CHAPTER XIII. 



THE SENSITIVE PLANT— GEINGALET AND THE POECUPINE— THE MEXI- 

 CAN CHAMELEON — THE KITE AND THE FALCON— AN AMPHISB^NA 

 SNAKE — A COUNCIL OP TTJEKEYS. 



iUCIEN, seated on the grass, amused himself with touch- 

 ing all the plants within reach of his travelling staff; 

 suddenly he noticed that the branches and leaves of a 

 small shrub shut up when he brushed them with his stick, just 

 like the ribs of a parasol, moved by some invisible spring — it was 

 a sensitive plant. 



He called to us to ask for an explanation of this phenomenon, 

 so we assembled round the shrub, which was about three feet 

 high ; its leaves, finely cut and of a delicate green colour, with 

 pink flowers in tufts half hidden among them. The leaves, 

 touched by the stick, shrank up close to the parent stem, and the 

 oval, slender, and delicate ones, rising on their stalks, pressed 



