TEE NEEETIEREREIERREE EEE a 
PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
Water Lily (Victoria Regia) are veritable 
music schools of Frog practice. Every voice 
from croaking bass to youthful tenor is heard! 
Every tree has its Frogs and Birds—every bush 
and shrub innumerable insect warblers. 
The birds are the plants’ vocalists. Their 
songs and delightful twitterings are among the 
most familiar things in Nature. The music of 
the large body of insect-instrumentalists is car- 
ried on in such obscure places, and often so far 
down among the very roots of the plants, that 
a considerable investigation of their methods 
may not be amiss. They are especially active 
after sundown. 
The common Grasshoppers form a great 
corps of violinists. A large vein on the inside 
of their thighs makes an ideal bow. It is 
roughened not with resin but by a hundred 
minute spines. When this vein is rubbed to 
and fro on the serrated veins of the insect’s 
wing-cover, a shrill tone is produced. Sitting 
on its haunches, the Grasshopper saws away 
with both hind legs at a great rate. The in- 
teresting discovery has been made that the ve- 
locity of the strokes increases with the tempera- 
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