Consciousness in Plants. 337 
you in every direction. Of the nature of the nocturnal move- 
ments of plants, as well as their varied and curious attitudes, 
both in leaves and flowers, much speculation has been rife 
among botanists. In many flowers the night attitudes have 
been conclusively shown to have relation solely to their ferti- 
lization by insects; but the drooping night attitudes of the 
leaves were supposed to indicate an aversion to moist- 
ure, many plants seemingly verifying the conjecture by 
the assumption of the same position during rain as in the 
dew. But when the same pranks were played on a cloudy 
day or a dewless night, the explanation had to be abandoned. 
With the clovers, the nocturnal positions of the heads seem 
to be assumed only in the darkness, and this invariably, 
dew or no dew, while the leaves appear to revel in the rain, 
remaining freely open, their chief concern being the protec- 
tion of the young blossom-clusters. 
Were our eyes sharp enough we might discern a certain 
strangeness in the nocturnal expression of every plant and 
tree. But in no tree is this expression so remarkably empha- 
sized as in the locust,a member of the same leguminous 
order of plants with the clover. These trees are especially 
noted for the pronounced irritability of their leaves, and odd 
nocturnal capers, whose seeming vital consciousness has 
induced some authorities to place them at the extremity of 
their system, in contact with the limits of the animal king- 
dom. How strange the pigweeds look at night! Their 
upper leaves, which during the day had extended wide on 
their long stems, now incline upward against the stalk, 
enclosing the tops of the younger branches, but still older 
plants are seen with leaves extended much as at mid-day, but 
nearly all turned edgewise by a twist in the stem. Circling 
in a close curve, the creeping-mallow blossom now ignores 
her proud array of cheeses, and the oxalis flower has for- 
gotten her shooting pods to keep the vigil, closed and nod- 
ding upon her stem, while her leaves masquerade in one of 
the oddest disguises, their three heart-shaped leaflets being 
