12 STINGING PLANT. 



may perhaps be considered as both offensive and 

 defensive ; and it has been, and no doubt cor- 

 rectly, supposed to be given to these animals as a 

 means of procuring their food, the benumbing 

 principle existing in the tentaculae rendering 

 their prey when touched unable to escape. For 

 what purpose this acrid property is found existing 

 in the vegetable kingdom, it is difficult to decide, 

 and all that has yet been said on the subject 

 may be considered as merely hypothetical. For 

 instance, at the island of Singapore there is a 

 remarkable species of the order Fuci, usually 

 found growing in isolated patches upon coral 

 banks. Finlayson thus mentions it : " It is pin- 

 nated, plumose, elegant, about a foot and a half 

 in leno'th, and of a whitish colour. It is endued 

 with a property of stinging like nettles ; the 

 sensation produced is more acute and more 

 penetrating, more instantaneous, but somewhat 

 more permanent. The hand is scarcely brought 

 into contact with it, before the wound is inflicted. 

 A small corrugated granular bag, filled with a 

 transparent fluid, would seem to be the organ by 

 which it produces this effect. These are no 

 sooner touched than they discharge the fluid 

 they contain. The plant soon loses this power 

 after being removed from the water." This 

 plant seems, therefore, to possess an offensive 



