XVIII 



PLANTS THAT GO TO SLEEP 



PLANTS require their sleep no less than do 

 animals or people. 



What a fantastic fairyland is a garden at night ! 

 Here we find many sleepy heads all so quiet and 

 drooping that one wonders whether strange dreams 

 I may be forming in their plant minds. Perhaps 

 \ they are! Some flowers, like the evening-primrose, 

 the datura, the night-blooming cereus, and the 

 moonflower, are open only at night. What a con- 

 trast between these wide-awake faces and the nu- 

 merous sleepy ones! The leaves of the acacia, the 

 lupin, and the clover, are so tightly closed that one 

 is reminded of the wings of butterflies folded to- 

 gether. Perhaps they are giving a "fairy-bed" to 

 some poor, way-faring bee or moth! Look at the 

 nodding nasturtiums bending their leaves as they 

 bid us walk lightly lest we disturb their slumber! 

 The sleep of plants is not the least interesting of 

 the habits of these remarkably human-like things. 

 The leaves of a plant such as the clover, formed of 

 157 



