12 INTRODUCTION. 
This devoted lover of flowers carefully noticed the sensibility 
of plants, and composed a horologe of flowers. The list is 
given in his “ Philosophia Botanica,” which, however, is only 
valuable to us in giving the names of plants which open and 
close at stated periods, as the time given is for the meridian of 
Upsal. For the use of our friends we have given a list of 
twenty-four, extracted from that magnificent and useful work, 
the Encyclopaedia of Gardening, by J. C. Loudon, Esq., and by 
observation of the following plants, also, the ingenious reader 
may be enabled to add to the number. Many species of con¬ 
volvulus and companula, the marvel of Peru, or belle-de-nuit, 
broom, tulips, cress, hibiscus, yellow lily, white water-lily, 
and dianthus. 
See hieracium’s various tribe, 
Of plumy seed and radiate flowers, 
The blooms of time their course describe, 
And wake and sleep appointed hours. 
Broad o’er its imbricated cap, 
The goat’s-beard spreads its golden rays, 
But shuts its cautious petals up, 
Retreating from the noontide blaze. 
Pale as a pensive cloistered nun, 
The Bethlehem-star her face unveils, 
When o’er the mountain peers the sun, 
But shades it from the vesper gales. 
Among the loose and arid sands 
The humble arenaria creeps ; 
Slowly the purple star expands, 
But soon within its calyx sleeps. 
And those small bells so lightly rayed 
With young Aurora’s rosy hue, 
c 
