An allied plant which shows slower but definite movement of its leaflets has been supposed to furnish thereby prophetic indications of the weather, and even to foretell earthquakes. This plant is the _Abrus precatorius_, the seeds of which are called crab’s-eyes, and are used in India by jewellers and druggists as weights—averaging a little less than two grains. They are harmless when eaten, but contain a poison called abrine, which causes them rapidly to produce fatal results when introduced beneath the skin. Under the name “jequerity” they were introduced into this country in 1882 for the treatment of ophthalmia. This is the plant which was celebrated, about twenty years ago, as the earthquake plant or weather plant, owing to the statements of an Austrian naturalist as to its marvellous powers of prophecy by the movement of its leaflets—statements which were carefully examined by botanists at Kew Gardens at the time and shown to be devoid of justification. Earth tremors, like other vibrations, cause the leaflets to move and change their pose as they may cause animals to utter cries of alarm, but the movements of the leaflets have no more prophetic character than have those of the delicate pendulums, called seismographs, by which it is now usual to register the constantly occurring slight vibrations of the earth’s crust. That beasts and birds enjoy a nocturnal sleep similar to that of man, which is occasionally—like his sleep—transferred from night to daytime, is a matter of common knowledge. These animals, like man, lower the eyelids and adopt a position of ease when sleeping, even though they often remain poised on their legs. The question has been raised as to whether fishes sleep, since they have no eyelids and remain when at rest poised in the water. We made some inquiries on this subject in the laboratory of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth some years ago, and came to the conclusion, from the observation of various marine fishes in the aquarium there, that fishes do sleep at night. They come to rest on the bottom of the tanks, and are not so quickly responsive to a touch or intrusion of any kind as they are in the daytime. It is probable that this condition of repose is more definitely marked in some kinds of fishes than in others, but in all shallow-water marine organisms the absence of light produces a corresponding period of quiescence. That there is a good deal more than this involved in the sleep of the higher animals and of man will be apparent when we come to study it more closely.