CAMRUNGA. 
139 
those instances of irritability in the vegetable king- 
dom, of which we daily witness the effect without 
being able to explain the cause. It is a native of 
India, and is known in Bengal by the name of 
camrue or camrungci. w e are principally indebted 
for the following account to a paper in the fifty- 
seventh volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 
where the writer tells us that the leaves are alter- 
nately pinnated, with an odd one at the end ; that 
in their most common position in the day-time they 
are horizontal ; and that in the mimosa the moving 
faculty extends to the branches; but from the hard- 
ness of the wood this is not the case with the cam- 
runga. The leaves, on being touched, move them- 
selves downwards, frequently in so great a degree 
that the two opposite almost touch one another by 
their under sides, and the young ones sometimes 
either come into contact, or even pass each other. 
The whole of the leaves of one pinna move by 
striking the branch with the nail of the finger or 
other hard substance ; or each leaf can be moved 
singly by making an impression that shall not ex- 
tend beyond that leaf. In this way the leaves on 
one side of the pinna may be made to move, one 
after another, whilst the opposite continue as they 
were ; or they may be made to move alternately, or 
in short in any direction we please, by touching, in 
a proper manner, the leaf we wish to put in motion. 
If the impression, although confined to a single 
leaf, be strong, all the little leaves on that side, and 
sometimes the neighbouring ones, will be affected 
