138 



F A R JVI E R S' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



M. Duhamel observed, that during moderately 

 fine weather the footslalk of a leaf of the sensitive 

 plant (mimosa pudica) stood in the niorninir at an 

 angle with the lower part of the stem of 100° ; at 

 noon the angle had increased to 112", but at night 

 had fallen to 90"^. If a leaflet of this plant be but 

 slightly touched, it immediately shrinks away, and 

 the impulse being communicated, each pair of 

 leaflets on the branch collapse in succession ; and 

 if the impulse be strong, the very branch itself 

 will sink down by the side of the stem. Jf an in- 

 sect alight upon the upper surface of the Venus's 

 fly-trap"^ (diomeamuncipula,) its sides spasmodi- 

 cally approach each other, and crush to death the 

 intruder. If the inner side, near the base, of any 

 one of the anthers of the barberry, (berberis vul- 

 garis) be gently touched, as with a bristle or fea- 

 ther, it instantly springs forward and strikes against 

 the stigma. But the strongest indication, says 

 Mr. Keith, of the existence of a species of sensi- 

 tive principle in a plant, is, perhaps, that which is 

 exhibited by the hedysarum gyrans. It is a na- 

 tive of India, growing on the banks of the Gan- 

 ges. Its leaves are ternate, the middle leaflet be- 

 ing larger than the lateral ones. All of them are 

 in constant vibratory motion; sometimes equably, 

 at other times abruptly, but without any unison in 

 the movements. If their motion be prevented, by 

 grasping them in the hand, they renew it more 

 vigorously when the confinement is removed, but 

 by degrees subside to their natural rapidity of mo- 

 tion. This motion does not depend upon the ap- 

 plication of any external stimulus, for it continues 

 throughout the night as well as the day. It is 

 most active during a warm fine day, the leaves 

 then having an additional tremulous motion. 

 (Keith's System of Physiological Botany, ii. 464.) 



Instinct seems to be a characteristic of plants, 

 from the following phenomena. Some of them 

 close their flowers invariably when rain is ap- 

 proaching. Others have an unalterable direction 

 assumed by them when climbing. No force can 

 make one twist round a pole from left to right, if 

 its natural direction be from right to left. If a gar- 

 den pot be divided by a vertical partition, and one- 

 half filled with a poor steril earth, and the other 

 moiety filled with a rich fertile soil, a geranium or 

 other plant placed in this pot, with some of its 

 roots over the steril soil, and the rest of the roots 

 over the fertile soil, those over the first named por- 

 tion will gradually change their direction until 

 they can also get into the richer pasturage. In- 

 stances have been known of the roots of trees 

 piercing and destroying walls in their efforts to at- 

 tain a more preferable soil than that in which 

 they were planted. M. Sauesure relates, that he 

 placed some plants of polygonum persicaria and 

 bidens cannabina, in water containing acetate of 

 lime in solution. These plants then imbibed with 

 the water a portion of this salt; but when they 

 had the opportunity of selection given them, by 

 dissolving in ttie water some common salt, glau- 

 ber salt, and acetate of lime, they absorbed the 

 two first named, but rejected the latter entirely. 

 (Saussure^s Recherchcs, 247-261.) 



From the foregoing facts, without arguing that 

 they demonstrate sensation to exist in plants as 

 acute as that pos^sessed by the higher or more 

 perfect classes of animals, yet they certainly are 



the polypus and the hirudo, — animals that may 

 be cut into pieces, and each section become a per- 

 Itjct individual, — animals whose heads may be 

 taken off and grafted upon other bodies, — animals 

 that may be turned with their outsides inwards, 

 and yet without any apparent inconvenience. If 

 plants be endowed with sensation of the most li- 

 mited degree, it explains the cause, throws light 

 upon the prevention of many diseases that aflect 

 those which are the object of cultivation, warns 

 the tiller of the soils from the late performance of 

 many of his operations, and teaches him general- 

 ly to beless violent in his field practice. If a grape 

 vine be pruned too late in the spring, the bleeding, 

 or eflTusion of sap, has been known to be so vio- 

 lent, that the tree has died from absolute exhaus- 

 tion. Stone fi'uits, if severely wounded, are fre- 

 quently destroyed by the inroads of a disease re- 

 sembling in all its characteristics the cancerous af- 

 fections of animals; and I have known a whole 

 crop of wheat afl'ected with a swelling of the stem^ 

 or culm, evidently caused by an extravasation of 

 the sap from its ruptured internal vessels, owing 

 to the roller being passed over the crop when of a 

 growth somewhat too forward. 



From tlie proceedings of tlio sevenlli meetina; of tlie British As- 

 sociation, for tlie advancement of Science. 



CATASTROPHE IN A MINE. 



Mr. Sedgwick requested the attention of the 

 meeting to an account, which he was about to 

 submit, of the late unfortunate accident at the 

 Workington Colleries. He pointed out, on the 

 geological map, the rocks which occur in that 

 neighborhood, and stated some of the phenome- 

 na of the stratification of the coal measures, 

 which are there very much disturbed. There is 

 an anticlinal line, on the opposite sides of which 

 the strata dip differently, so that, in one place, 

 very important beds of coal crop out under the sea. 

 Workings, quite submarine, have accordingly 

 been carried on for some time: in the Isabella pit, 

 a depth of one hundred and thirty-five fathoms 

 under high water has been reached. A culpable 

 want of caution has been shown by the mana- 

 gers of late, as they have caused the workings to 

 reach too near the sea — even within fourteen fa- 

 thoms of it; and the pillars and roof of the older 

 works had been taken away, by which the danger 

 was greatly increased. There had been repeated 

 warning li-om the shrinking of the ground, and 

 from an old work havinrr become filled with water; 

 also in the new workings — although the pumping 

 brought up one thousand gallons per minute, the 

 miners were in such danger of being drowned, 

 that several left the employment. In the latter 

 end of July, the sea at length broke in, filling the 

 mine in all its parts, in little more than two hours, 

 and destroying twenty miles of railway. On one 

 side of the Camperdown Dike, which ranges 

 through the mine, not a soul was saved; but seve- 

 ral escaped from other parts, and one individual,, 

 an Irishman, called Brennagh, had not only a re- 

 markable escape himself, but saved three others 

 by his intrepidity. Professor Sedgwick related to 



the Section this man's story, which was so singu- 

 satisfactory evidence that' plants" probably are I lar and told with such a mixture of the serious 

 nearly as sentient as the zoophyte, or even as I and ludicrous — often in the language of the man 



