448 THE PLEASURE, OR [July. 



tier, where they are to be watered and shaded until well taken with 

 the ground and growing. They may remain in these beds till Sep- 

 tember, October, or March, and are then to be taken up with balls 

 of earth and planted where intended to flower. 



Pinks. 



The most valuable kinds of pinks should be treated in every re- 

 spect as directed for carnations. 



Sensitive Plants. 



The sensitive plants which have been raised in hot-beds, may 

 about the first of this month, if not done in June, be brought out 

 into the open air and placed in a very warm situation, for they de- 

 light in much heat; but some ought to be kept constantly under 

 glasses, for when fully exposed to the weather, they lose much of 

 their sensibility. 



The species I particularly allude to, is the Mimosa padica, or 

 humble and sensitive plant, which is thus characterized in the flow- 

 ing poetry of Darwin: 



"Weak with nice sense the chaste Mimosa stands, 

 From each rude touch withdraws her tender hands; 

 Oft as light clouds o'erspread the summer glade, 

 Alarm'd she trembles at the moving shade; 

 And feels alive through all her tender form, 

 The whisper'd murmurs of the gath'ring storm; 

 Shuts her sweet eye-lids to approaching night, 

 And hails with freshen'd charms the rising light." 



"Naturalists," says Dr. Darwin, "have not explained the imme- 

 diate cause of the collapsing of the sensitive plant; the leaves meet 

 and close in the night during the sleep of the plant, or when 

 exposed to much cold in the day time in the same manner as when 

 they are affected by external violence, folding their upper surfaces 

 together, and in part over each other like scales or tiles; so as to 

 expose as little of the upper surface as may be to the air; but do 

 not indeed collapse quite so far: for when touched in the night 

 during their sleep, they fall still farther, especially when touched 

 on the footstalks between the stems and leaflets, which seems to 

 be their most sensitive or irritable part. Now as their situation, 

 after being exposed to external violence, resembles their sleep, but 

 with a greater degree of collapse, may it not be owing to a numb- 

 ness or paralysis consequent to too violent irritation, like the 

 fainting of animals from pain or fatigue. A sensitive plant being 

 kept in a dark room till some hoars alter day-break, its leaves and 

 leaf-stalks were collapsed, a* in its most profound sleep, and on 

 exposing it to the light, above twenty minutes passed, before the 

 plant was thoroughly awake, and had quite expanded itself. During 

 the night the upper or smoother surfaces of the leaves are appressed 

 together; this would seem to show that the office of this surface of 



