54 THE BIETH OF PICCIOLA. 



with a different shade from its stem, and of what 

 color will the flowers be? Yellow, blue, red? 

 Why, since they are fed by the same juice as the 

 stem and leaves, do they not clothe themselves in 

 the same livery ? How can they find azure and 

 scarlet where the others find only a bright or dark 

 green ? It will be so, however ; for, in spite of the 

 disorder and confusion of the world, matter follows 

 its fixed, though blind march. " Very blind," he re- 

 peated. " To prove it I should only need to see that 

 the two fleshy lobes which have aided the plant to 

 leave the earth, but are now useless to its life, are 

 still nourished by its substance, and, hanging down, 

 weary it with their weight. Of what use are they 

 now ? " As he spoke, night was approaching, a 

 wintry spring night. The two lobes rose slowly, 

 under his very eyes, and as if wishing to justify 

 themselves against his blame, approached each 

 other arid enclosed in their bosom the tender, frag- 

 ile leaves, which the sun was leaving, and which, 

 thus sheltered and warmed, slept beneath the pro- 

 tecting wings that the plant folded over them. 1 



1 This is perhaps the first allusion to the sleep of cotyledons. "Pic- 

 ciola" was published in 1856. Darwin, in " The Power of Movements in 

 Plants," published in 1880, investigates the subject, and concludes thus : 

 " Reflecting on these facts, our conclusion seems justified, that the 

 nyctitropic movements of cotyledons, by which the blade is made to 



