PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 133 



obstruction, but almost immediately came down 

 with a run, rubbing his hands and face and picking 

 a swarm of ants from his clothes. Looking up we 

 could see that the attack on the plant had brought 

 out its garrison, which blackened every leaf and 

 flower-stem, and made the negro descend in 

 such hot haste. We will not go into details as to 

 how we procured the plant at last, but only men- 

 tion that the ants kept us at bay for fully half an 

 hour before we could throw it into the stream. 

 Then came the work of getting rid of the virulent 

 insects by pushing the whole mass under water 

 with a long bamboo, and keeping our bateau up- 

 stream to prevent their coming on board. As the 

 roots became soaked the creek became covered 

 with black patches, and it was quite a work to 

 keep them from running along the bamboo. 

 Presently, however, several larger forms were seen 

 swimming in the water, and these turned out to be 

 cockroaches, which also went floating down with 

 the ants. But we had not yet dislodged all the 

 occupants, for soon a large centipede was seen 

 struggling in the crowd, and, as may be supposed, 

 we did not hurry to take in the plant until sure 

 that this was the only one of its kind harboured by 

 the Oncidium. 



One of the party suggested that this was "a 



