NOCTURNAL REPOSE OF PLANTS. 
3 
The Martynia is included in the natural order Pedalines and 
class Didynamia, order Angiospermia, of the Linncean arrange¬ 
ment. The genus was so named in honour of John Martyn, 
f.r.s., Professor of Botany at Cambridge, author of several 
botanical works, who died in January 1768; it contains five 
species, four of them natives of the southern parts of America, 
the other being found at the Cape of Good Hope ; all of them 
are handsome flowering plants. Our present species, fragrans, 
so named by Dr. Lindley, in relation to the odour of the flowers, 
is a native of Mexico, having been sent from Real del Monte to 
Miss Harvey, of Hayle, in Cornwall, who succeeded in raising 
it in 1840, and has since been made known to the Horticultural 
world by Messrs. Marnock and Manley, of the Hackney 
Nursery. 
NOCTURNAL REPOSE OF PLANTS. 
When we consider the repose of plants we are in some danger 
of confounding it with the sleep of animals, to which however it 
bears little or no resemblance. An animal has to find its food 
by what we may call mechanical exertion; it must range in quest 
of those substances which are suitable to its nature. In the ex¬ 
ertion required for this there are great differences arising from 
the different organization of the animal, the extremes of which 
may be taken in the more powerful beasts of prey, and the oyster 
and the little polypi. The former have to fast long and watch 
diligently, and when they have the prey within their reach, of 
which they can judge as accurately by instinct as we could by 
measurement, they spring upon it with so much force and velo¬ 
city that if they miss, their energy is exhausted and they are in¬ 
capable of immediately making another effort. The oyster, again, 
has only to open its valves and the polypus to remain in its cell, 
and both have to wait for what the waters may happen to bring; 
yet it may be that in consequence of their peculiar organization 
their apparently minor efforts are as exhausting to them as the 
spring is to the lion or tiger. The organization is fitted to the 
