THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 437 



ticed because we have wrongly looked upon the turbulent 

 manifestations of animal life as the highest expression of 

 this power. 



If towards the close of a burning summer day we enter a 

 greenhouse where the long fluted stems of the Cactus gran- 

 diflorus twine in a spiny and tangled net-work, we perceive 

 here and there on them lanceolated pointed knobs of mod- 

 erate size. There is nothing which would lead us to think 

 what a spectacle is about to open to our sight. 



But towards half past eight o'clock, the time when ob- 

 scurity overspreads the earth, all at once every flower of 

 the Cactus displays its innumerable long yellow and white 

 petals, and its corona of five hundred stamens waves and 

 trembles round the pistil ; then its vast calyx exhales an 

 odor of vanilla, which perfumes the whole greenhouse. But 

 such an exuberance of life is only very ephemeral. A but- 

 ton two inches round is transformed into a flower a foot in 

 circumference. A few minutes have sufficed to unfold one of 

 the marvels of Flora's empire ; a few minutes will equally 

 suffice to destroy it. Towards midnight every part of this 

 nuptial couch, so brilliant and perfumed, fades and totally 

 decays. 



What animal displays an organic force at the same time 

 so active and so fleeting ? Not one, and yet we have never 

 bestowed a thought on it. This splendid flower lives more 

 in a few hours than does a mollusc in a whole year. 



Among divers plants endowed with sensibility, there is 

 not one which vibrates and moves with such animation 

 as the queen of the mimosas, the Mimosa pudica. Should 

 the slightest touch stir only one of its leaflets, the whole of 



