STRANGE STORY FROM THE EAST.

Northland Age, Volume VI, Issue 40, 30 May 1910, Page 8

STRANGE STORY FROM THE EAST.

A TREE WITH EMOTIONAL FEELINGS.

A writer in the “Singapore Free Press" gives an interesting account of a small pink blossom of great rarity, which he says has the valuable property of intensifying the scent of any flower if the water in which it has been kept is sprinkled over the bouquet. -This blossom, which commands a very high price, is grown only in a certain garden off the Buona Vista Road, by an old Javanese, Hadji Abdullah by name, whose reputation as a gardener is so well known locally, that the expression, "It is as if grown in the kebun of Hadji Abdullah," is frequently heard wheD the fragrance of any flower is of more than exquisite delicacy. The writer continues k

Having expressed a desire to visit the famed garden of Hadji, I was taken there one morning by a mutual acquaintance, and found the old man gathering the new-fallen leaves from a tall flowering shrub, which he intended to store till ready for the market. The Hadji, having, in the exaggerated language of the East, placed the whole garden and its contents at my disposal, I was surprised that he added the limitation, “Save only the poko karbola.” On my second visit, being curious, I asked him the meaning of this, when he led me to a shady corner, where grew

A SHORT TREE COVERED WITH BRIGHT YELLOW LEAVES

of velvety softness,, having branches and stems of a glossy black, which seemed unnatural to associate with plant life, and might be taken for the soft fur of a black kitten. A wind bad begun to rise, and as we stood beside the tree it increased in violence, and a few of the leaves were swept from their stems. Motioning me to advance, the Hadji pointed to the part where the leaves had been severed, which, on pressing witb a finger, left an impression of bright red, the colour of blood. After a few moments he now directed my attention to the fact that the red juice had ceased to exude,, but bright beads of water glistened like tear-drops in its place. Wondering, I asked him for an explanation, when he assured me that plants, like human beings, have not only life, but feelings, hearts that can be lacerated and saddened by cruel stabs, and feel all the emotions we so unthinkingly deny to be existent in the lower animal and plant life. He then told me THE STORY OF HIS DISCOVERY of this rare tree. “When a young man of barely seventeen, 1 married the daughter of a gardener named Abdul bin Ali, who, like myself, was employed in the Gardens of Buitenzorg. She was a frail thing, and had first attracted me by a soft, appealing look in her eyes, such as one sees in a rusa betina or doe when the knife lies embedded in its side, and as T was ready to forego the usual money claim, her father was only too glad to let me have her. She bore me a child, which, to my disappointment, was a girl, who died after two days in the arms ot the bidan.

“My wife afterwards seemed to change in appearance, the colour of her skin becoming that dark red such as men love to see, her body well nourished, and her manner, though modest, more cheerful, her voice being heard sometimes in singing. I was astonished at the great alteration, but THE CAUSE REMAINED UNKNOWN.

One day T found a leaf such as you now behold, and, never having seen its like before, 1 asked my wife where she had got it, on which she denied all knowledge of how it came to be in the bouse.

‘“During the same week, one afternoon in* the month Rajab, feeling feverish, I left work earlier than usual, and. when crossing a belt of jungle near a solitary part of the gardens, espied my wife sitting beside a small tree. At my approach she started up, and. throwing her arms around the tree, gave out loud cries. I rushed forward to see what was wrong, and found her unconscious. but clinging so tenaciously to the tree,, ot tbe tree to her, that it was only with considerable violence that I was able to detach her body, which T raised in my arms and hurried home with, to find that SHE HAD CEASED TO LIVE. Od examining this tree I found part of the bark peeled off, a red juice exuding, such as you have just witnessed, having the colour and smell of blood, and on the very next day it was found withered aDd dried up.” The recollection seemed to sadly affect the old man, who here rose and left me, and attempts at further explanation were ever afterwards met by a silence that proclaimed his disinclination to revert to the subject.