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vegetable kingdom. The physiology of these nocturnal flowers, it is evident, must 
be of a different character from those that unfold by day and repose at night. 
We have parallel phenomena which may be adverted to and adduced in illustra¬ 
tion ; and, as in the cases previously cited, may be made the subject of direct ex¬ 
periment. If an orbicular mass of the Lycopodium circinale be introduced into 
warm water it will unfold. The same thing occurs with the seed-vessel of the 
Fig-marigold (Mesembryanthemum) of the Cape when put in water. In the lat¬ 
ter case, the seed-vessel expands, and the seeds are scattered when moistened with 
the tropical rains, and under circumstances which ensure the germination of the 
seeds. That curious plant, the Rose of Jericho, (Hierochuntica anastatica J, 
which inhabits the borders of the wilderness or the desert, is constructed with a 
similar design, and presents analogous phenomena ; for the same agency that shuts 
the flower of the Xeranthemum, and closes the imbricated calix of the Centurea 
montana , contrariwise unlocks its tiny branches. Accordingly, when it is intro¬ 
duced into warm water, a little above the junction of the branches with the stem, 
these branches gradually open,—another feature of the same beneficent arrange¬ 
ment apparent “ in the length and breadth” of creation. The blast of the desert 
uproots the tiny plant, and flings it on the waves of the Nile or the Red Sea— 
the branches open and scatter the seeds that they previously enclosed on the sur¬ 
face of the stream, where they can alone germinate. In the meanwhile the 
withered plant is carried towards the Delta of the Nile, or the embouchure of the 
Red Sea; and having fulfilled its office and provided for the perpetuity of its 
kind, is engulphed in the ocean. The little seeds, floating hither and thither, bud 
and begin to grow; the wave at length lands them on the banks of the river, and 
a friendly breeze wafts them back to the soil of their ancestry, where they take 
root and spring up under the influence of tropical dews by which they are refresh¬ 
ed every night. I have a specimen of the Rose of Jericho, a great part of a cen¬ 
tury old, which has not lost its susceptibility of opening when introduced into warm 
water. 
My next communications will embrace the subjects of “ The Vital Principle 
in Plants,” “ Monphology,” and “ Spontaneous Production.” 
J. Murray. 
