HOW PLANTS BEHAVE. 
CHAPTER I. 
HOW PLANTS MOVE, CLIMB, AND TAKE POSITIONS. 
1. Two plants — one of them common in cultivation, and the other rarer, but 
almost as easy to raise — are looked upon as vegetable wonders, namely, the 
Sensitive Plant and Desmodium gyrans. They are striking examples of 
2. Plants that move their Leaves freely and rapidly. In the well-known Sensitive 
Plant ( Mimosa pudica) the foliage quickly changes its position when touched, 
appearing to shrink away from the hand. Fig. 1 represents 
a piece of stem with two (compound) leaves ; the lower one 
expanded, as it is in sunshine and when untouched : the 
upper leaf shows the position which is taken, by quick move- 
ments, when roughly brushed by the hand. It makes three 
movements. First, the numerous leaflets close in pairs, 
bringing their upper faces together and also inclining for- 
wards; then the four branches of the leafstalk, which were 
outspread like the rays of a fan, approach each other; at 
the same time the main leafstalk 
turns downward, bending at its joint 
with the stem. So the leaf (for it is 
all one compound leaf) closes and 
seemingly collapses at the touch. 
In a short time, if left to itself, 
it slowly recovers the former out- 
spreading position. 
3. The second plant, Desmodium Fig-1. Sensitive Plant. 
gyrans (we have no common name for it), also belongs to the great Pulse Family, 
and flourishes in warm climates. It inhabits the warmer parts of India, but is 
