236 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
gentlemen, nurserymen, and gardeners to take to the 
cultivation of the Moutan, they might be perfectly suc¬ 
cessful and would be well [repaid for their trouble. 
Let us hope that horticultural and botanical societies 
may take the matter up, aud add another feature to 
the splendor of the flower shows.— liolcrt Fortune. 
THE WONDERS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
X. 
Vegetable Transpiration and Sensitiveness. 
ARDENER who studies Nature, 
aud gives his mind to chemistry, 
botany, etc., can tell us some¬ 
thing that relates to plant-life 
and to vegetation generally in its 
relations to t he elements. In fact, 
a cultivator has the best op¬ 
portunities to become a phi¬ 
losopher. if he will. I verily 
believe that a gardener's calling is one of the best, in 
spite of low wages, because of the enjoyments that ac¬ 
company it and the stimulus it affords to thought and 
observation. However, let us pass as quickly as possible 
to the subject of this paper. 
Every cultivator is aware that evaporation takes place 
in plants to an inconceivable degree in certain circum¬ 
stances. It is known by the experiments of Dr. Hales 
that a Sun-flower will lose as much as 11 lbs. 14 oz. by 
perspiration in twelve hours, and that, in general, a 
Sun-flower perspires seventeen times more than a man. 
The same accurate observer found that a Cabbage per¬ 
spired in twelve hours 1 lb. 9 oz.; a Paradise stock in a 
pot, 11 oz.: and a Lemon plant, S oz. Guettard states 
that he found Comus Mascula perspire twice its own 
weight in one day; and Mr. Knight remarked once that 
a vine lost moisture in a hot day with such rapidity that 
a glass placed under one of its leaves was speedily cov¬ 
ered with dew, and in half an hour the perspiration was 
running down the glass. In damp weather, evaporation 
is the least; in dry, hot weather, it is the most. The 
loss which results must be supplied by the moisture in¬ 
troduced into the system by the spongioles; and, there¬ 
fore, if we destroy the spongioles, evaporation cannot 
take place until they are replaced, and, of course, the 
plant must make a struggle for life, or die. This is un¬ 
doubtedly the reason why we cannot remove deciduous 
trees when in leaf, for it is impossible to remove them 
without injuring their spongioles; and it must be equally 
impossible to prevent the evaporation from their leaves. 
This evaporation exhausts them of their sap, and the 
roots afford no help to keep up the supply, and death 
follows. When they are kept in pots, it matters not at 
what season their removal takes place, because, as their 
spongioles are then uninjured, if they are planted out 
with proper care, then excessive evaporation would be 
made good by the action of the roots. Moreover, we 
can give them the advantage of sprinkling as often as 
required to keep up the supply and of shading, when 
It is a well-known fact to most of us that certain Ever¬ 
greens, such as Hollies, Laurels, etc., can be transplanted 
in almost any month. This must arise from their per¬ 
spiration being much less copious than is the case with 
deciduous trees; whereas the spongioles have less diffi¬ 
culty in supplying the loss occasioned by it. Yet even 
Evergreens cannot be removed in the hottest months of 
the year with impunity, because then the action of such 
spongioles as may be saved in the operation would not 
be sufficient to supply the waste by evaporation. Now, 
if deciduous trees are taken from the ground in the 
summer and are potted, and then plunged into a hot-bed 
to recover themselves, not for the sake of the heat, but 
because the atmosphere of a liot-bed is so charged with 
humidity that perspiration cannot go on, their lives 
may be saved, and in the end they may be little the 
worse for the operation. The vital energies of the plant, 
instead of being wasted by evaporation, are directed to 
the formation of new roots or new mouths by which to 
feed; and theory and practice are conjoined in their 
preservation. I have been frequently entertained by 
making observations on the Sensitive plant (Mimosa 
pudica). It has been during the summer growing in the 
stove (hot-house). It is well known that if we touch it, 
there is a sensitive power of feeling made manifest (or 
at all events something very like feeling); so that it 
drops and shrinks at the slightest touch. I had an occa¬ 
sion to remove a plant into a cool green-house: it then, 
very strange to say, lost all its feeling, and refused to 
shrink when touched; but as soon as ever it went into 
the stove again, its sensitive actions returned to it. We 
might, in this behavior, liken it to an animal that loses 
volition when benumbed by cold. Then, again, there is 
the Venus’ Fly-trap (Dionrna Muscipula), which has 
jointed leaves, furnished on the edges with a row of 
strong prickles. Flies, or other insects, attracted by the 
honey secreted in glands on their surface, venture to 
alight upon them. No sooner do they touch the leaves 
than they spring up, locking the two rows of prickles 
together, and squeezing the insect to death. The Sensi¬ 
tive Sorrel (Oxalis or Beopliytum sensativum) and some 
species of the Barberry are of an irritable disposition. I 
have noticed also a similar thing in some of the green¬ 
house Acacias and the hardy Locusts and Gleditschias: 
these are not exactly sensitive, but, of an evening, the 
leaves are always closed up in the same manner as those 
of the sensitive plants are when touched. Another re¬ 
markable instance is the tremulous Fern (Pteris tremula) 
which always seems to move as if worked by some in¬ 
visible agency; but whether it is the air or real volition 
that causes the fronds to move always, I am at present 
unable to say. Again, there is the pretty Trembling 
Grass of our meadows (Aira Canescens) which always 
appears on the move; but whether it is possessed with 
the power hf trembling or it is only imagination, I will 
