ound on Zenia and at least two other planets. It traps its game
without movement, but is nevertheless insectivorous. You have another
species on Earth that is, or was, very common: the Mimosa Pudica.
Perhaps you know it as the sensitive plant. It does not trap insects,
but it has a very distinct power of movement, and is extremely
irritable.

"It is not at all difficult to understand a carniverous tree, capable of
violent and powerful motion. This is undoubtedly what we have here--a
decidedly interesting phenomena, but not difficult of comprehension."

It seems like a long explanation, as I record it here, but emanated as
it was, it took but an instant to complete it. Mr. Dival went on
without a pause:

"I believe, however, that I have discovered something far more
important. How is your menore adjusted, sir?"

"At minimum."

"Turn it to maximum, sir."

I glanced at him curiously, but obeyed. New streams of thought poured in
upon me. Kincaide ... the guard at the exit ... _and something else_.

I blanked out Kincaide and the men, feeling Dival's eyes searching my
face. There was something else, something--

I focused on the dim, vague emanations that came to me from the circlet
of my menore, and gradually, like an object seen through heavy mist, I
perceived the message:

"Wait! Wait! We are coming! Through the ground. The trees ...
disintegrate them ... all of them ... all you can reach. But not the
ground ... not the ground...."

"Peter!" I shouted, turning to Dival. "That's Peter Wilson, second
officer of the _Dorlos_!"

Dival nodded, his dark face alight.

"Let us see if we can answer him," he suggested, and we concentrated all
our energy on a single thought: "We understand. We understand."

The answer came back instantly:

"Good! Thank God! Sweep them down, Hanson: every tree of them. Kill them
... kill them ... kill them!" The emanation fairly shook with hate. "We
are coming ... to the clearing ... wait--and while you wait, use your
rays upon these accursed hungry trees!"

Grimly and silently we hurried back to the ship. Dival, the savant,
snatching up specimens of earth and rock here and there as we went.

* * * * *

The disintegrator rays of the portable projectors were no more than toys
compared with the mighty beams the _Kalid_ was capable of projecting,
with her great generators to supply power. Even with the beams narrowed
to the minimum, they cut a swath a