THE SENSITIVE PLANT. 
MIMOSA SENSITIVA. 
« Weak with nice sense, the chaste Mimosa stands, 
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands; 
Oft as light clouds o’erpass the summer-glade, 
Alarm’d she trembles at the moving shade: 
And feels alive through all her tender form 
The whisper’d murmurs of the gathering storm.” 
The diversities of nature are infinite. After contem¬ 
plating a flowering shrub which scales the highest 
mountains, and almost braves the region of perpetual 
snow, we now turn to so delicate a little plant, that a 
touch, a breath, will cause it to tremble through every 
leaf; and hence its name of sensitive or humble plant. 
These appellations, indeed, designate different species; 
the sensitive plant on pressure only contracts its small 
leaves which are placed along the midrib, while even 
the footstalks of the yet more timid humble plant decline 
at the slightest touch. * 
* There is a little fern possessing such discriminating sensibility, that 
it is said to wither at the touch of the human hand, whilst it remains 
