The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-10-29

TS va tnS Il
Sun. " .-ur. ~, 49,. .... I'LL
Wonders of Plants and Flowers.
+" Most OF the flowers sleep duriug the
night. The marigold goes to bed with
the sun. Many plants are so sensitive
that their leaves close during the, passage
of a cloud. The dandelion opens at FIVE
or six 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. The night
Towering cereusa turns night into day.
1t begins to expand its magnificent sweet
scented blossoms in the twilight, it is in
full bloom at midnight, and closes for
ever at the dawn Of day. In a clover
field not a leaf is open until after sunrise.
There are some plants that may be used
as weather prophets. The pimpcrnel
spreads its leaves at the end Of wet
weather, while the different species of
clover contract theirs. If the chickweed
Ldroops and its flowers are not open,
there is rain in prospect. The crowfoot
anemone foretells the coming of rain
by closing its blossoms; the
meptaisa carries Its flower erect when
the weather IS fine, and dropping when
overcast. It will rain if the whitlow
grass lets its leaves hang dropping if
the gallium verum swells and exhales
strongly, also it the birch scents the air.
The sensitiveness Of plants to light,
heat and moisture was made by Linn9us,
the great b%otanist, the basis of many ex-
periments and observations, resulting in
1t is a 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
~ 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 reyer-
ence which was paid to the lotus by the
Egyptians is supposed by some to be from
this association with the sacred sun.
Flowers and fruits of the lotus are en-
graved on Eastern tombs and monuments,
and adorn the heads of their seulptured
deities. +. Besides the "foral clock" there
is a floral calender, in which each month
is marked by its own loyal 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
,a%rtlicially, just as a cock may be walked
up to crow at an untimely3 hour by the
light Of a lantern. A French chemist
subjected a. sensitive plant to IN exceed
inggly trying course OF discipline, by COM
pletely changing its hours, exposing it
to 8. bright light at night, and putting it
in a dark room during the day. The
plant appeared to be much puzzled at
first. It opened and closed its leaves If
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
tmitted to the change, and accepted the
night for the day without any apparent
i'll effects. .:s 49, nr,-3 a.-
i We notice that an Italian chemist has
recently made some experiments which
have resulted in the discovery that vege-
table perfumes Exercise a positively
healthfnl influence upon the atmosphere
by converting its oxygen into ozone, and
thus increasing its oxidizing influences.
The essences found to developed the largest
quantity of ozone are those Of 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
w%hichshave but slight perfume develope
it,only in small quantities. Reasoning
from these facts, the professor recon-
.mends the p cultivation of flowers in
marshy districts and in all places in
tested with animal emanations,1 on ac-
count of the powerful oxidizing inhu-
,ence of ozone. The inhabitants gof such
regions should, he says surround their
houses with beds of the most odorous
flowers. There is a mystery about per-
tume. 1t eludes the most subtle analy-
SIS So fine, SO subtle, so imponderable.
it has eludedl our most delicate measures
and our strongest, lenses. If we could
come Ito the essence & of each odor
we would make an enormous stride in
hygiene and IN chemistry, and no pro-
fession would profit SO much by it as the
medical profession if it could be conciu-
sively demonstrated that such a cause, as
we already know of sulphur, sulphurate-
hydrogen, ammonia andlthe like
4 YOUNG woman was Knocked down
az Roseville, Ohio, and robbed Of her