POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



*39 



wood. The specimen is that of a snake 

 called the jararaca, one of the most venom- 

 ous reptiles of the province of Matto Grosso, 

 in Brazil, which, having crept into a crack 

 in the bark of a tree, has died there, and 

 afterward become lignified. As 

 the cut shows, but less plainly 

 than the specimen itself, the 

 head, neck, and other parts of 

 the animal are clearly delineated, 

 and the most delicate details of 

 the organization are plainly visi- 

 ble in many regions as in the 

 nostrils and the eye-cavities, and 

 in the disposition of the scales 

 and the cephalic plate on a whole 

 half of the surface of the head. 

 And the identity of the figure 

 with the little jararaca of Brazil 

 has been acknowledged to be evi- 

 dent by persons who are acquaint- 

 ed with that reptile. M. Louis 

 Olivier, of the Botanical Society 

 of France, who has made an ana- 

 tomical examination of the figure, 

 reports that he has found it to 

 be composed of cells and fibers 

 like those of the secondary wood 

 which surrounds it. " The forma- 

 tion," he says, " can not be ex- 

 plained by saying that it has re- 

 sulted from the deposition of the 

 elements in a hollow, which, hav- 

 ing been traversed by the animal, 

 has preserved its form ; for not 

 only the contour of the serpent, 

 but the whole relief of his form, 

 is recognizable in the wood. The 

 entire body of the animal has 

 been thus lignified, except the 

 center, where the constituent ele- 

 ments of the animal still exist. 

 Following the line of the projec- 

 tion of the head may be seen a 

 cylindrical figure, also in relief, 

 which seems to represent the 

 larva of an insect. The deduction 

 is therefore drawn that the reptile, 

 pursuing the insect into a crack 

 in the tree, had insinuated itself 

 between the wood and the bark, or into the 

 zone of the cambium, out of which the wood 

 and inner bark are formed. Having died 

 there, it went through the process of decay, 



in the course of which each animal particle 

 as it was dissolved was replaced by a particle 

 of woody tissue deposited by the cambium. 

 The specimen was exhibited to the Botan- 

 ical Society of France on the 9th of April 



last, when, as we learn from a note from M. 

 Olivier to Senhor Netto, there were present 

 M. Bonnet, President ; M. Chatin, General 

 Secretary, etc. ; M. Duchartre, Professor in 



