14 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
the plants the ends of the nerves have been located. Thus 
if Mimosa pudica is touched with ever so fine a point at 
the base of a pinna or along its axis, the most remote pair 
of leaves will shiver and begin to close. Finally, when all 
the leaves have closed, the pinna which has been touched 
will droop. The shock has been so great that the whole 
nervous system has been temporarily disarranged. How- 
ever, like all nervous, irritable people, there is a point 
beyond which fright reacts and a control of the S3'stem 
begins to manifest itself. If the sensitive plant is shaken 
for some time it recovers from its attack of neurasthenia 
and some of the leaves will begin to open again. Finally, 
it is said that the most sensitive part of the plant is at the 
base of the secondary leaf >talks. where an immense 
number of r: are 
located." 
This cas ; us it 
appears that - ■ i urged 
up to the plant ':^\^y r^.x\\\ >.:'^\^'. Ikiv^ attri- 
buted to the "expert." Certainly " nerve" if not nerves 
is required to provide such an article. 
A COUGHING PLANT. 
"An interesting vine known as the coughing bean, is 
a respiratory- plant which is a native of moist, tropical 
regions. By accidental transportation of its seeds it has 
gradually spread to much less congenial spots, especially 
railroad embankments, where it endures drought very 
well, though its growth is stunted. But there is one thing 
it cannot endure, and that is dust. When the breathing 
pores become choked by dust the gases accumulate within 
the leaf for a time and then are forcibly ejected in an audi- 
ble paroxysm of coughing and sneezing, which makes the 
leaf tremble violently. At the same time the whole plant 
becomes red, owing to the subsiding of the green chloro- 
phyll grains and the appearance of particles of red color- 
ing matter on the surface. This odd vine is sometimes 
cultivated as a house plant. Sweeping the carpet of the 
room in which it lives is very apt to set the plant to 
