SECT. XIII. 5. OF VEGETABLE ANIMATION. 1 1 1 



mifcarriages of it counteracted by the quantity of 

 its produclion ? 



2. This leads us to a curious enquiry, whether 

 vegetables have ideas of external things ? As all 

 our ideas are originally received by our fenfes, the 

 queftion may be changed to, whether vegetables 

 poflefs any organs of fenfe ? Certain it is, that they 

 poflefs a fenfe of heat and cold, another of moifture 

 and drynefs, and another of light and darknefs ; 

 for they clofe their petals occafionally from the pre- 

 fence of cold, moifture, or darknefs. And it has , 

 been already fhewn, that thefe actions cannot be 

 performed (imply from irritation, becaufe cold and 

 darknefs are negative quantities, and on that ac- 

 count fenfation or volition are implied, and in con- 

 fequence a fenforium or union of their nerves. So 

 when we go into the light, we contract the iris ; 

 not from any ftimulus of the light on the fine muf- 

 cles of the iris ; but from its motions being aflb- 

 ciated with the fenfation of too much light on the 

 retina : which could not take place without a fen- 

 forium or center of union of the nerves of the 

 iris with thofe of villon. See Botanic Garden, 

 Part I, Canto 3. 1. 440. note. 



Beiides thefe organs of fenfe, which diftinguifh 

 cold, moifture, and darknefs, the leaves of rnimo- 

 fa, and of dionxa, and of drofera, and the ftamens 

 of many flowers, as of the berbery, and the nu- 

 merous clafs of fyngene(ia ? are fenfible to mechanic 

 impact, that is, they poflefs a fenfe of touch, as 

 well as a common fenforium ; by the medium of 

 which their mufcles are excited into action. Laftly, 

 in many flowers the anthers, when mature, ap- 

 proach the ftigrna, in others the female organ ap- 

 proaches to the male. In a plant of coilinibnia, a 

 branch of which is now before me, the two yellow 

 ftamens are about three eighths of an inch high, 

 and diverge from each other, at an angle of about 



fifteen 



