The Worthington advance., 1879-10-30
Wonders OF Plants and Flowers.

e. 4 ,
Most of the flowers sleen duriug the
night. Tho msrigold gocs to bed with
the sun. Many plants are 90 sensitive
that their leaves close during the passage
of cloud. The dandelion opens at i've
or ak in the morning, and shuts At nine
in the evening, the daisy opens its days
eye to meet the early beams of the morn
ing sun. The ivy-leaved lettuce opens
at eight in the morning and closes for
ever at tour In the afternoon. Tho night
Towering cereus turns night into day.
It begins to expand its magnificent sweet
scented blossoms in the twilight, it is in
full bloom ut. midnight, and closes for
ever at the dawn Of day. In y clover
field not Leaf is open until after sunrise:
There are some plants that may be used
~ weather prophets. The pimpernel
spreads its leaves at the end If wet
weather, while the different species Of
clover contract theirs. If the chickweed
droops and its flowers are not open,
there 10 rain in prospect. The cro~foot
anemone foretclls the coming Of rain
by closing it's blossoms; the anemone
meptaisa carries Its flower erect when
the weather Is fine, and dropping when
overcast. It will rain if the whitlow
grass let's its leaves hang dropping if
the gsllium verum swells and exhales
strongly, also it the birch scents the air.
The sensitiveness Of plants to hight,
heat and moisture was made by Linn@us,
the great botanist, the basis Of many ex-
pe1iments and observations, resulting in
the arrangement called his "dorsl clock" :"
It is curious fact that there are twenty
four varieties Of plants whose blossoms
open successfully at the different hours of
day and night. The flowers of the water
lily close and sink into the water precise
ly at sunset, rise again to the surface
and expand with sunrise. Pliny de.
scribed the lotus of the Euphrates, which
followed the same order; and the rever-
ence which was paid to the lotus by the
Egyptians is supposed by some t. be from
this association with tho sacred sun.
Flowers and fruits of the lotus are en-
graved on Eastern tombs and monuments,
and adorn the heads Of their seulptured
deitjcs. Besides the "floral clock, there
is floral calender, in which each month
is marked by Its own loval flower.
It is we'll known that plants sleep at
night; but their hours of sleeping are a
matter of habit. and may be disturbed
artlticially, just as cock may be walked
up to crow at an untimely hour by the
light Of = lantern. A French chemist
subjected sensitive plant to an exceed
ingly trying c2urse Of discipline, by COM
pletely changing its hours, exposing it
to bright light at night, and putting it
in dark room during the day. The
plant appeared to be much puzzled at
first. It opened and closed its leaves IT.
regularly, sometimes nodding in spite of
the artificial sun that shed its beams at
midnight, and sometimes waking up,
from force Of habit, to find the chamber
dark in spite of the time Of day. Such
are the trammels Of use and wont. But,
after an obvious struggle, the plant sub
mitted to the change, and accepted the
night for the day without any apparent
i'll effects.
We notice that an Italian chemist has
recently made some experiments which
have resulted in the discovery that vege-
table perfumes exercise positively
healthfnl influence upon the atmosphere
by converting its oxygen into ozone, and
thus increasing its oxidizing influences.
The essences found to develope the largest
quantity Of ozone are those If the cherry,
laurel, clover, lavender, mint, juniper,
lemon, ,fennel and bergamot; those that
give smaller quantities are anise, nut
meg and thyme. Flowers destitute Of
perfume do not develope ozone, and those
which have but slight perfume develope
1t only in small quantities. Reasoning
1rsm these facts, the professor recon-
mends the cultivation If flowers in
marshy districts and in all places in
tested with animal emanations, on ac-
count of the powerful sxidizing influ-
ence of ozone. The Inhabitants of such
regions should, he says. surround their
houses with beds of the most odorous
flowers. There is mystery about per-
tume. It eludes the most subtle analy-
sis. So fine, so subtle, so imponderable,
it has eluded our most delicate measures
and our strongest lenses. If we could
come to the essence Of each odo,
we would make an enormous stride in
hyg iene and In chemistry, and no pro.
fession would profit 50 much by it as the
medical profession if it could be conclu.
sivcly demonstrated that such cause, az
we already know of sulphur, sulphurate.
hydrogen, ammonia and the like.