480 THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF PLANTS. 
to be the Amherstia nobilis, a grand ornament of the 
Turkish gardens. There also the Cercis, or Judas-tree, 
lifts its head in purple magnificence; while its plainer, 
but still charming co-species, the Red-bud of the Canadas 
and Northern States, is glowing through the woods in the 
pride of its early bloom. All New Holland is golden 
with a wealth of Acacia-flowers; and other species, with 
red instead of yellow, put the most charming blush on 
the forest-cheek of Mexico. Europe is rich in fine La- 
burnums ; and South America is all aglow with splendid 
Ingas and Mimosas. The Californian has brought from 
New Zealand the Glory-pea, and given it a home by his 
own door, that suits as well as its own. Our own country 
is full of beautiful plants of this kind; Lupines and 
Locusts, Hoary Peas, Wistarias and Prairie Clovers, Tick- 
trefoils and Yellow-wood, Partridge-peas and Ground- 
piums, all showy and lovely. And whosoever will pene- 
trate the conservatory, and study the floral wealth there 
displayed by these pea-flowered princes, will find these 
thoughts well sustained and illustrated. 
And yet we have only just come to the most interesting 
trait in the character of these most royal plants. In them 
does vegetable life reach its acme, and attain a grade that 
lacks but the merest step to equal the vitality of animals. 
The Joint-vetch, of the Virginian river-banks, is some- 
times sensitive, and shrinks from the touch, closing its 
leaflets. Another step, and we have the Sensitive Briar, 
common through the South, and showing this sensibility 
in a much higher degree. Then going to Central and 
South America, we have Mimosas endowed with every 
degree of this power, till some will hardly bear the hu- 
man _ breath upon them, even though they may bear the 
beating of wind and weather. Great numbers of 
