6 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
THE THIRST-QUENCHING AIR-PLANT 
A SURVEYING party: in Florida, says the Michigan Christian Ad- 
•*** vocate, were resting at noon in a forest, when one of the men 
exclaimed: “I would give fifty cents a swallow for all the water I 
could drink!” 
He expressed the sentiment of the others. All were very thirsty, 
and there was not a spring or stream anywhere in the vicinity. 
While the men werej thus talking, the surveyor saw a crow put his 
hill into a cluster of broad, long leaves growing on the side of a tall 
cypress. The leaves were those of a peculiar air-plant. They were 
green, and bulged out at the bottom, forming an inverted bell. The 
smaller end was held to the tree by roots grappling the bark. Feeding 
on the air and the water that it catches and holds, the air-plant becomes 
a sort of cistern. The surveyor sprang to his feet with a laugh. 
“Boys,” he said, “that old crow is wiser than every one of us. He 
knows that there are a hundred thousand water-tanks in this forest.” 
“Where!” they cried. 
The surveyor cut an air-plant in two and drained nearly a pint of 
pure cold water from it. The m^n did not suffer for water after that, 
for every tree in the forest had at least one air-plant, and almost 
every air-plant contained a drink of water. — Exchange . 
SOME CRAWLING LEAVES 
W HEN Australia was first discovered by the English, many strange 
tales were told about the new and wonderful things to be found 
there. Among other things it was said that the leaves of a certain tree 
at times came down from the branches and walked along the ground. 
A party of Ehglish sailors had left their ship, to roam along the 
shore and ‘ 4 see what they could see. ’ ’ They were resting under a tree, 
lying on their backs and gazing upwfard, when a sudden breeze shook 
the tree, and a number of leaves fell from the twigs, turned somer¬ 
saults in the air, as leaves do, and floated to the ground. The sailors 
were surprized at this shower, because it was midsummer, and not the 
time for leaves to fall; besides, these leaves looked fresh and green. 
It was strange to see them deserting the tree without any reason; but 
this was nothing to what followed. 
