blow on them, or even that they should be breathed upon. 
At the least irritation they close up, and the plant looks as 
ifit were dead. We see no such sensibility in our hothouses. 
He adds, that the amount of irritability varies from time to 
time, and from individual to individual; that the leaves are 
most able to bear irritation before 8 o’clock in the morning, 
when the sun has just expanded them. This sensitive quality 
is somewhat injured if the plant is removed into a garden. 
The worthy Dutchman expresses his surprise, that so delicate 
a plant, which cannot bear the least molestation, should, 
nevertheless, be so continually found in gardens, and by the 
roadside, where it is most exposed tv violence; doubtless, 
he adds, it is like young ladies, who wish to be looked at, but 
not to be touched. 
Among the nations of the East, the plant has been ap- 
plied to various superstitious purposes, as an ingredient in 
philters, and magical incantations, concerning which the 
reader is referred to Rumphius, who gives a curious account 
of the odd fancies connected with its uses. 
