DIADELPHIA. 



23 



Hammersmitli, from seeds sent to them from ladia 

 by Lady Ann ^loason, in the year 1/72. This may 

 be considered as oas of the most extraordinary plants 

 in the vegetable world. '\\^hen the air is very warm, 

 and quite stiD, its leaves are in continual motion, some 

 rising, others failing, and others whorling circularly, 

 by twisting their stems : the cause of this iiTitability 

 seems to be very diiterent from that of the commoii 

 sensitive plant Mimosa pudica. Its motion does not 

 appear to be at all influenced by any external stimulus, 

 as I have frequently touched it, when the leaves have 

 been in quick and slow activity, and the surrounding 

 atmosphere at various temperatures, but without pro- 

 ducing any change in its motion. 



It is an aimuoi plant, and grows to about three feet 

 high J the leaves are of a bright green, ^s'\th some- 

 vihat of a sea-green hue in the middle 3 the fiowers 

 are of a pale red, slightly tinged with blue, and some- 

 times with yellow. 



To this Order belong the leguminous vegetables, 



one separate ; bat there are some exceptions: Spariluniy Luplnus 

 and ULxy have ten stamina, with the tenth evidently distin- 

 guisheJ from the rest, but incorporated with them by its lower 

 part. The Omnis and some others have on'y a lon5,itudinal slit 

 in the upper side of the tube, without any indication of a separate 

 stamen. Tiie'^e pVinis are therefore strictly vTOTradelphoaSy and 

 not d'uxdetpJious; but, as Dr. Smith observes, Linnosus here 

 swerves from his strict aTiificial laws, in compliance with the 

 decisive natural character which marks the plants in question. 

 Therefore, when ten stamina are all aHke separate and distinct, 

 such plants are to be referred to Jhe Class Decandr'mi but if they 

 are all combined, to the Class Diaddphia, 



