xvni LETTERS TO MARCO 119 



extended be no bigger than some of the hawk- 

 moths. The ordinary humming-bird moth 

 seems to me to be too small, but some of the 

 larger hawk-moths might well pass for this 

 bird. The other curiosity is called "a resur- 

 rection plant," and is some sort of large lichen 

 or spleen wort from Colorado. It looked 

 when it arrived just like a piece of dried-up 

 coarse moss, all curled up and of a grayish 

 brown colour, with a few hairy roots, and was 

 apparently quite dead ; but on putting it in a 

 saucer of water in a day or two it slowly un- 

 curled itself and opened out into a very beauti- 

 ful fern-like moss or spleenwort, of a fresh 

 deep green colour, with extremely well-defined 

 and elegantly cut fronds. As long as I kept 

 it moist it remained uncurled and expanded, 

 but on allowing it to dry up it once more 

 relapsed into the shapeless mass it was when 

 it came to me. Since then it has revived 

 and died three times for the amusement of 

 my friends and children, and is at present 

 alive again. 



