STRANGE PLANTS ANT) THEIR WAYS. 41 



water, supplying to the traveler the place of wells in the 

 desert. So abundant and pure is the water that the natives 

 will not take the trouble to go to a spring or well, but draw 

 off and drink the fluid of this tree. The Eev. William El- 

 lis, in his account of a visit to Madagascar, says he was 

 skeptical of these accounts, and resolved to test their truth. 

 Passing a clump of the trees, one of his bearers thrust his 

 spear-head several inches deep into the thick, firm end of 

 the leaf-stalk, where it joined the trunk. Instantly a stream 

 of water gushed forth, about a quart of which was caught 

 in a pitcher. The water was found to be almost ice-cold, 

 clear, and perfectly sweet. 



5. "But," says Mr. Ellis, "in Madagascar this tree 

 might with propriety be called the builder's instead of the 

 traveler's tree. Its leaves form the thatch of all the 

 houses on the eastern side of the island. The stems of 

 the leaves form the partitions and oftentimes the sides of 

 the houses, and the hard outside bark, having been beaten 

 out flat, is laid for flooring. I have seen the entire floor 

 of a Ions:, well-built house covered with its bark, each 

 piece being at least eighteen feet wide and twenty or thirty 

 feet long. The leaves make water-proof wrappers, when 

 green, and they also serve the purpose of table-cloths and 

 plates at meals." 



6. Charles Kingsley gives this description of a climbing 

 plant valuable to travelers, which is found in the tropical 

 forests of Trinidad: "You walk on and are suddenly 

 stopped by a gray, lichen-covered bar as thick as your ankle. 

 You follow it up with your eye, and find it entwine itself 

 with three or four other bars, and roll over with them in 

 great knots and festoons, and loops twenty feet high, and 

 then go up with them into the green cloud over your head 

 and vanish, as if a giant had thrown a ship's cable into the 

 tree-tops. 



7. "At one of the loops your companion, if you have a 



