THE PAGE OF NATURE. 69 



in groups and clusters, bearing a strong resemblance to 

 Arabic and Chinese letters. 



In that well-known and interesting work, " Travels 

 in Tartary, Thibet, and China," by the French Lazarists 

 Hue and Gabet, there is a long description of a very 

 remarkable phenomenon called the " Tree of Ten Thou- 

 sand Images," found by them near the town of Koum- 

 boum in Thibet. For the sake of those who may not 

 have access to the original work, I shall quote the de- 

 scription entire. " At the foot of the mountain on which 

 the Lamasery stands, and not far from the principal 

 Buddhist temple, is a great square enclosure, formed 

 by brick walls. Upon entering this, we were able to 

 examine at leisure this marvellous tree, some of the 

 branches of which had already manifested themselves 

 above the wall. Our eyes were first directed with ear- 

 nest curiosity to the leaves, and we were filled with an 

 absolute consternation of astonishment at finding that 

 in point of fact, there were upon each of the leaves well 

 formed Thibetian characters, all of a green colour, some 

 darker, some lighter than the tree itself. Our first im- 

 pression was a suspicion of fraud on the part of the 

 Lamas ; but after a minute examination of every detail, 

 we could not discover the least deception. The charac- 

 ters all appeared to us portions of the leaf itself, equally 

 with its veins and nerves ; the position was not the same 

 in all; in one leaf they would be at the top, in another 

 in the middle, in a third at the base or at the side ; the 

 younger leaves represented the characters only in a par- 

 tial state of formation. The bark of the tree, and its 

 branches which resemble that of the plane-tree are 



