66 Plants, undoubtedly, make a very near approach to animals, and this similarity, as well as the difficulty of fixing the precise boundaries by which the two great kingdoms of nature are limited, are direct consequences of the organization of vegetables. It is owing to their organic structure alone, that plants and animals are capable of affording reciprocal nourishment to each other. This organic structure, though greatly diversified in the different species of animals and vegetables, evinces that Nature, in the formation of both, has acted upon the same general plan. May we not presume, therefore, (says an ingenious naturalist1) that as plants as well as animals are composed of a regular system of organs, that the vegetable part of the creation is not entirely deprived of every quality which we are apt to think peculiar to animated beings? I mean not to insinuate, that plants can perceive pleasure or pain. But, as many of their motions, and affections cannot be explained upon any principle of mechanism, I am inclined to think, that they originate from the power of irritability, which, though it implies not the perception of pleasure and pain, is the principle that regulates all the vital or involuntary motions of animals. To ascertain this point, would require a set of very nice experiments. I shall mention one, which might be performed with tolerable ease. It was formerly remarked, that plants kept in a hothouse, where the degree of heat is uniform, never fail to sleep during the night. This is direct evidence, that heat alone is not the cause of their vigilance. But they are deprived of light. Let, therefore, a strong artificial light, without increasing the heat, be thrown upon them. If, notwithstanding this light, the plants are not roused, ' Dr. Smellie, in his Philosophy of Natural History. but continue to sleep as usual, then it may be presumed that their organs, like those of animals, are not only irritable, but require the reparation, of some invigorating influence which they have lost while awake, by the agitations of the air and the sun's rays, by the act of growing, or by some other latent cause. Of some plants it is remarkable, that they flower only in the night, and of others, that it is then only they emit their fragrance. The Cactus Grandiflorus, or Night-blowing Cereus', which is a native of Jamaica and Vera Cruz, expands a very exquisitely beautiful corol, and emits a very fragrant odour, for a few hours in the night, and then closes to open no more. The flower is nearly a foot in diameter, the inside of the calyx of a splendid yellow, and the numerous petals of a pure white. It begins to open about seven or eight in the evening, and closes before sunrise.-Of its appearance in its native climes, our botanical poet thus sings, in a beautiful apostrophe: Nymph! not for thee the radiant day returns, She seeks, with pensive step the mountain bower, I Twenty males, onc female, Drop the still tear, or breathe th' impassioned sigh, The Nyctantheus, or Arabian Jasmine, is another flower, which expands a beautiful corol, and emits a very delicate perfume during the night, and not in the day, in its native country, whence its name. Botanical philosophers have not yet explained this wonderful property; perhaps the plant sleeps during the day as some animals do, and its odoriferous glands emit their fragrance only during the expansion of the petals; that is, during its waking hours. The Geranium tribe has the same property of emitting its fragrance during the night only. The flowers of the Cucurbita Lagenaria are said to close when the sun shines upon them. In our climate, many flowers, as Tragopogon and Hibiscus, close their flowers before the hottest part of the day comes on; and the flowers of some species of Cuculalus, and Silene, Viscous Campion, are closed all day; but when the sun leaves them, they expand, and emit a very agreeable scent. On this account, such flowers are called noctiflori. I shall close this paper by observing, that what is in common language called a bulbous root, is by Linné called the Hybernacle, or Winter-lodge of the young plant; as these bulbs in every respect resemble buds, except in their being produced under ground, and include the leaves and flower in minature, which are to be expanded in the ensuing spring. By cautiously cutting in the early spring through the concentric coats of a tulip-root, longitudinally from the top to the base, and taking them off successively, the whole flower of the next summer's tulip is beautifully seen by the naked eye, with its petals, pistil, and stamens: the flowers exist in other bulbs, in the same manner, as in Hyacinths, but the individual flowers of these being less, they are not so easily dissected, or so conspi cuous to the naked eye. In the seed of the Nymphæa Nelumbo, the leaves of the plant are seen so distinctly, that Mr. Ferber, found out by them to what plant the seed belonged. He says, that Mariotte first observed the future flower and foliage in the bulb of a tulip; and he adds, that it is pleasant to see in the buds of the Hepatica and Pedicularis Hirsuta, yet lying in the earth, and in the gems of Daphne Mezereon, and at the base of Osmunda Lunaria, a perfect plant of the future year complete in all its parts. The retiring of the Tulip to its Hybernacle, or Winter-lodge, is thus beautifully noticed by the elegant poet I have already quoted with so much pleasure: When o'er the cultured lawns and dreary wastes DARWIN. No. XXXI. REFLECTIONS ON THE DIVINE WISDOM AND POWER IN THE MINUTER PARTS OF CREATION. O Nature, whose Elysian scenes disclose His bright perfections at whose word they rose, COWPER. O Nature, thy minutest works amaze, BROWNE. of THE animated language of the poet may be adopted, with the greatest propriety, by the philo¬ sopher, who studies the works of Nature not merely for the gratification of curiosity, or the amusement of a vacant moment, but for the nobler purpose diffusing instruction, and of teaching his fellow-creatures to adore, as becomes them, the Great Creator, Governor and Preserver of All. Not he alone is to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind, who makes a useful discovery, but he also who can point out and recommend an innocent and instructive pleaOf this kind are the pleasures which arise sure. |