A whisky-bottle floating in the ^Orinoco^ [Amazon] is picked up near the river's mouth, and is found to contain a ms. which details the adventures of two explorers in an untrodden country of Venezuela. Here one of the two men is bitten by a monstrous fanged vegetable growth ^having a vague, distorted likeness to a human figure^, and shortly after, begins to show signs of an appalling transformation. Little by little he is turned into a replica of the thing that had bitten him. Finally, he takes root in the jungle — and stings the narrator of the story, just as the other is about to abandon him in horror and despair.
^xxx^ xxx was added by Smith.
[xxx] xxx was deleted by Smith.