Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1896 — Sensitive Plants. [ARTICLE]

Sensitive Plants.

The sensitive plant, which is such a delicate house ornament with us, fairly enamels the earth in Ceylon, growing wild from Adam’s Peak to Point de Galle, multiplying its dainty, bell-like pink blossoms, mingled with the delicate, feathery acacia. Growing so exposed and in weed-like abundance, it is natural to suppose that it would become hardened, as it were, to rough usage; but it is not so, as It retains all its' native properties in exaggerated form, if possible. Our puny little hothouse specimens are not more delicate or sensitive to the human touch than is this Ceylon mimosa. It is the most impressionable of all known plants, and is appropriately named. Curious experiments prove this. If a person will fix his oyes upon a special branch and slowly approach It, the plant is seen gradually to Wilt rind shrink within itself, (is It were, before it is touched by the Observer's hand. It is endowed with an inexplicable intelligence or. Instinct, and what appears to be a dread as regards rude Contact with human beings.