, which is eaten in Madagascar, was very like the ginger
root, and had a tough, light-brown skin.

Harry carefully placed the leaves of the plant in his herbarium, while
his father packed the root, with its native soil, in a tin case,
preparatory to sending it to the Botanical Society in London.

"Harry," he said, as they finished their work, "this plant could be
easily reared in our green-houses--heat and moisture being all that is
required. But nature seems to have jealously surrounded these beautiful
leaves with almost impassable barriers, and the lace-plant is
comparatively unknown.

"But come, my boy Raheh says '_maly-massandro_' (the sun is dead), and
it will be as long as 'two cookings of rice' (two half hours) before we
can be ferried across to yonder village and secure a place to pass the
night."

And so, after Raheh had given Harry one last drink from the clear, cool
river, in the odd-looking leaf-cup he carried for the purpose, the tired
but successful lace-leaf hunters crossed over to the Hova village and
were soon fast asleep.

THE CARICATURE PLANT.

BY M. A.

One of the most remarkable plants in the whole vegetable kingdom is that
known to botanists as the _Justicia Picta_, which has also been well
named "The Caricature Plant."

At first sight, it appears to be a heavy, large-leafed plant, with
purple blossoms, chiefly remarkable for the light-yellow centers of its
dark-green leaves, which cause them to look as if some acid had been
spilled upon them and taken the color out wherever it had touched.

As I stood looking at this odd plant and thinking what a sickly,
blighted appearance the queer, yellow stains gave it, I was suddenly
impressed with the fact that the plant was "making faces" at me. Still,
unaccustomed as I was to seeing plants indulge in this strictly human
amusement, I was slow to believe it, and stooped to read the somewhat
illegible inscription on the card below the plant--"_Justicia Picta_, or
'Caricature Plant.'" My first impression was correct then. This curious
shrub had indeed occupied itself in growing up in ridiculous caricatures
of the "human face divine," until it now stood, covered from the topmost
leaf down, with the queerest faces imaginable. Nature had taken to
caricaturing. The flesh-colored profiles stood out in strong relief
against the dark-green of the leaves.

A discovery of one of these vegetable marks leads to an examination of a
second and a third