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Personality of plants

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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

ward and outward? If a telescope or an in-<br />

strument such as Sir Jaghadish Bose's crescograph<br />

be trained on a healthy plant, it is pos-<br />

sible to see the growth actually take place before<br />

the eye somewhat as it is managed in motion pic-<br />

tures. Travelers aver that if a Banana Plant<br />

be cut <strong>of</strong>f close to the ground and the. surround-<br />

ing soil well supplied with water, the sturdy cre-<br />

ature will make such strenuous efforts to destroy<br />

the effects <strong>of</strong> its mutilation that its growth may<br />

easily be perceived with the unaided eye, and<br />

a full-sized leaf produced in a single day.<br />

Leaves and flowers are usually quite mobile.<br />

When they go to sleep, they droop and fold<br />

their edges together very carefully, sometimes<br />

to such an extent as to make themselves almost<br />

invisible. Even such an astute man as Linnaeus<br />

was once completely deceived by some sleep-<br />

ing specimens <strong>of</strong> Lotus. They were very fine<br />

red flowers and he was proud <strong>of</strong> them. Taking<br />

a friend to view them one evening by lantern-<br />

light, what was his dismay to find that they<br />

had completely disappeared. He concluded<br />

that they had been stolen or eaten by insects<br />

and went away, only to find them in full array<br />

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