422 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 730. 



moist places. It is found in the island of Java, and probably in the other 

 islands of the Sonde and the Moluccas. When its leaves are touched, they 

 close immediately, and open again by little and little. The more they are 

 warmed by the sun, while their soil is moist, the more impetuously they close 

 against each other. The Portuguese Indians call it dormidera, because, on be- 

 ing touched, it seems to sleep, by shutting up its leaves ; or else, because some 

 among them think it procures sleep by being put under the ear ; but this sopo- 

 rific quality cannot be ascribed to it, any more than can be recommended the 

 hanging of misletoe of the oak about the neck for the epilepsy. The leaves qf 

 this species of oxyoi'des have no acidity in their taste, and give but a faint 

 tincture of red to the blue paper. 



The Remark of Mr. John Marlyn, F. R. S. — We are obliged to Mr. Garcin 

 for his curious description of this plant, by which its genus is determined. It 

 is however by no means a new species, having been described long ago by 

 Acosta, and other authors, under the name of herba viva. A fair specimen of 

 it is in Sir Hans Sloane's Hortus Siccus, with which M. Garcin's figure agrees 

 very exactly. It was the first sensitive plant known in Europe, and very differ- 

 ent from those which are now brought from America, and cultivated in our 

 gardens under that name. 



Fig. 6, pi. 11, represents the empalement of the oxyoides. Fig. 7, the 

 flower, the petals of which are joined together. Fig. 8, a petal apart. 



Remarks oji the Family of Plants named Musa. By M. Garcin. 

 N°415, p. 384. 



Almost all the writers on botany have considered this family as a tree, on ac- 

 count of its size, though it is tender, spongy, membranous, and succulent, 

 not at all hard or woody. Its stalk is slender and supple, not able to keep it- 

 self upright, without a great number of thick, membranous sheaths, which 

 clothe its whole bulk, and defend it from the injuries of the weather. Besides, 

 this plant being annual, bears fruit only once, and then gradually perishes. 



The trees, on the other side, which are ligneous, hard and perennial, bear 

 fruit several times. So that the size of a plant does not seem to be a character 

 sufficient to distinguish a real tree from a plant that is not one. 



Again, the same botanists have placed the musa in the palmaceous class, 

 which are all trees, perhaps on account of this plant's having but one stalk, 

 without any branches ; and because the great leaves at the top of it divide, 

 when they grow old, in such a manner as to resemble in some degree a sort of 

 palm. 



