DISTINCTION BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 5 



at night, and sunflowers that turn to the sun; but 

 some plants, such as the Sensitive- Plant, will move 

 when touched, closing their leaflets as if to shrink 

 out of the way.' A number of plants depend on a 

 similar power for the fertilization of their seed; the 

 mobile parts of the flower forming a sort of spring, 

 of diSierent construction in diSerent kinds of flower, 

 but in each case adapted to the one purpose of making 

 insects the involuntary agents in the distribution of 

 the pollen of the flower. Among these is the common 

 Barberry, found wild in some parts of England, and 

 often grown in gardens for its red berries, which 

 make a pretty old-fashioned garnish when preserved. 



A 



Fig. 1. — An Irritable Plant, capable of movement when atimnlated — the 

 Common Barberry (dia^j^mrtoatic). A. Flower-undisturbed.. B. Flower after 

 two stamens havebeeii poked with a pin. 



The flower, which appears early in June, has six 

 stamens ; if you poke the base of one, ever so gently, 

 with a pin, it will bounce forward against the pistil of 

 the flower and stand there stiffly. The same is true 

 of the Pinnate Barberry, a kindred shrub, but a 

 foreigner, with blue berries : only that the experiment 

 does not always "gooff" so certainly, because the 

 flowers are sometimes found in bad weather to be 



