otions are observable in the vegetable
world as well as in the animal. The divisions of the leaves of the
sensitive plant have been accustomed to contract at the same time from
the absence of light; hence, if by any other circumstance, as a slight
stroke or injury, one division is irritated into contraction, the
neighbouring ones contract also from their motions being associated with
those of the irritated part. So the various stamina of the class of
syngenesia have been accustomed to contract together in the evening, and
thence if you stimulate any one of them with a pin, according to the
experiment of M. Colvolo, they all contract from their acquired
associations.

"To evince that the collapsing of the sensitive plant is not owing to
any mechanical vibrations propagated along the whole branch when a
single leaf is struck with the finger, a leaf of it was slit with sharp
scissors, with as little disturbance as possible, and some seconds of
time passed before the plant seemed sensible of the injury, and then the
whole branch collapsed as far as the principal stem. This experiment was
repeated several times with the least possible impulse to the plant.

"V. 1. For the numerous circumstances in which vegetable buds are
analogous to animals, the reader is referred to the additional notes at
the end of 'Botanic Garden,' Part I. It is there shown that the roots of
vegetables resemble the lacteal system of animals; the sap vessels in
the early spring, before their leaves expand, are analogous to the
placental vessels of the foetus; that the leaves of land plants
resemble lungs, and those of aquatic plants the gills of fish; that
there are other systems of vessels resembling the vena portarum of
quadrupeds, or the aorta of fish; that the digestive power of vegetables
is similar to that of animals converting the fluids which they absorb
into sugar;[164] that their seeds resemble the eggs of animals, and
their buds and bulbs their viviparous offspring; and lastly, that the
anthers and stigmas are real animals attached to their parent tree like
polypi or coral insects, but capable of spontaneous motion; that they
are affected with the passion of love, and furnished with powers of
reproducing their species, and are fed with honey like the moths and
butterflies which plunder their nectaries.[165]

"The male flowers of Vallisneria approach still nearer to apparent
animality, as they detach themselves from the parent plant, and flo