Inter-Mountain Farmer | 1902-06-10 | Page 4 | The Deadly Upas Tree

THE DEADLY UPAS THEE. We all lemember how in our )oungcr day we lead of the deadl) upn lice that the man who allottel hlmaelf to sleep undu It seductive shade unlike ln the morning a dead coipse to use a lllbllcal phi use Attentate! and for contlnuoi s )eais the ver) existence of this 111 a tree wa denied Science pro. pounced the Idea of there being such a tiee, .itisuul It was pionoumed to be one of those poiulai 111) lh that gained cu ency and acceptance no one knew just hni, but an) nay It couliin 1 be true the existence of irtut tree I nou attli inert by l I, MiCluer Xievens In Chnmbars Journal He ays the ireo giow In the Interior of Humana among the pathl forest 01 thut great Island M Ilecail the Trench explorer found It The natives krpt asserting Its existence and the scientists continued to scout the idea 31 lUcatl su)s the native Informed him that tho tree re-isembieO re-isembieO a gigantic III), and so he found It spa Ix oter six tut In hilalii spiked leaves from t"n to t cite ft t lorg 'and the outlie evll.sm.-lll 1 grow lh covered an area of oier imi si I e feet" M Ikearl wa icnden 1 violenti) ' b b mere cursor) exarrl nation of the 1 lant ami Its surroundings V t,oat and a dig tcihued at iilgtt in Its Immediate 11 imi nei 1 1 d act and cold In the. morning lo noxious fume were found to be strong- I est at sunset and for an hour before sunrise Inspection ehonej that In the dcpth-i of Its I ell-shaped floneis the dcca)lng henllei of bat, email bird and many Insects were lodged, It I thus found to be one of the cnrnltorou plants, of which quite a number are known nnd the presence of the decn)lng nnlmal liber 1 sufficient to account for the loathsome odor, though perhaps not for its deadly quallt) Another carnivorous plant Is reported from the shores of Lake Nicaragua, Nic-aragua, where Mr. Dunstan an English En-glish explorer, was attracte 1 by the howli of his dog to a plant which held the nnlmnl by three black, sticky bands, which had chafed tho ikln to bleeding Those bindi were tho branches of a now I) -found plant, which he named the land octopu, the native cull It ' the devils noose" The existence if cnrnliorous plant has long been known, and Indeed a good many InntH thitvc In Increased lux-utlancq lux-utlancq with tho addition of flesh to their sustenance, but the verification of the old stories til out the U as will Come like a boon tn a skeptical world, which ha eliminated the Columbus William Tell and many other stories from the believable of Its modem creeds