STRANGE PLANTS ANT) THEIR WAYS. 



6( 



of miraculous, and, indeed, apparently so fabulous as to be 

 unworthy of record. But the fact has been established 

 beyond doubt that, for its own purposes, this little plant 

 performs annual journeys over a large extent of country, 

 and into the ocean, whence, at a stated period, it, or rather 

 its offspring, returns to the original haunts, takes root, 

 thrives, and blossoms. 



5. In the height of spring, when Nature casts her brill- 

 iant vesture, set with flowers and flowerets of a hundred 

 varied hues, over the fertile valleys and hills of Syria and 

 part of Palestine ; when every breeze is laden with rich in- 

 cense from orange groves or honeysuckle dells — then, un- 

 heeded amid the rich profusion of vegetation, or isolated 

 amid the desert sands, blossoms the tiny rose of Jericho. 

 On house-tops, where the sun's fierce rays rend crevices ; on 

 dust-heaps, where half-starved, wretched curs prowl and dig 

 for food or a resting-place ; where multitudes throng the 

 streets, and where neither foot of man nor beast has over 

 left imprint on the broiling sand — there sprouts this wonder- 

 ful little plant. 



6. When summer has fairly set in, and flowering shrubs 

 have ceased to blossom — about the same season of the year 

 that Mr. Bull and his family are meditating a month's trip 

 to the sea-side for fresh breezes and sea-bathing, when the 

 whole house is turned topsy-turvy in the pleasurable excite- 

 ment of packing for the month's holiday — the rose of Jeri- 

 cho begins to show symptoms of a migratory disposition also. 

 How astonished Mr. Brown would be if his gardener rushed 

 in with the startling intelligence that some favorite rose- 

 bush or other plant in the garden had evinced sudden signs 

 of restlessness, and, after a few preliminary efforts, had qui- 

 etly taken itself off for the season ! 



7. Hadji Ismail, the Bedouin camel-driver, who wit- 

 nesses this phenomenon annually, encountering scores of 

 roses while migrating, simply pauses to stroke his prolific 



