This treatise affords me also an opportunity of attempting to show that the study of organic beings may be as interesting to an observer who is fully convinced that the structure of each is due to secondary laws as to one who views every trifling detail of structure as the result of the direct interposition of the Creator. THE SLEEP OF THE PLANTS. [The Power of Movement in Plants, page 280.] The so-called sleep of leaves is so conspicuous a phenomenon that it was observed as early as the time of Pliny; and since Linnæus published his famous essay, “Somnus Plantarum,” it has been the subject of several memoirs. Many flowers close at night, and these are likewise said to sleep; but we are not here concerned with their movements, for although effected by the same mechanism as in the case of young leaves, namely, unequal growth on the opposite sides (as first proved by Pfeffer), yet they differ essentially in being excited chiefly by changes of temperature instead of light; and in being effected, as far as we can judge, for a different purpose. Hardly any one supposes that there is any real analogy between the sleep of animals and that of plants, whether of leaves or flowers. It seems, therefore, advisable to give a distinct name to the so-called sleep-movements of plants. These have also generally been confounded, under the term “periodic,” with the slight daily rise and fall of leaves, as described in the fourth chapter; and this makes it all the more desirable to give some distinct name to sleep-movements. Nyctitropism and nyctitropic, i. e., night-turning, may be applied both to leaves and flowers, and will be occasionally used by us; but it would be best to confine the term to leaves. * * * * * [Page 281.]