genesis of our subject.
Inasmuch as the writer considers the entire
list enumerated and described below as
being entitled to a place in the category of
wonders, no single one will be selected from
the list and eulogized as ''the most wonder
full tree in the world" the designation
belonging, with equal propriety, TO several
of the remarkable natural growths known
to the scientist and traveller.
THE SINGING TREE.
One of the most remarkable, not the most
remarkable, trees known to the botanist is
the singing tree of Queensland, Australia.
1t hardly attains to the dignity of a tree.
seldom growing to be more than 10 or II
feet in hight, which, even in this country
Of less luxuriant vegetation, would rank
it with the shrubs and bushes. Whether
the tree is a foot or II feet in hight, it
always grows in a cone shape, with whit
ish, birch-colored limbs and trunk, with
saucer-shaped, dark-colored leaves and
flaming red berries. The edge of the pecul-
iarly shaped leaf is deeply notched, each
point being provided with thorn like that
on the thistle. This thorn is the famous
''sting" about which travellers tell wonder
full stories.
A puncture from one OF these thorns
leaves no mark, but the pain is said to be
maddening 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 afterward,
having, in fact, been known to cause loss of
the senses, and even partial or total
paralysis An Australian hunter tells of
how he was remidned during every damp
spell, for a 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 in its fight.
If a horse, while grazing, accidentally
touches his nose to one of these leaves, he
exhibits every symptom of an animal suf-
fering from hydrophobia. He rushes open
mouthed at every moving thing, tree, man,
weed, or anything that attracts his atten-
ton, AID almost invariably must be dis
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 ampu-
tation slight compared to that caused by
the sting.
THE CANNIBAL TREE.
The cannibal tree, which I 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
stinging monster above mentioned in many
parts of the South Australian jungles. If
the singing tree could be appropriately
styled the demon of the anipodean 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 huge pineapple and seldom
attans a hight OF over feet in rare in
stances to II. Its hight has no control of
its diameter, as the reader may imagine
when told that one of feet is frequently 8
to feet through at the ground. The leaves.
which resemble wide boards of dark olive
green more than anything else, are fire.
quently 10 to IL feet long, and 20 inches
through in the PUPPY part, next to the
trunk. These thick, board-ll&e leaves all
put out from the top Of the tree, and hang
down TO the ground, forming kind of
umhrpila around the stam