Perceptive Power of Vegetahles, 139 



3wants may be there fupplied. The oyfter, du- 

 ring the afflux of the tide, opens to admit the 

 water, lying with the hollow fbell downwards: 

 But when the ebb commences, it turns on the 

 other fide ; thus providing, by an inconfiderable 

 movement, for the reception of its proper nutri- 

 rnent ; and afterwards difcharging what is fuper- 

 fluous. * Mr. Miller, in his late account of the 

 iAand of Sumatra, mentions a fpecies of coral, 

 which the inhabitants have miftaken for a plant, 

 and have denominated it Lalan — Cout, or fea- 

 crrafs. It is found in fliallow bays, where it 

 appears like a ilraight ftick, but when touched, 

 withdraws itfelf into the fand. f Now, if felf- 

 moving faculties, like thefe, indicate animality, 

 can fuch a diftinclion be denied to vegetables, 

 pOiTelTed of them in an equal, or fuperior degree ? 

 The water-lily, be the pond deep or fliallow in 

 ^yhich it grov/s, puflies up its flower- ftems, till 

 they reach the open air, that the farina fecun- 

 dans may perform, without injury, its pro- 

 per office. About feven in the morning, the 

 ftalk ereds itfelf, and the flowers rife above the 

 furface of the water : In this fliate they continue 

 till four in the afternoon, when thefl:alk becomes 

 relaxed, and the flowers fink and clofe. The 

 motions of the fenfitive plant have been long 



• Sprat's Hiftory of the Royal Society. 



I Piiilofph, Tranfaa. vol LXVIII. p. 178. 



noticed 



