And this nectar, clear as dew-drops, sweet with an aftertaste of some scented spice—­a fragile pungency—­was ever liqueur so purely compounded?  Drawn from untainted soil; filtered and purified; passed from one delicate process to another, warmed during the day, cooled by night airs, chastened by breezes which have all the virtue of whole Pacific breadths; sublimated by the sun—­all to what end, to be proffered to birds and butterflies in ruddy goblets full to the brim.

THE GENUINE UPAS-TREE

Powerful as nutmeg pigeons are on the wing, some suffer lingering deaths in consequence of a singular characteristic of one of the trees of the jungle.  Tall and graceful, with luxuriant glossy leaves, there is nothing uncanny about the tree.  In style and appearance it is the very antithesis of “the upas-tree,” upon which legendary lore cast unmerited responsibility.  Yet in certain respects it would be vain to enter upon its defence.  It is no myth.  There is no exaggeration in the statement that the character of the Queensland tree is actually murderous, and that it counts its victims by the thousand every season.  Of the great host it destroys, all save a few may be very small and very feeble, and from the human standpoint some of its death-dealing is perfectly justifiable if not laudable.  Not often, locally, is a bird destroyed, but the fact that occasionally one has the ill-luck to fall foul of it and to perish miserably in consequence, places the tree in the catalogue of the remarkable.  Neither spike nor poison is used nor any sensational means of destruction but nevertheless the tree is sure and implacable in its methods.

The seed-vessels of the Queensland Upas-tree, “Ahm-moo” of the blacks (PISONIA BRUNONIANA), which are produced on spreading leafless panicles, exude a remarkably viscid substance, approaching bird-lime in consistency and evil effect.  Sad is the fate of any bird which, blundering in its flight, happens to strike against any of the many traps which the tree in unconscious malignity hangs out on every side.  In such event the seed clings to the feathers, the wings become fixed to the sides, the hapless bird falls to the ground, and as it struggles heedlessly gathers more of the seeds, to which leaves and twigs adhere, until by aggregation it is enclosed in a mass of vegetable debris as firmly as a mummy in its cloths.  Small birds as well as lusty pigeons, spiders and all manner of insects; flies, bees, beetles, moths and mosquitoes, as well as the seeds of other trees are ensnared.  Spiders are frequently seen sharing the fate of the flies, fast to seeds in the humiliating posture in which Br’er Fox found Br’er Rabbit on the occasion of the interview with the Tar Baby.

Insectivorous plants am common enough in Australia; but the “Ahm-moo,” tree does not appear to make use of the carcases of its victims, though it kills on an exceptionally extensive scale.