244 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



common white clover. Each leaf consists of three 

 lobes or leaflets, which are heart-shaped, attached at 

 the base at the top of a slender erect footstalk. During 

 the day these leaflets are spread out nearly flat, 

 radiating equally from the top of the footstalk. In 

 the evening each leaflet gradually falls, until the under 

 side nearly touches the footstalk, and, in so doing, 

 the leaflets which are broadest upwards, are strongly 

 bent inwards, so that each side is deeply concave. 



In this condition the 

 leaves remain 

 throughout the night 

 (fig. 38). Leaves of 

 this plant were care- 

 fully watched for their 

 periodic movements. 



After half-past five 

 Fig. 38,-Leaves of wood-sorrel. in the even ; ng the 



leaflets sank rapidly, and at seven o'clock de- 

 pended vertically, and remained nearly the same 

 until the morning, when by a quarter to seven 

 they had commenced to rise, and continued 

 rising for an hour. Between eleven o'clock in the 

 morning and half-past five in the afternoon they 

 moved four times up and down before the last great 

 fall for the night commenced. The rising and falling 

 during the day was slight as compared with the 

 nocturnal fall. The highest point was -reached at 



