254> ANNUAL REGISTER, 1*794 



of the barnacle ? Spunges open 

 and shut their mamillae ; corals, and 

 sea-pens, protrude, or draw back 

 their suckers; shell-fish openorkeep 

 close their shells in search of food, 

 or avoidance of injury ; and it is 

 from these muscular motions, we 

 judge the beings to which they be- 

 long to have perception, that is, to 

 be animals. 



In the vegetable kingdom, the 

 muscular motion of many plants may 

 be observed to be to the full as deJt 

 finite and distinguishable, as those 

 of the class of animals just men- 

 tioned. The plants called Mio- 

 tropie, turn daily round with the 

 sun ; by constantly presenting their 

 surfaces to that luminary, they seem 

 as desirous of absorbing a nutriment 

 from its rays, as a bed of oysters 

 does from the water, by opening 

 their shells upon the afflux of the 

 tide. The Jlons solares, are as uni- 

 form in their opening and shutting, 

 ns animals are in their times of 

 feeding and digcstitig : some, in 

 these motions, do not observe the 

 seasons of the year, but expand and 

 shut up their flowere, at the same 

 hour in all seasons ; others, like a va- 

 riety of insects, which appear or 

 not, according to the heat of the 

 weather or climate, open later in 

 the day, or do not open at all, when 

 they are removed from a southern 

 to a more noi thern latitude. Tre- 

 foil, wood sorrel, mountain ebony, 

 wild senna, the African marigold, 

 &c. are so regular in folding up their 

 leaves before rainy weather, that 

 they seem to have a kind oi instinct 

 of foresight, similar to that of ants. 

 And what is still more extraordi- 

 nary, vegetables appear to be a sort 

 oi hygrometers, ior in several there 

 is found a contorsion of the fibres, 

 which answers, in every respect. 



this purpose. The fibres of the 

 plants, being affected by the quality 

 of the air, the spiral part twists, or 

 untwists, as the weather .varies, and 

 that the degrees of dryness or mois- 

 ture of the atmosphere are to be 

 observed. Young trees in a thick 

 forest are found to incline them- 

 selves towards that part through 

 which the light penetrate, as plants 

 are observed to do in a darkened 

 chamber, tewards a stream of Hght 

 let in through an orifice, and as the 

 ears of corn do towards the south. 



The roots of plants are also known 

 to turn away with a kind of abhor-» 

 rence from whatever they meet 

 with which is hurtful to them ; and 

 to desert their ordinary direction, 

 and to tend with a kind of natural 

 and irresistible impulse towards col- 

 lections of waters placed within 

 their reach. Many plants expe- 

 rience convulsions of their stamina, 

 upon being shghtly touched. What- 

 ever can produce any effect upon 

 an animal organ, as the impact of 

 external bodies, heat and cold, the 

 vapour of burning sulphur, of vola- 

 tile alkali, want of air, Sec. is found 

 to act also upon the plants called 

 sensitive. But, we will not insist 

 upon any farther instances of that 

 class. We have already noticed 

 many, which seem far superior in 

 quickness to those of a variety of 

 animals. Now, to refer the mus- 

 cular motions of shell-fish, and 

 zoophytes, to an internal principle 

 of vohtion ; to make these indica- 

 tive of the perceptivity of the be- 

 ing; and to attribute the more 

 no'able ones of vegetables to cer- 

 tain mechanical dilatations and con- 

 tractions of parts, occasioned by 

 external impulse, is to err against 

 the rule of philosophising, which 

 assigns the same causes for effects of 



the 



