MOrEMENTS /.V THE ORGANS OE PLANTS 25 
dry day, suggesting discharges of fairy artillery. It is Nature’s 
way of scattering the seed abroad. 
The common Balsam has its name from this peculiarity— 
Impatiens — one species being called “ Noli-me-taiigere,” or touch- 
me-not, as directly a fruit is touched it drops from its stem, 
and its sides curve inward, discharging the contained seeds. 
One of the Cucumber tribe, a native of South Europe, is familiar 
under the name of the Squirting Cucumber. Its fruits are like 
small short marrows, with prominent ribs, and when ripe a 
gentle touch detaches them from their stalks and the contents 
of the fruit are expelled, with the contained seeds, with great 
force from the orifice at the base so formed. 
The only motion of its kind that has come to my notice is 
the bending inward of the lobes of the nectary in the base of the 
corolla of the North American Dog’s-bane {Apocymtm andvosami- 
foliiim) when irritated by the visit of an insect. Directly a fly 
dips its trunk down into the bottom of the flower in search of 
nectar, the lobes of the nectary join up and catch the intruder 
by the tip of his nose, as it were, retaining their hold until the 
insect has ceased to struggle. Whether the decaying insect is 
of any service in the economy of the plant is unknown. 
Another exhibition of movement is alluded to in a footnote 
by Loudon in his Encyclopedia. Most boys have tried the experi- 
ment of dividing a piece of camphor into small pieces, and 
floating them on a saucer of tepid water. They will in a few 
seconds begin to move about over the surface as though animated. 
This is caused by the gradual solution of the camphor setting 
up a current in the water ; and the floating camphor is propelled 
in the opposite direction. The leaflets of Schinus molle are small, 
ovate and boat-like, emitting when bruised a strong odour of 
turpentine. If a few be floated on tepid water they move about 
on the surface in a manner which may be compared to a fleet 
of tiny ships manoeuvring, or to persons dancing a minuet. This 
is doubtless due to the gradual solution of the essential oil 
contained in their cells, which is of a camphory nature, and as 
that is projected into the water it causes the leaf to move in an 
opposite direction. 
Thomas F. Bunyard, R.H.S. 
Since completing this. paper 1 have only two observations to 
record, and those both of the induced category, and both in new 
plants. 
Angelonia grandiflora, a scrophulariad which has been shown 
lately at the Royal Horticultural Society, is a plant with cordate, 
crenate, tomentose foliage, giving off its inflorescence at the 
points of short lateral growths, and these have a close resem- 
blance to the Mexican climbing annual Lophospernmm. The 
stigma has two equal lobes, and when the flower first expands 
these are adpressed, but on maturing one curves downwards, 
exposing the inner surface of each. On a close warm day, if 
