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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />
"No heart can think, no tongue can tell,<br />
The virtues <strong>of</strong> the Pimpernell."<br />
The greatest <strong>of</strong> all floral barometers is the<br />
Weather-Plant or Indian Licorice (Abrus Pre-<br />
catorius). So keenly sensitive to all atmos-<br />
pheric conditions is this plant that it may be<br />
used to foretell cyclones, hurricanes^ earth-<br />
quakes, and even volcanic eruptions. Its small,<br />
rose-like leaves are in continual motion, which<br />
varies noticeably under different electrical and<br />
magnetic influences. The Austrian Pr<strong>of</strong>essor<br />
Norwack, working at his Weather-Plant Ob-<br />
servatory at Kew Gardens, London, once used<br />
it to predict a disastrous fire-damp explosion.<br />
Many flowers show a remarkable apprecia-<br />
tion <strong>of</strong> the passage <strong>of</strong> time and open and close<br />
at regular hours each day. In fact, a close<br />
student <strong>of</strong> floral habits can actually tell the<br />
time <strong>of</strong> day by watching the actions <strong>of</strong> the<br />
flowers around him. It is said that the Swedish<br />
botanist Linnaeus once built himself a flower<br />
clock, arranged to count the passing hours by<br />
the folding and unfolding <strong>of</strong> different blossoms.<br />
One does not really need to go to this trouble.<br />
The common flowers <strong>of</strong> the field and garden<br />
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