The Days of a Man 



[1899 



Diaz the 

 man 



animal 



constrictor-like, around the victim and thus breaking 

 its neck. 1 



In Mexico City I had an interview with Porfirio 

 Diaz, whom I found to be a fine-looking, plain, 

 and direct man, giving an impression of both in- 

 telligence and power. As he spoke no English, I 

 told him in my best Spanish that "he had made a 

 great nation of Mexico/' "No," said he; "el 

 germillo de una gran nation" (the little germ of a 

 great nation). Being then informed that I was a 

 naturalist, he spoke of something which was to 

 him a standing puzzle; could I explain its nature? 

 La pianta It was called the planta animal and it lived in 

 Oaxaca, his native state. Originally a large, clumsy 

 beetle, or rather cicada, it burrowed into the ground 

 and next sprouted up as a plant about four inches 

 high just a stem with a clump of branches and not 

 a single leaf. 



As I had never heard of it, Diaz turned to an officer 

 present, asking him to "go and get a planta animal 

 for Dr. Jordan to examine." The gentleman seemed 

 staggered by the order, and said he did not know 

 where to look. I then suggested that he could prob- 

 ably find a specimen in the Museo Nacional, but 

 that as I was obliged to leave that evening, he would 

 perhaps forward it to me at Stanford University, 

 where I would have its nature ascertained and ex- 

 plained. In due time, therefore, it arrived. It 

 was, in fact, a large nymph or immature cicada 

 bearing on its head a tough, branching, parasitic 

 fungus about five inches long a phenomenon 

 fairly well known to botanists, and of which I re- 

 turned a full account. The museum label bore the 



1 "Old Rattler and the King Snake"; Jordan, Popular Science Monthly, 1899. 



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