SECT. I. EXCITABILITY. 453 



fruit in the winter. But the Meadow Saffron, 

 which blows in the autumn, does not ripen its fruit 

 till the succeeding spring. 



Such are the primary facts on which a Calenda- Calenda- 

 rium Florae should be founded. They have not 

 hitherto been very minutely attended to by bota- 

 nists ; and perhaps their importance is not quite 

 so much as has been generally supposed : but they 

 are at any rate sufficiently striking to have at- 

 tracted the notice even of savages. Some tribes of 

 American Indians act upon the very principle sug- 

 gested by Linnaeus, and plant their corn when the 

 wild Plum blooms, or when the leaves of the Oak 

 are about as large as a squirrel's ears. The names of 

 some of their months are also designated from the 

 state of vegetation. One is called the budding 

 month, and another the flowering month ; one the 

 Strawberry month, and another the Mulberry 

 month : and the autumn is designated by a term 

 signifying the fall of the leaf* So that the French 

 revolutionists were anticipated even by the Indians, 

 in their new names for months and seasons. 



But there are several other ways in which the Miscellan- 

 agency of heat may be observed as exciting the 

 energies of the vital power. The leafits of some 

 of the leguminous plants, when exposed to the 

 action of an ardent sun, are often erected into a 

 vertical position on each side the leaf-stalk, which 

 they sometimes even pass so as to close together. 

 * Barton's Elem. p. 248. 

 3 



