XX. An Account 6f "the jfetffiuve Quality of the Tree Averrhoa 
Ca ram bo la. In a Letter j mm Robert Bruce, M.D. to Sir 
joieph Banks, Hart. P.R.S. 
Real April 14, ’i 7 8 5 . 
t i 'S []R Averrhoa Cararabola of Linnaeus, a tree called in 
1 Bengal the Cam rue or Cam runga, is poffeifed of a power 
fbmewhat fimilar to thole fpecies of Mimol'a which are termed 
fenfitiye plants ; its leaves, on being touched, move very per- 
ceptibly. 
In the Mimofa the moving faculty extends to the branches ; 
hut, from the hardnefs of the wood, this cannot be expected in 
the CauMM-mga, The leaves are alternately pinnated, with an 
odd one ; and in their moft common pofition in the day-time 
arc horizontal, or on the fame plane with the branch from 
which they come out. On being touched, they move them- 
felves downwards, frequently in fo great a degree that the two 
oppofite almofl touch one another by their under fides, and the 
young ones fometimes either come into contact or even pafs 
each other. 
The whole of the leaves of one pinna move by fir iking the 
branch with the nail of the finger, or other hard fubftance ; 
or each leaf can be moved fingly, by making an impreffion that 
fhall not extend beyond that leaf. In this way, the leaves of 
one fide of the pinna may be made to move, one after another, 
whilR the oppofite continue as they were ; or you may make 
them 
