"Oh, Papa! did you ever see anything so lovely?" said Harry, excitedly.
Mr. Steedman could take but a one-sided view of those wonderful leaves, as one glass from his spectacles had been lost during their rough journey; but the remaining glass fairly sparkled with satisfaction.
"Ah, my son, this plant is both lovely and rare. See, the young leaves are light green and yellow; the older leaves are darker,—shades of green and olive. A few are even black, and all growing from the same root. How perfect is every leaf, in spite of its delicate texture! Some of those larger leaves must be ten or twelve inches long. The strong midrib in each serves as a support for the fragile threads forming the meshes on each side."
Harry now plunged his hand into the lace-like web, half expecting it to dissolve in his grasp. But no! The wiry little yellow leaf which he raised from the water, was perfect in form, and a gleam of sunlight, falling upon the shining meshes, transformed them into threads of glistening gold.
He now discovered, as he examined them carefully, that the under surfaces of the leaves, were glistening with little pearly bubbles of air.
RAHEH, THE GUIDE.
"Oh, Papa," he cried, joyously holding the glistening meshes aloft, "the lace-leaves are jeweled!"
"Yes, Harry," said his father, "those diamond drops are made by the breathing of the plant."
Mr. Steedman attempted to detach a root of one of the plants from its bed of mud, but the little tendrils branching from it on every side held the root firmly in its place. At last he succeeded in extricating the little white threads, one by one, and removed the entire plant to the bank. Its root, which is eaten in Madagascar, was very like the ginger root, and had a tough, light-brown skin.