PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
“No heart can think, no tongue can tell, 
The virtues of the Pimpernell.” 
The greatest of all floral barometers is the 
Weather-Plant or Indian Licorice (Abrus Pre- 
catorius). So keenly sensitive to all atmos- 
pheric conditions is this plant that it may be 
used to foretell cyclones, hurricanes, earth- 
quakes, and even volcanic eruptions. Its small, 
rose-like leaves are in continual motion, which 
varies noticeably under different electrical and 
magnetic influences. The Austrian Professor 
Norwack, working at his Weather-Plant Ob- 
servatory at Kew Gardens, London, once used 
it to predict a disastrous fire-damp explosion. 
Many flowers show a remarkable apprecia- 
tion of the passage of time and open and close 
at regular hours each day. In fact, a close 
student of floral habits can actually tell the 
time of day by watching the actions of the 
flowers around him. It is said that the Swedish 
botanist Linnaeus once built himself a flower 
clock, arranged to count the passing hours by 
the folding and unfolding of different blossoms. 
One does not really need to go to this trouble. 
The common flowers of the field and garden 
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