104 THE FLOWER GARDEN COMPANION. 



presents the same form and number of parts, and is perpe- 

 tually renewed, and continued in its natural habit and quality. 



ART. 4. Motion of Plants. 



The most general motion of plants that takes place, as a 

 natural change, is the well known fact, that most trees, shrubs, 

 and the lower order of plants, always incline toward the light. 

 This fact is observable in woods, where trees grow close 

 together, in which case their branches always incline towards 

 the light and air, as the vacant places, and the outsides. 

 Plants on the shelves of green-houses, or in windows, always 

 incline to the glass, and when their position is changed, the 

 leaves- and minor branches change their position also, and 

 incline to the light. If a number of plants are placed in a 

 dark room, in different parts, where there is a small window, 

 each plant will be found to direct its position in a direct line 

 to such window. In conclusion of this part of the subject, it 

 may be proper to state, that soft-wooded plants alter their 

 position, on being changed, sooner than those of a hard- 

 wooded kind ; therefore, the time of regaining the position 

 of any plant depends on its nature. 



The movements or motions of the leaves of plants, is exem- 

 plified in many different ways. If a branch of a grape vine 

 is turned from its natural position, where it grows, so as to 

 turn the under sides of the leaves to the light, they will in a 

 few days regain their natural position, by being reversed on 

 their footstalks. This movement is apparent also in the 

 leaves of most kind of plants when reversed from their natu- 

 ral position, which they again resume, in a shorter or longer 

 time, in accordance to their habit, as before stated. In some 

 varieties of plants, the leaves fold up close to the footstalk in 

 the night. This motion is termed by botanists, " the sleep 

 of plants," and is observable in some varieties of Oxalis, and 

 many of the winged-leaved plants, as the Acacia lophanta, 

 which folds its leaves close to the stem by night, and unfolds 

 them at the approach of day. The same movement takes 



