LV 
THE ROSE OF JERICHO 
I SN’T IT ODD that there 
are plants in the world 
that can get up and go travel¬ 
ing, roll about joyously until 
they find the sort of comfort¬ 
able homes they have been 
looking for, and then settle 
down again to lives of quiet! 
The most remarkable of such plants is the rose of Jeri¬ 
cho, also called the resurrection plant, often referred to 
in the Bible. It grows in the desert country of the Near 
East, in Arabia, and in the Holy Land. It is a child of the 
dry lands, and its habit of traveling seems to have grown 
out of the needs of the hard life of this region. 
The rose of Jericho seems a tender, fragile thing, there 
in its desert home, growing rapidly after one of the infre¬ 
quent rains. Then the season comes when there is no 
moisture in the soil where its roots are planted. Its 
branches become dry and brown. They curl up in such a 
way as to make the bush a quite round ball. The sun 
drinks the moisture out of the whole plant until it has 
the appearance of being quite dead. It becomes a light 
and airy thing of little weight. The roots lose their hold 
on the dry sand. 
Then along comes a gust of wind and the rose of Jericho 
starts on its travels. So light is it that it rolls away across 
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