CORRESroXDEXCE AXl) INFORM \TI( )\ 



371 



sized nowhere mcjre emphatically than 

 among" the insects, in which the writer 

 feels an especial interest. Here, for one 

 from the temperate zone, there is an un- 

 bounded field for study and research. A 

 lifetime would not begin to be sufficient 

 to exhaust its possibilities. 



At one's first visit in the tropics, the 

 very weeds that one tramples underfoot 

 possess a strange interest. The whole 

 environment is new, different, full of the 

 charm that envelops mystically the un- 

 known — the unexplored. 



hrom the day when, at early dawn, the 

 steamship's hoarse whistle signaled its 

 approach to the land and brought me to 

 my feet to peer through the fading 

 shadows of the dying night at the indis- 

 tinct, cloud screened mountains, I have 

 been busy, when time from business per- 

 mitted, with the keenness of the novice 

 in the study of nature's mysteries, and 

 in becoming acquainted with my new en- 

 vironment. That first day I learned to 

 realize wdiat all dwellers in the tropics 

 know — the rapidity with w^hich day 

 comes on, and the equal haste with which 

 the curtain of night falls. Expecting 

 nothing but rain at that time of the year 

 — it w-as early in November — we found, 

 as the distance between the ship and the 

 land melted away, that over there beyond 

 the cocoanut palms fringing the beach 

 the day was fair, whatever the night may 

 have been. The introduction to our new 

 home was promising. It did not matter 

 that for three weeks there had been an 

 almost continuous downpour of rain. 

 Now the sun was shining, though clouds 

 still shrouded the mountains that were 

 alluring in their verdant loveliness. 



Honduras is a fair land. To the natur- 

 alist it is full of wonders, many wonders 

 still to be uncovered. Whether this be 

 the best or the least favorable season — I 

 am writing just before Christmas — I can- 

 not say from my own experience, but the 

 array is so wonderful that I am content 

 to take things as they come. Flow-ers 

 bloom, fruits ripen, birds flit among the 

 trees and gay butterflies dally among the 

 flowers now, as they do the whole year 

 through, and if, when the rains are over, 

 more life should manifest itself, then this 

 must be a busy world indeed. 



Most persons picture a burning sun, 

 blistering sands, parched throats, swelter- 

 ing days and stuffy nights, when thinking 

 of "the tropics." The tropics have all 

 such; but here it is not so bad. The 



nights are cool and one sleeps under a 

 blanket, or maybe two, with the thermo- 

 meter at seventy or seventy-two degrees, 

 and to-niglit, at eight o'clock and with a 

 cold wind and drizzly rain, it is sixty- 

 seven degrees. The noonday tempera- 

 ture in the shade is eighty degrees, occa- 

 sionally a little warmer, and if it be rain- 

 ing perhaps not more than seventy de- 

 grees. l)Ut the sun is hot. 



I had always supposed that a seabeach 

 in a land like this would be strewn with 

 marine treasures, the argosies of the 

 waves bringing tribute from the deeps, 

 strange shells of colors rare, seaweeds 

 with which the queen of the mermaids 

 might deck herself, unheard-of wonders 

 and endless surprises. But it is nothing 

 like that. The beach here is clean and 

 bare ; only a few wave worn pebbles, 

 sand crabs and a shell now and then 

 rubbed perhaps into a faint memory of its 

 original glories by the friction of the 

 sands. On the islands off the coast, faint- 

 ly discernible in clear weather, there are 

 shells and mosses, corals and sponges, 

 but here the north winds seem to whip 

 all life 'into nothingness. It is on the land 

 that one finds his treasure-trove. And 

 some day perhaps I may be able to tell 

 you something about it, although it is, 

 in truth, difficult to know where to dip 

 into the abundance of material that pre- 

 sents itself on every side. 



Francis J. Dyer. 



Curious Behavior of a Plant. 



Our common "water net." Hydro- 

 dictyon reticnlatnm, is rare in England. 

 Reports, however, come of its very sud- 

 den multiplication, so that workmen 

 have to be set to raking out the masses 

 and piling them in heaps on the shore. 

 Then, in less than a month, the entire 

 grow^th disappears, so that careful 

 search fails to reveal so much as a 

 single plant. 



One wonders whether ]\Ir. G. G. 

 Wells, in his story of "The War of the 

 Worlds," did not get from this his idea 

 bf the "red Aveed" introduced from 

 Mars, increasing till it choked the 

 streams and then perishing almost in 

 a nisfht. 



Is not January the hardest month to 

 get through ? When you have weathered 

 that, you get into the gulf stream of win- 

 ter, nearer the shores of spring. — 

 Thoreau. 



