Wyoming Weekly Republican

Metalivorous Shrubbery.

Plant that Would Have Become Red if It Had Digested the Story Teller.

Prof. Schelwisch, the well-known naturalist of Bavaria, while traveling with the Stanley expedition in the heart of Africa, noticed a plant with a peculiar steel-colored foliage, and on examination it was found that the shrub, although growing like other plants from the soil, was practically composed of iron. The leaves, although very thin, were bent with great difficulty, and the twigs and branches resisted pressure with a force about equal to the same amount of iron, and to secure a leaf it was found necessary to separate it from the bush with a file.

While Prof. Schelwisch was digging at the base of this plant for the purpose of making an examination of its roots, the natives crowded around him in great numbers, gesticulating in a menacing manner. The professor desisted from his work and the interpreter was sent for. He explained that this was a holy tree, and worshipped by the natives in their fetich religion as a god plant, and that to dig one up would bring ruin and desolation upon the whole village and surrounding country.

Prof. Schelwisch offered to buy the plant, and, taking out a handful of copper coins, gave them to the savages, who gladly accepted the money and distributed it among themselves. The professor then returned to the work of digging up the unique plant, but had not made any great progress when the natives again set upon him. Through the interpreter the professor informed them that he had legally bought the plant and intended to remove it. As soon as this message was made known to the savages every one who had received a coin came and dropped it in the hole at the base of the shrub. Prof. Schelwisch allowed the coins to remain in the hole and walked away toward the mountain to hunt another specimen.

Next day, as the party were preparing to continue the march, the professor was curious to know if the coins had remained undisturbed during the night by the superstitious natives, and on approaching the metal plant was astonished to find it had changed its color completely. Instead of being a beautiful steel color, the stem, leaves, and what was exposed of the roots presented the appearance of newly coined copper coins, and glittered in the morning sunlight like polished gold. Upon examination, it was ascertained that during the night the strange plant had absorbed nearly all the copper coins, with the result of completely changing its color.

What was left of the coins in the hole showed that they were more than half eaten away or absorbed by the roots of the metal plant. Not only was the color changed, but the texture of the plant had undergone a similar transformation. It was found that the thin ivy-shaped leaves were now easily bent around the fingers, would retain any shape given them, and could be readily cut with an ordinary pair of scissors.

Prof. Schelwisch succeeded in surreptitiously securing several branches of this wonderful metal eating plant, and was also successful in obtaining a good photograph of it. No further trace of the existence of the metal plant was found until the expedition reached the Uniamwezi country, when at the base of the Nkomabakosi Mountains a perfect forest of this curious plant was found. This being an uninhabited region, no difficulty was encountered in securing specimens to take back to England.

A great fire was built about the tree, but it would not burn the least little bit.

Philadelphia Times.