CURIOUS CREATURES. 



165 



because there can be no resistance, they approach, and 

 with their darts and speares, wound her to death, and 

 then take off her skin, and leave the Carcasse in the 

 earth. And this is all that I finde recorded of this 



most strange beast." 







THE LAMB-TREE. 



As a change from this awful animal, let us examine 

 the Planta Tartarica Borometz which was so graphically 

 delineated by Joannes Zahn in 1696. Although this is 

 by no means the first picture of it, yet it is the best 

 of any I have seen. 



A most interesting book * on the " Vegetable Lamb of 

 Tartary " has been written by the late Henry Lee, Esq., at 

 one time Naturalist of the Brighton Aquarium, and I am 

 much indebted to it for 

 matter on the subject, which 

 I could not otherwise have 

 obtained. 



The word Borometz is 

 supposed to be derived 

 from a Tartar word signify- 

 ing a lamb, and this plant- 

 animal was thoroughly be- 

 lieved in, many centuries 

 ago but there seem to 

 have been two distinct 

 varieties of plant, that on 

 which little lambs were 

 found in pods, and that as represented by Zahn, with a 

 living lamb attached by its navel to a short stem. This 

 stalk was flexible, and allowed the lamb to graze, within 



1 Written to prove that this plant was the Cotton-plant. 



