from dew or rain. But our present plant, at night, 
or in overcast weather, has its petals rolled back, 
apparently for their own protection, leaving the 
centre, or parts of fructification, wholly exposed. 
Linneus observed the habit of many plants, in 
closing their flowers, and gave a treatise on the 
subject, in the Amoenitates Academicse, vol. iv. 
He has noticed the habit of the Nyphaea alba, or 
White-flowered Water Lily, which is well known 
to close its flowers in the afternoon, and lay them on 
the surface of the water till morning, when it raises 
and expands them, often, in a bright day, to several 
inches above the water, 
The ancient botanists also have recorded their 
observations on this subject ; for Theophrastus, more 
than 300 years before the birth of our Saviour, wrote 
to the same effect, respecting the Egyptian Lotus; 
and further observes, that, “ It is reported that in 
the Euphrates, the head and flowers keep sinking 
till midnight, when they are so deep in the water 
as to be out of the reach of the hand, but towards 
morning they return, and still more as the day ad- 
vances. At sunrise they are already above the sur- 
face, with the flower expanded; afterwards they 
rise high above the water.” 
We have raised the Kaulfussia amelloides by 
sowing seeds in pots of light soil, put into a hotbed. 
When the young plants came up they were thinned ; 
and in May the contents of the pots were transferred 
to the borders, without breaking the balls of mould. 
It is not in any degree tender ; and will succeed 
equally well when sown in the borders ; and, as it 
an early flowerer, forcing becomes less important. 
Bot. Mag. v. 47, t. 2177. 
