122 SHARP EYES 



and in the present calendar series of papers I will pre- 

 sent a summary of a few items of especial interest in 

 the form of a list for ready reference in a lantern stroll, 

 any item of which is well worth a walk in the dews. 



In the pretty pranks of the dew alone we may find 

 a varied entertainment, for upon careful examination 

 no two plants will be found to possess the same whims. 



The Plantain is drenched and dripping, its parallel- 

 ribbed leaf and grooved stem feeding the roots all night 

 long in a tiny runnel of dew. 



The Burdock and the Cabbage. See how the great 

 glittering drop, '" scarce touching where it lies," chases 

 among the deep courses of the netted veins, gathering 

 in size as it dances, until it is precipitated either along 

 the stem or from the edge of the leaf. 



Nasturtium (Tropceolwri). You will generally find the 

 leaves all turned edge upward, and they flash with a fine 

 frost-like sheen. 



Horse-tail (Equisetmn). The reader will remember 

 the "scouring- rush" of the early settlers, described a 

 few weeks ago, a plant with jointed hollow stems and 

 circular fringes of articulated leaves, so common in the 

 swamps. There are various species of the " horse-tails," 

 some of which, like the true " scouring-rush," are al- 

 most destitute of leafy growth, while others are densely 

 plumed with curved and drooping whorls of slender 

 spray. They are pretty enough by day, but in the night 

 they are transformed to very marvels fairy fountains 

 of glittering brilliants, each joint in the thousands of 

 drooping leaves being set with a diamond. Taken all 

 in all, with its antique lineage for the geologist, its cu- 

 rious squirming spores for the microscopist, its gritty 

 stems for the housewife, its flinty tube for the chemist, 



