Consciousness in Plants. 337 



you in every direction. Of the nature of the nocturnal move- 

 ments of plants, as well as their varied and curious attitudes, 

 both in leaves and flowers, much speculation has been rife 

 among botanists. In many flowers the night attitudes have 

 been conclusively shown to have relation solely to their ferti- 

 lization by insects ; but the drooping night attitudes of the 

 leaves were supposed to indicate an aversion to moist- 

 ure, many plants seemingly verifying the conjecture by 

 the assumption of the same position during rain as in the 

 dew. But when the same pranks were played on a cloudy 

 day or a dewless night, the explanation had to be abandoned. 

 With the clovers, the nocturnal positions of the heads seem 

 to be assumed only in the darkness, and this invariably, 

 dew or no dew, while the leaves appear to revel in the rain, 

 remaining freely open, their chief concern being the protec- 

 tion of the young blossom-clusters. 



Were our eyes sharp enough we might discern a certain 

 strangeness in the nocturnal expression of every plant and 

 tree. But in no tree is this expression so remarkably empha- 

 sized as in the locust, a member of the same leguminous 

 order of plants with the clover. These trees are especially 

 noted for the pronounced irritability of their leaves, and odd 

 nocturnal capers, whose seeming vital consciousness has 

 induced some authorities to place them at the extremity of 

 their system, in contact with the limits of the animal king- 

 dom. How strange the pigweeds look at night ! Their 

 upper leaves, which during the day had extended wide on 

 their long stems, now incline upward against the stalk, 

 enclosing the tops of the younger branches, but still older 

 plants are seen with leaves extended much as at mid-day, but 

 nearly all turned edgewise by a twist in the stem. Circling 

 in a close curve, the creeping-mallow blossom now ignores 

 her proud array of cheeses, and the oxalis flower has for- 

 gotten her shooting pods to keep the vigil, closed and nod- 

 ding upon her stem, while her leaves masquerade in one of 

 the oddest disguises, their three heart-shaped leaflets being 



