562 



Marvels of the Universe 



where they find trickhng moisture and food material, and at last they reach the earth. They 

 expand into thick trunks all round the supporting tree, and the true trunk at their summit waxes 

 fat and puts out many leafy branches above those of its host, gradually- shutting out all light from 

 it, and finally killing it by suffocation. Then the dead tree rapidly succumbs to the disintegrating 

 influences of boring beetles, termites and fungi, until it has mouldered right away and left the 

 victorious Clusia perched up on its scaffolding of thick aerial roots. 

 So, it will be seen that trees can fight as well as beasts and men. 



THE PROTEUS, OR OLM 



BY R. LYDEKKER 



readers have studied Sir Humphry Davy's 



Probably not many of my readers have studied Sir Humphry Davy's " Consolations in 

 Travel " ; but those who are acquainted with that charming book will be mindful of the article 

 on the Proteus, or Immortality, in which it is stated that the blind salamander inhabiting the 



subterranean waters of 

 Carniola, Carinthia and 

 Dalmatia is " a far greater 

 wonder of nature than any 

 of those which the Baron 

 \'alvasor detailed to the 

 Royal Society, a century 

 and a half ago, as be- 

 longing to Carniola." Why 

 it was called " Proteus," 

 seeing that it never changes 

 its form, or why Sir Hum- 

 phry selected it as an 

 emblem of immortality — 

 unless it be that it will 

 live for years in confine- 

 ment — is by no means easy 

 to guess ; but both these 

 attributes have become 

 practically a part of the 

 creature. 



Qriginalty discovered in the waters of the great cave of Adelsberg, near Trieste, the 01m (to use 

 its German title) is an eel-like salamander of about ten inches in length, of a transparent fleshy white- 

 ness, with a pair of branching coral-red gills on each side of the neck, which may be snipped off with 

 a pair of scissors without doing any apparent harm to their owner, who is also furnished with lungs. 

 Its fore feet, as Sir Humphry Davy did not fail to observe, resemble hands, although having but 

 three fingers apiece, and are too feeble to be of any use in grasping or srrpporting the weight of 

 the body ; while the hind feet are two-toed, and in old specimens are almost abortive. Two black 

 beady points on the sides of the head serve to show that the 01m is descended from salamanders 

 vidth functional ej'es, which have become rudimentary from lack of use. Moreover, the fact that 

 when the 01m is exposed to the action of light its skin darkens like an undeveloped photograph 

 indicates that its ancestors were coloured after the fashion of ordinary salamanders. Whether 

 when they are returned to darkness the colour fades out does not appear to be ascertained. 



Sluggish and slow in their habits, 01ms spend most of the time deep in the water ; but if the 

 latter be deficient in oxygen, they will rise occasionally to the surface to take a gulp of fresh air 



Pholohy] [ir. .S. ISerridge. 



THE PROTEUS. OR OLM. 



The fore feel of the Olm resemble hands, each with three fingers, while the hind feet 

 are two-toed, and in old specimens almost abortive. The site of the rudimentary eyes is 

 marked by two black beady points on the sides of the head. 



