138 



I 



Amazons, where the specimen was discovered. The piece of wi'ood 

 containing the reptile, after an examination by the scientists of R.'o 

 de Janeiro, was taken to France by Mr. Lopes Netto (Brazilian Min- 

 ister_ to the United States) and placed in the hands of Mr. Louis 

 Olivier, who, after a careful study of the specimen, submitted the 

 results thereof to the Botanical Society of France. 



What isastnni«;lTinrr " ccn^c "NT .- rk1i',r,'o^ ,'^ or, r,^i-;^i^ „„ ti,^ v.;^^4. 



Nattire 



* 



the 



anatomical study that I have made of it having shown me that it 

 consists of _ cells and fibres like those of the secondary wood which 

 surrounds it. It is impossible to explain the fact by saying that there 

 has occurred a formation of these elements in a hollow, which, having 

 been traversed by the animal, has preserved the form of the latter; 

 for on the piece of wood it is not only the contour of the snake that 

 IS visible, but, indeed, the whole relief of its body. 



Just beyond the head there is likewise observed in relief a 

 small cylinder wliich appears to represent the larva of an in- 

 sect. It seems, then, that the snake, in pursuing the latter into a 

 fissure m the tree, has insinuated itself between the wood and the 

 bark into the cambium-layer, which is well known to be the generator 

 of wood and secondary liber. The function of this cambium-tissue 

 IS twofold; m the interior it gives rise, in a centripetal direction, to 

 ligneous elements, the youngest of which are consequently found at 

 periphery of the wood; but toward the exterior, on the contrary it 

 produces, m a centrifugal direction, liber fibres, elongated cells, and 

 prosenchymatous elements, the youngest of which are therefore, situ- 

 ated on the internal surface of the bark. If, then, a foreign body be 

 mtroduced as far as the external limit of the wood, it will, in a"few 

 years, become invested with a series of ligneous layers, which are 

 themselves protected by an abundance of bark. Now, in the case 

 under consideration, not only has there been an investment of con- 

 centric zones around the reptile, but, besides this, cells and ligneous 

 hbres derived from the cambium-tissues have been substituted for the 

 elements which constituted the external portions of the snake in 

 measure as these have become absorbed. The places that these 

 occupied have, as they gradually disappeared, been taken by sec- 

 l^he ZkeTbodyl'^'" ""^-^^^'''^V^'Y ^' P'-oved by the very relief of 



bodl^.^J'-'''^^ f '"^ ''f •?'" petrifaction, is that in some parts of the 

 vlsflle tV ''^'' details of the animal's organization are clearlv 

 o bks anItM' "'P'"^'''"^ '^'' T^''''"^ '•egardto the nostrils and 

 tt?n\,v"A l/' r^I?r„!"Ll ^^- -^^- -d cephalic plates over 



!H?:i'".'.'°;^ "^.^^ this 'subjea'Mr: Olivier makes the foil 



owing 





imal. 

 one- 



