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The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 17, No. 471, January 15, 1831 by Various
page 43 of 52 (82%)
water" are not unknown to inferior creation, is a fact interestingly
confirmed to us in the happy incidents detailed by Mr. Campbell, in his
_Travels in South Africa_, where a species of mouse is described
to us, as storing up supplies of water contained in the berries of
particular plants; and, in Ceylon, animals of the _S_ímia tribe are
said to be well acquainted with the _N_epénthes distillatòria, and
to have frequent recourse to its pitcher. The mechanism of the "rose of
Jericho" (Anastática hierochuntìna] shows the susceptibility of plants
to moisture in a very remarkable manner; and I have submitted some
experiments made with this extraordinary exotic, the inhabitant of an
arid sandy soil, to the Horticultural Society of London. That succulents
should be found clothing in patches the surface of the burning desert is
a phenomenon not the least wonderful in the geographical history of
vegetation.

In Cockburn's _Voyages_ we find an interesting account of a tree in
South America, which yielded a plentiful supply of water by a kind of
distillatory process: this tree was met with near the mountainous
district of Vera Paz. The party were attracted to it from a distance,
the ground appearing wet around it; and the peculiarity was the more
striking, as no rain had fallen for six months previous. "At last," says
he, "to our great astonishment, as well as joy, we saw water dropping,
or, as it were, distilling fast from the end of every leaf of this
wonderful tree; at least it was so with us, who had been labouring four
days through extreme heat without receiving the least moisture, and
were now almost expiring for want of it." The testimony of travellers
is too often enshrined among the fabulous; and their credentials either
altogether rejected by some, or at least received "cum grano salis."
Bruce of Kinnaird forms the most remarkable example of this kind, and
the caricature of Baron Munchausen consigned the whole to sarcasm
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