THE NATURALISTS’ ( OMPANION. 
16 (> 
The Sensitive Plant. 
BY HARRY HARRIS. 
The sensitive plant is a name common¬ 
ly given to very delicate species of the 
MIMOSA on account of the peculiar phe¬ 
nomena which is exhibited in their 
pinnae or leaves and stalk when touched 
or shaken. All species of the mimosa 
possess this singular property to a gr eat¬ 
er or less degree, but is more particular¬ 
ly noticeable in the half-shrubby, her¬ 
baceous plants, indigenous to our west- 
tern prairies and also to the llanos of 
Brazil, wheie the stems are prickly, and 
some of the species possess small heads 
of beautiful rose-colored flowers. This 
plant is one of the most peculiar plants 
found in nature, and upon being ap¬ 
proached in its wild state, lifts its head, 
seems to look at you very appealingly, 
and then drops suddenly, shrinking 
back in great alarm, its leaves and stem 
appearing to wilt under your raptured 
gaze. After you have passed on, the 
earth having ceased its vibrations, the 
plant raises its head, quivering and 
trembling, as if not fully recovered 
from its shock, and in a few moments it 
is all right again. 
Large California Gold Nuggets. 
BY DR. BENJ. F. MASON, SAN LEANDRO, CAL. 
'khe largest nugget of gold ever yet 
discovered in California, was found in 
Sierra County, about ten miles from 
Downsville, by John J. Finney. It was 
a solid mass of gold and weighed 5,120 
ounces, but not being compact it was 
broken in removing. This nugget furn¬ 
ished nearly .^90,000 wortli of })ure gold. 
Another nugget, found in early days in 
California, weighed 134 pounds and 
seven ounces, and afforded 109 pounds 
and eleven ounces of the pure metal; 
it was sold for ^'27,650. In i860 a 
nugget weighing 1596 ounces was taken 
f] om the Monumental Mine,Sierra Buttes 
the value of which was estimated at 
.,^25,000. Another large nugget, worth 
^22,000, was taken from the Rainbow 
Mine, in Chipp’s Flat, in 1881. In 
1858 a nugget was taken fiom French 
Ravine,weighing 532 ounces, and yield¬ 
ing .^^10,000 worth of gold. In the 
same ravine, in 1851, a nugget was 
found weighing 436 ounces, and worth 
about Vi'S,000. 
Let us now turn to geology and learn 
how these huge nuggets of gold were 
deposited in pockets, for they are all 
found in pockets, or near them, fiom 
whence they have orriginally been dis¬ 
lodged by some mountain torrent, or 
avalanche. 
It is a well-known fact that these pla¬ 
cer diggings, or superficial deposits, 
have furnished nine-tenths of the gold 
mined from the earth,all of the platinum, 
iridium, osmium and rhodium; most of 
the tin; and also all gems, with the ex¬ 
ception of the emerald, which is some¬ 
times mined from veins. These super¬ 
ficial deposits usually lie along the foot¬ 
hills of mountain ranges, and are the 
product of ages of erosion, caused by 
frost,rain and snow, which are constant¬ 
ly wearing the mountain’s sides and sum¬ 
mits, and sweeping the debris into the 
valley or ocean below. 
There is another way in which the 
gold becomes free fiom the gangue,this 
is by shore waves wearing away the 
rocks against which they have dashed, 
producing large accumulations of detri¬ 
tus containing gold, platinum and gems. 
And when the ocean beach becomes 
