SENSITIVE PLANTS. 



-contracting from the apex towards the base as before. 

 A spray of water directed on to the leaflets caused 

 them to fall, but if not allowed to impinge directly 

 ■on them no motion ensued, though, of course, the 

 water did not, as the ether did, stop their mobility, 

 as a touch was sufficient to make them collapse after 

 the water spray, while after the ether spray contact 

 -produced no effect." 



" The effect of the ether spray on certain other 

 plants was, in two instances, remarkable, though the 

 -results now to be mentioned were only obtained in 

 two instances out of many trials on various plants in 

 hot-houses in November, 1867. On applying the 

 spray to the extremity of one leaf of Iresiiie Hei'bstii, 

 which from having been grown in heat, was what 

 gardeners call ' drawn,' that is, had comparatively 

 long intervals between the leaves, and a flaccid 

 texture, a thin film of ice was speedily produced on 

 the distal end of the leaf. In less than two minutes 

 the whole shoot, four or five inches long, was ob- 

 served to bend quickly downwards. Next morning 

 the whole shoot was dead. To what precise circum- 

 stances the rapid transmission of the effect from 

 one end of the shoot to the other, and its ultimate 

 ■death, are due, it would be premature to assert, as it 

 is difficult in such a case to eliminate the irritant 

 effect of the ether (clearly it did not here act as an 

 .anaesthetic) from the effect of the cold, and ice pro- 



