This faculty in the flowers of plants is not altogether a new discovery; but we are indebted to the same hand for additional observations upon this head likewise. It is so manifest in one of our common English plants, the _Tragopogon luteum_, that our country people long since called it _John-go-to-bed-at-noon_. Linnæus’s observations have extended to near fifty species, which are subject to this law. What we find principally upon this subject is in the _Philosophia Botanica_, p. 273. We will enumerate these plants, and mention the time when the flowers open and shut, that those, who have opportunity and inclination, may gratify themselves, and probably at the same time extend this branch of botanic knowlege still farther. It is proper to observe, that as these observations were made by Linnæus in the academical garden at Upsal, whoever repeats them in this country will very probably find, that the difference of climate will occasion a variation in point of time: at least this will obtain in some species, as our own observations have taught us; in others the time has corresponded very exactly with the account he has given us. Whether this faculty hath any connexion with the great article of fecundation in the oeconomy of flowers, I cannot determine: in the mean time it is not improbable. Future and repeated observations, and well-adapted experiments, will tend to illustrate this matter, and it may be lead the way to a full explanation of the cause. 1. Anagallis flore phœniceo C. B. pin. 252. Raii Syn. p. 282. Anagallis arvensis Lin. Spec. plant. p. 148. _The Male Pimpernel._ The flowers of this plant open about eight o’clock in the morning, and never close till past noon. This plant is common in kitchen-gardens and in corn-fields, and flowers in June, and continues in flower three months. 2. The Anagallis cærulea foliis binis ternisve ex adverso nascentibus C. B. pin. p. 252. Raii Hist. Plant. p. 1024. Anagallis Monelli Sp. plant. 148. _Blue-flowered Pimpernel with narrow leaves._ The flowers of this plant observe nearly the same time in opening and shutting as the foregoing. 3. Convolvulus peregrinus cæruleus folio oblongo C. B. pin. 295. Convolvulus tricolor Sp. plant. 158. _Little blue Convolvulus, or Bindweed._ This opens its flowers between the hours of five and six in the morning, and shuts them in the afternoon. 4. Phalangium parvo flore ramosum C. B. pin. 29. Raii Hist. Pl. 1193. _Branched Spiderwort with a small flower._ These open about seven in the morning, and close between the hours of three and four in the afternoon. 5. Lilium rubrum Asphodeli radice C. B. pin. 80. Hemerocallis fulvus Sp. pl. 324. _The Day Lily._ The flowers open about five in the morning, and shut at seven or eight in the evening. 6. Plantago aquatica minor. Park. 1245. Raii Syn. 257. Alisma ranunculoides Sp. pl. 343. Fl. Suec. 2. Nº. 325. _The lesser Water-Plantain_, during its flowering-time, only opens its flowers each day about noon.