MIMICRY. 



343 



of a walnut were brought down from the interior to 

 'Georgetown in Demerara, the kernel of which, when 

 ■opened, and the membrane which covered it being 

 removed, displayed the striking resemblance to a 

 snake coiled up. There was the head, the mouth, 

 .the eyes so complete, that one unacquainted with the 

 fact would have believed them to be an imitation 

 made by human hands, and not a freak of nature. 

 As is often the, case with the productions of the 

 interior, the colonists were 

 entirely unacquainted with 

 the mode of growth of the 

 plant which produced these 

 strange nuts. They were 

 generally found , after the 

 annual swelling of the Esse- 

 quibo had subsided along its 

 banks, and for a length of 

 time it was pretended that 

 they grew on a creeper, and 



from the resemblance of its kernel to a snake it was 

 supposed that it might prove an antidote to snake 

 poison.'' Subsequently it was found to be the produce 

 of a large tree [Ophiocaiyon serpentinum) belonging to 

 the same family as the horse chestnut. Our figure 

 represents a nut cut open, and the kernel exposed 



•(fig- 79)- 



As in some sort to counterbalance a too rigid 



Fig. 79- — Snake nut 

 (Ophiocaryon serpenti- 

 nuni) cut open. 



