A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 13. 



JANUARY 24th, 1880. 



Vol. 1. 



SLEEP OF PLANTS. 



By J. P. Soutter. 



f^aERHAPS one of the most striking 

 of natural phenomena to the 

 loughtful observer is the almost com- 

 ete cessation of the vital functions 

 iring the period or process of sleep. 



our temperate clime, with a well- 

 irked alternation of the seasons of 

 nter and summer, we have a well- 1 

 fined period of vital activity and growth, 

 lanced by a season of inaction or sleep, . 

 ten the functions of life become grad- 

 lly more sluggish, till ultimately they j 

 m entirely to cease to act ; and the 

 nt remains dormant during the cold 

 winter, to be stimulated into active 

 1 exuberant growth by the energising 

 ^1 life-giving light and heat of the sun, 

 great source of life. This period 

 rest is analagous to the hybernation 

 ^certain animals, as the bear, hedge- 

 &c, who withdraw into the most 

 ifortable lair they can find or make, 

 there sleep away the dreary winter, 

 we find that plants at this season of 

 year, concentrate their vitality and 



curtail the surface exposed to the 

 elements ; trees shed their leaves, and 

 the little buds in which are wrapped up 

 the fine delicate growing parts have the 

 most ingenious devices to protect them 

 from the cold. Some are swathed in 

 cotton wool ; others have hard horny 

 scales ; whilst others are covered with 

 a sticky gummy secretion, like varnish, 

 ; to keep out the wet. The bud of a 

 I horse-chestnut forms a good example, and 

 will well repay a close examination. Her- 

 baceous plants, such as the buttercups 

 of our fields and columbines of our 

 gardens, die down to the ground, and the 

 tender buds remain securely sheltered by 

 the decaying bases of the leaves and the 

 surrounding soil. During this dormant 

 state the process of transplanting may be 

 most safely accomplished, and certain 

 plants will retain their vitality for a 

 considerable time whilst entirely removed 

 from the earth, as seen in the bulbs of 

 tulips and hyacinths, or the solid corms 

 of crocus as exposed for sale in the 

 florists' shops. There is also a diurnal 

 and nocturnal, or day and night, period 

 of activity and rest in plants, which is 

 directly traceable to the influence of 

 solar light and heat. This very closely 



