Sensitive Plant. 
(BASHFUL LOVE.) 
T HIS delicate emblem of bashfulness is a member of the 
mimosa family, and in its native home is said to grow to 
a considerable size, although here it is a mere hothouse plant. 
Its remarkable susceptibility to touch is stated to increase in 
proportion with the tenderness of its nature. A writer, ad¬ 
verting to this statement, remarks that in the plant this nervous 
sensibility is encouraged for its singularity. “ It is a pity,” the 
lady pointedly adds, “ there should not be the same reason for 
encouraging it in the human species.” What, O gentle reader, 
more sensitive to contact with the outer world than that shy 
receptacle of a thousand soft emotions — the human heart ? 
And yet, alas ! what numberless rebuffs it is continually re¬ 
ceiving from careless mortals ! How much joy or pain a care¬ 
less word, a slighting look, may repress or cause ! How many 
sensitive minds have recoiled from a slight, given more from 
want of thought than want of heart! Pity and spare that bash¬ 
fulness which you so frequently misjudge, O heedless world ! 
and grant this prayer: 
‘ ‘ Speak kindly, oh, speak kindly; 
You cannot tell the worth 
Of words of loving-kindness 
In our journey through the earth. 
The value can’t be counted 
Or measured out by plan, 
Of words of kindness spoken 
From man to brother man!” 
Ella Ingram. 
The sensitive plant is one of those eccentric productions of 
nature, whose phenomena the knowledge of man has not been 
enabled satisfactorily to explain : its leaves, when touched by 
any external object, fold up and shrink modestly from contact. 
Our old pastoral poet, W. Browne, alludes to its peculiarities 
thus: 
“Look at the feeling-plant, which learned swains 
Relate to grow on the East Indian plains, 
Shrinks up his dainty leaves if any sand 
You throw thereon, or touch it with your hand.” 
