The Opelousas courier., 1894-02-24
DO some PLANTS THINK:
BEHAVIOR WHICH SEEMS TO POINT
TO THAT CONCLUSION.
"Venus's Fly Trap's and It's Hapless
Prey-The Mimosa's Leaves Close
at the Sound of a Horses Foot.

planned under any other sup
{ position than that their &C
tons are due to some connection be-
tween sensation and consequent mo
ton that seems to be closely related
to the movements of animals. VIZ
( touch the skin of a person and the
person shrinks instantly; a similar
touch causes a worm to shrink, and
the same effect precisely happens
when some plants are touched.
The common sundew, commonly
known as ''Venus's fly trap" is one of
the most curious of the sensitive
plants. Its leaves are thick and fieshy,
and are covered with spines. The
leaves are arranged in pairs like those
of a book, and exude a viscous matter,
by which flies are attracted. When a
fly alights upon a leaf, the spines at
once close down upon it and the leaves
fold together, inclos,ng the prey, and
it is said by some observers that the
hapless insect is digested BY an acrid
liquid that then exudes, and is alb
sorbed as nutriment, much as the
toad, silently and stealthily hiding in
the grass, perceives a fly alight on a
blade, and darts toward it, and with
it's sticky tongue draws it's prey into
its capacious jaws; or more like the
lazy ant eater, which lies prone on the
anthill and projects it's viscous tongue
on the ground, and when it is covered
with ants, suddenly %withdraws it into
its mouth and swallows the insects.
The sundew opens its leaves when
the fly is disposed of, and awaits an
other victim. If you drop a shred Of
raw meat on the leaf the same per-
Torrance is repeated, and if the leaf
is touched by a straw, the leaves shut
upon it, but, as if in disgust at the de-
ception, open again Immediately.
The Western prairies are covered in
places with a beautifully feathered
leaved plant, a species of mimosa. This
is commonly known as the sensitive
plant. You stoop and draw the hand
gently across n of the low punches
of these plants. Instantly the deli
cate pinnate leaves shrink and fold to-
gether, and remain folded as long as
the intruder stays. But when he soft
ly ~retires to a short distance the leaves
begin to unfold and spread out to the
sunshine. Some varieties of the mi
mosa in Brazil are still more sensitive,
closing their leaves when the sound of
a horses foot is heard, and shrink still
more closely when the ground is
Jared by the tread of the animal near
it. One of these species, Mimosa sensi
tiva, is 20 %curiously organized that it
is rendered insensible by exposure to
chloroform. It then goes to sleep
until the effects of the anesthetic are
worn off by evaporation
The sly opposum and the willy fox lie
low and simulate death, when cornered
by al enemy and escape appears hope
less; the human criminal hides from
his pursuer. Is there any connection
between these similar actions of these
plants and animals, and, if so, are they
not due to the same cause? The at
tempt at deception is the same; it has
a purpose, and is the result of a calcu-
lation of chances, and it certainly
seems as if it were the result of a pro-
cess of thought.
Many other plants possess this acute
sensitiveness. We see the pig picking
up straws in it's mouth and carrying
them about to find a place for q bed,
and we say, as the result of observation
and experience: cit isgoing to rain"
The cats make their discordant COM
plants to the midnight moon, the
wolves howl, dogs whine, the cock
crows at shutdown, and we ourselves
feel the papille of the skin shrink and
our hair roughens and a curious ner-
vous excitement makes us feel call
over when the barometer is falling
and before the rain comes.
So the clover in the meadow feels,
and it shuts it's leaves. The spurry
closes it's petals, and a scientific obser-
yer says a field that was white with
blossoms has suddenly become quite
changed by the mere passing over it
of g black thunder cloud and the fall
ing of a few drops of rain. The COM
mon ohickweed opensits blossoms only
when the sun is shining, and, like the
dial, counts only the bright hours.
When its little blossoms close, rain in
variably falls within a few hours. Rural
dwellers take note of this, and are
likely to say: 'sHurry, we can get
back before it rains, for the chick
weeds are open yet"
The sea purslane has the same habit.
It never opens in cloudy weather and
closes when the sun is low in the after
noon. The scarlet pimperhel of the
gardens, called the shepherds baron
eter," never exposes it's pretty scarlet
flowers to a shower. The old herbalist
says of it: cit foretelleth what
weather will be the next day, and if
the flowers be shut it betokens foul
weather" And one of the naturalists
of an Arctic expedition noticed that
althou gh the summer u shone
through the night the plants made no
mistake, but when the sun got round
to the west they dropped their leaves
and closed their flowers as If the sun
had really set. An eclipse of the sun
has had the same effect, and not only
this plant. but several others which
possess the same instinct, as the con
%volvulus, shut up their petals as soon
as the sun was fully obscured, and
opened when the shadow had passed.
The common four o'clock invariably
closes it's bell-shaped flowers at the
hour named, and so many plants have
a similar instinct that the great bot
anist, Linnseus, made a floral clock of
towering plants, each of which had .
certain time for closing its flowers. A