248 OF THE BARBERRY. 



releasing itself by a spring from the closed keel of the 

 flower. 



* But of all flowers that of the Barberry-bush, t. 49, 

 is most worthy the attention of a curious physiologist. 

 In this the six stamens, spreading moderately, are 

 sheltered under the concave tips of the petals, till 

 some extraneous body, as the feet or trunk of an in- 

 sect in search of honey, touches the inner part of each 

 filament near the bottom. The irritability of that part 

 is such, that the filament immediately contracts there, 

 and consequently strikes its anther, full of pollen, 

 against the stigma. Any other part of the filament 

 may be touched without this effect, provided no con- 

 cussion be given to the whole. After a while the fila- 

 ment retires gradually, and may again be stimulated; 

 and when each petal, with its annexed filament, is 

 fallen to the ground, the latter on being touched shows 

 as much sensibility as ever.- See Tracts on Nat. His- 

 tory, 165. I have never detected any sympathy be- 

 tween the filaments, nor is any thing of the kind ex- 

 pressed in the paper just mentioned, though Dr. 

 Darwin, from some unaccountable misapprehension, 

 has quoted me to that effect. It is still more wonderful 

 that the celebrated Bonnet, as mentioned inSennebier's 

 Physiologic Vcgetale, v. 5. 105, should have observed 

 this phenomenon in the Barberry so very inaccurately 

 as to compare it to the relaxation of a spring, and that 

 the ingenious Sennebier himself, in quoting me, p. 103 

 for having ascertained the lower part only of each 



