re. In short, it was pointed out in the _Standard_, in
illustration of the extreme sensitiveness of certain plants to
surrounding influences, how the _Haedysarums_ have been well known ever
since the days of Linnseus to suddenly begin to quiver without any
apparent cause, and just as suddenly to stop. Force cannot initiate the
movement, though cold will stop it, and heat will set in motion again
the suspended animation of the leaves. If artificially kept from moving
they will, when released, instantly begin their task anew and with
redoubled energy. Similarly the leaves of the _Colocasia esculenta_--the
tara of the Sandwich Islands--will often shiver at irregular times of
the day and night, and with such energy that little bells hung on the
petals tinkle. And yet, curious to say, we are told that the keenest eye
has not yet been able to detect any peculiarity in these plants to
account for these strange motions. It has been suggested that they are
due to changes in the weather of such a slight character that, "our
nerves are incapable of appreciating them, or the mercury of recording
their accompanying oscillations."

Footnotes:

1. Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1873, i. 130.

2. See "English Folk-lore," pp. 42, 43.

3. "Primitive Manners and Customs," p. 74.

4. Dublin University Magazine, December 1873, p. 677.

5. See Swainson's "Weather-lore," p. 257.

6. See "Flower-lore," p. 226.

7. See _Notes and Queries_, 1st Ser. II. 511.

CHAPTER XI

PLANT PROVERBS.

A host of curious proverbs have, from the earliest period, clustered
round the vegetable world, most of which--gathered from experience and
observation--embody an immense amount of truth, besides in numerous
instances conveying an application of a moral nature. These proverbs,
too, have a very wide range, and on this account are all the more
interesting from the very fact of their referring to so many conditions
of life. Thus, the familiar adage which tells us that "nobody is fond of
fading flowers," has a far deeper signification, reminding us that
everything associated with change and decay must always be a matter of
regret. To take another trite proverb of the same kind, we are told how
"truths and roses have thorns about them," which is absolutely true; and
there is the well-known expression "to pipe in an ivy leaf," which
signifies "to go and engage in some futile or idle pursuit" which cannot
be productive of any good. The common