much like nerves. We know how the Sensitive ! 



DI -n u u i 1-1 u IN THE GARDEN 



riant will at a touch shrink like a hurt thing. 



That this plant has something like a nervous 

 system seems to be proved by the fact that 

 narcotics weaken its sensibility. It may be put 

 to sleep with chloroform. If opium be sprin- 

 kled upon it, it ceases to feel irritants. When 

 any sudden irritantaffects it, it will quickly close 

 its leaves, and if the same influence continues, 

 it will resume its open leaves, as if it had been 

 surprised at the sudden touch. On a fair day a 

 few drops of water will cause the leaflets to 

 close, but the plant soon becomes accustomed 

 to a continuous spray and the leaflets remain 

 wide open. An eminent botanist says that if one 

 of the plants be placed in a wagon the jar will 

 cause it to close its leaves, but after a drive of a 

 few miles the leaflets will open, as if it said to 

 itself, "There is no harm in this kind of jarring.'* 

 It has been noticed that when the sleep of 

 plants is broken for several successive nights, 

 or when violently shaken by the wind in the 

 afternoon, they suffer from insomnia as we do. 



[57] 



