FLOWERS 67 



lengths, have convinced me that the reactions, from 

 administration of drugs, are much the same in plant 

 as in animal life, under like conditions. 



I first became interested in the little Mimosa as a 

 dainty roadside plant on Oahu, Hawaii, but it was 

 not until later that I gave it particular attention. At 

 the Missouri Botanical Gardens at St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri, I made a number of interesting experiments 

 with it. Disturb in almost any way one of the leaves 

 and one by one they will fold up with a curious, 

 withdrawing motion and drop down; soon the effect 

 of the disturbance passes and the leaves reopen to 

 normal. The same thing happens if you bring an ice 

 cube or a hot iron near a leaf. All sorts of queer ex- 

 periments can be carried out and photographed, if 

 you wish. Bose, the Hindoo experimenter, says that 

 a decided reaction takes place in the dainty almost 

 fernlike plant when a cloud passes over the sun, 

 leaving it in the shade for a short time. In the South 

 Sea Islands, it is used extensively as a forage plant, 

 the cattle in passing through it leaving a marked 

 trail for a short time behind them. The blossoms are 

 small, spherical and a beautiful reddish pink, but 

 they refuse to open when cut and put in waterthe 

 branch wilts and dies quickly. Naturally the blos- 

 soms open at night, often so plentifully as to give 

 the field a soft rosy glow. 



