NATURAL HISTORY. 
ARTICLE XL—PECULIARITIES OF PLANTS, 
With some observations on those which possess, or are supposed to possess the 
power to entrap Insects. 
BY JOSEPH PAXTON, F. L. S. H. S. 
Th E extraordinary irritability of certain plants forms a very striking 
feature in the vegetable world, and the peculiarity of shape in others 
so nearly approaches the lowest link in the animal world, that it is 
not easy to define the difference between the one and the other. If, 
as is supposed, plants be really endued with sensation, and possess a 
nervous system, this difficulty is greatly augmented. And the exis¬ 
tence of either sensation or instinct, or of something very analagous 
seems to have been partially proved. Vegetable poisons, such as 
Belladonna, Nux Vomica, &c. which destroy animal life, by acting 
only on the nervous system, cause the leaves, when applied to plants, 
to shrink or curl up, which after appearing considerably agitated, 
become flaccid, and the plant dies in a few hours. The sensitive 
plant and some others, close their leaves, and shrink back on the 
slightest touch, as though they apprehended danger. If two or three 
drops of prussic acid be poured upon the plant, the leaflets close, be¬ 
come agitated, flag, and do not regain their usual habit for upwards 
of eight hours. These poisons are known to be incapable of injuring 
the animal frame, except through the medium of the nerves, and this 
fact favours the supposition, that certain organs exist in plants which 
are analagous to the nervous system in animals, and on which these 
poisons act. Indeed Dutrochet has observed in the walls of the cel¬ 
lular and fibrous tissue, small semi-transparent globular and linear 
bodies, which he considers to be the elements of a diffused nervous 
system, and he ascribes the movements of plants to their action. 
These latter discoveries consequently neutralize many, if not all the 
former definitions of plants. One of the ancient botanists defined a 
plant to be an animal fixed by means of a root. Jungius, who lived 
about the beginning of the 17th century, defined it to be a body 
possessing vitality, but without sensation, and fixed to a certain spot 
from which it derived the nourishment necessary to the develope- 
ment of its parts, and the reproduction of its species. Linnaeus, in 
fixing the boundaries of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdom, 
said, “ stones grow ; plants grow and live; animals grow, live, and 
feel.” M. Bonnet, of Geneva, defined a plant to be an organized 
