556 , KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



an abundance of bark. Now, in the case under consideration, not only has there 

 been an investment of concentric zones around the reptile, but, besides this, cells 

 and ligneous fibres 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 grad- 

 ually disappeared, been taken by secondary wood, whose hypertrophy is proved 

 by the very relief of the snake's body." So far Mr. Olivier. 



"The result, as in cases of petrifaction, is that in some parts of the body 

 certain delicate details of the animal's organization are clearly visible. This is 

 especially the case with regard to the nostrils and orbits, and to the arrangement 

 of the scales and cephalic plates over the entire half of the surface of the head." 



The narrative in the Popular Science Monthly adds from another source the 

 names of the distinguished botanists who were present at the session of the Botan- 

 ical Society of France, and who are said to have adopted the view of M. Olivier. 

 The Bulletin of that Society in which the proceedings of that meeting is recorded 

 have not yet come to our hands. We shall be much surprised if it fully bears out 

 this statement. 



Through the kindness of the Brazilian Minister, we have seen and examined 

 the original specimen, and have been presented with an electrotype of it. It is 

 a great curiosity. The resemblance to a snake is wonderfully close, although 

 "the scales and cephalic plates," which Mr. Olivier identifies with those of a 

 particular BraziHan snake, exist only in a lively imagination. The snake like sur- 

 face is covered by delicate meshes of woody fibres ; and here and there particular 

 fibres or woody threads can be traced from the body to the woody surface. 



The adopted explanation requires us to suppose that a snake had forced his 

 way between the bark and wood of a living tree, in a position exactly under a 

 grub or larva; had perished there when within an inch of its prey; was somehow 

 preserved from decay, even to the eye-sockets and the markings of the skin, until 

 a woody growth bad formed, the elements of which replaced the whole superfi- 

 cial structure of rhe animal, — until the animal was lignified ! Two other and 

 more probable explanations have suggested themselves. One is, that the snake- 

 like body is of the nature of a root, an aerial root, like those of a Clusia or a 

 Ficus, which was making its way between bark and wood; and that the supposed 

 larva is an incipient root of the same kind. The other supposes that the sinuous 

 course is the track of a wood-eating larva or some kind of insect, the burrowing 

 of which had not destroyed the overlying liber ; consequently the new growth 

 filling the space (except at certain points) had naturally assum.ed the likeness of 

 a snake. This explanation was suggested by Professor Wadsworth, of Cambridge, 

 examining the specimen along with the writer; and it is to be preferred. Still, 

 that head and neck should be so well outlined, and the former so well represent 

 a pair of orbits, were surely most wonderful. But a close inspection of the elec- 

 trotype showed that there had been some cutting away at the right side of the 

 neck, and that the narrowing there was in part factitious ; and less decisive indi- 

 cations suggested that other outlines had been touched up. The subsequent in- 



