A DANCING PLANT. 132 
For our last and most surprising instance, we 
must transport ourselves in imagination to the 
fertile banks of the mighty Ganges. Little 
wonder indeed if here we find things marvellous 
and strange, when we consider the exuberant 
fertility of the rich soil, ever moistened by the 
sacred waters, and its vegetable offspring nur- 
tured under the animated influences of a tropical 
sun. As the overpowering floods of light and 
heat, pouring down upon us from on high, are 
too much for us safely to endure, let us seek rest 
and shelter under this broad-leaved tree, whose 
meandering roots bury themselves deep in the 
soft mud forming the river’s edge. The great 
stream rolls smoothly down, and seems the em- 
blem of the course of the river Time, quietly 
rolling itself into the eternal ocean; and lke it, 
alas! carrying down, even before our eyes every 
now and then, the floating body of some poor 
Hindoo, who, with baseless dreams of heaven, 
casts himself to perish in the waters. But glanc- 
ing our eyes along the bank on which we rest, 
what vegetable curiosity is this? A dancing 
plant ! 
It is even so. Seated in a shady recess,—for 
