Irritability of Vegetables * i 63 
ftimulate the (lamina, I found them all quite devoid of irrita- 
bility. They are (lout, (Irong, conical bodies, and cannot, 
without breaking, be forced out of the portion in which they 
happen to be. The fame phaenomenon has been obferved in 
feveral other flowers ; but it is no where more (Iriking or more 
eafily examined than in the Rue. 
I could wifh to find an in (lance of this fpontaneous motion 
combined with irritability in one and the fame plant ; but, I 
confefs, I do not know one. From analogy I (hould think it 
not impoflible that the Dioneea mufcipula , and perhaps the 
Droferee, may have the fame motion in their (lamina as the 
Ruta , Parnajfia , and Saxifraga , while their leaves poflefs irri- 
tability. But if this be the cafe, the feats of thefe two pro- 
perties, being fo different and remote from each other, (hould 
feem to have as little connexion as if in two different plants. 
There (fill remains then this difference between animals and 
vegetables, that although fome of the latter poflefs irritability, 
and others fpontaneous motion, even in a fuperior degree to 
many of the former, yet thofe properties have hitherto in ani- 
mals only been found combined in one and the fame part. 
Even Sertulariee are not an exception to this obfervation. The 
greater part of their fubftance, indeed, refembles that of plants 
in being indefinitely extended, and in wanting irritability and 
fpontaneous motion. But their animated flowers or polypes, 
in which the eflence of their being refides, are endued with 
both thefe properties in an high degree. 
I know it is the opinion of iome philofophers that a certain 
degree of irritability mud pervade every part of vegetables, as 
the propulfion of their fluids cannot well be conceived to be 
accomplifhed by any other means. In a converfation on this 
fubjed with the celebrated M. Bonnet, of Geneva, he 
Y 2 informed 
