PLANTS THAT ARE ATHLETES 75 
“packed-up” and clad in its brown travelling suit, it 
is ready to start on a wild, care-free frolic, for all 
the world like a healthy boy, giving expression to 
his exuberant spirits. Soon the wind comes, and 
away the Rose of Jericho rolls and tumbles; here 
and there it looks for a damp spot on which it may 
rest and begin life over. At last it finds a pool 
of water, and here it stops, drinks its fill of water, 
unfurls its branches, sends down its roots, unpacks 
and shakes its seeds out on the damp sands, where 
they may have plenty of water and will be given a 
fair chance in life. Then the parent plant opens 
fresh leaves and buds, and, donning a soft suit of 
tender green in place of its old brown travelling 
clothes, it settles down, wearied from its long and 
strenuous exercise, to rest by the lovely, cool water. 
And unfurling in this refreshing spot, it is trans- 
formed from the dry brown ball into a tender green 
plant. This power of resurrecting itself has given 
it the appropriate name of Resurrection-plant. It 
has been mentioned several times in the Bible, and 
not infrequently in Eastern history. 
Another plant which has this habit of rolling is 
the Selagenella convolvulata. This interesting 
tumbler grows in South America. When it wishes 
to travel to a new home, it rolls up in the form of a 
ball and patiently awaits the first piping wind, to 
