Between 3 and 4 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bind-weed of the hedgerows.
   At 5 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Naked stalked Poppy and most of the Chichoraceae.
   Between 5 and 6 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nipplewort and the Day Lily.
   At 6 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Many of the Solanaceae (Night-shade) family.
   Between 6 and 7 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sow Thistle and Spurrey.
   At 7 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Water Lilies, Lettuce.
   At 7 to 8 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Venus' Looking-Glass.
   At 8 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wild Pimpernel.
   At 9 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wild Marigold.
   At 9 to 10 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ice Plant.
   At 11 A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Purslain, Star of Bethlehem.
   At 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Most of the Ficoid, or Mesembryanthemum family.
   At 2 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Scilla Pomeridiana.
   Between 5 and 6 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Silene Noctiflora.
   Between 6 and 7 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Marvel of Peru.
   Between 7 and 8 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cereus Grandiflorus, Tree Primrose.
   At 10 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Purple Convolvulus.

In addition to the above, I would remark that certain equinoctial flowers open and close at a fixed time in the same day; on the morrow, and for several following days, they again open and shut at the same regular hours. The Star of Bethlehem opens several days in succession at eleven in the morning, and closes at three. The Ficoides Noctiflora blows several days in succession at seven in the evening, and closes about six or seven in the morning.

Besides the cases in which flowers open and shut their corollas by the influence of light, instances are known in which merely the petals roll up by day, and resume their natural shape after sunset. A remarkable circumstance respecting the effect of atmospheric influence is that the same causes do not affect all plants, and yet no peculiarity of construction has been discovered in those so affected to distinguish them from those that are not.

Every student of nature can witness much more that is of general interest regarding the habits, so to speak, and characteristics of plants. They have been a favorite theme in all ages. Lovers have dwelt on them and given them a language. Nearly every one delights in the flowering plants. Who would refuse a bouquet of choice flowers? This attachment to flowers was pathetically illustrated in the Highland emigrants in Canada, who wept when they found that the heather would not grow in their newly-adopted soil. And well they might, for it is the flower of their native mountains, and associated with all their brightest and tenderest recollections. In the age of chivalry the daisy was renowned; and St. Louis, of France, took it and a lily for a device in his ring, as emblematical of his wife and country. The thistle, like the famous geese of Rome, saved Scotland, and for this reason it is the national emblem of that country. During the Danish invasion, one of their soldiers placed his naked foot on the spiny leaves of a thistle, and instinctively uttered a cry which awoke the slumbering Scots, who turned upon their foes, defeated, and drove them from their land.

The poetry attached to plants, however, is not of immediate concern in this volume. It is their medicinal properties which engages our study and demands our labors. Yet I could not so well establish their superior fitness as curative agents above the mineral drug unless I gave that which is of general interest. One fact will be apparent to the reader, that plants have life, and hence are eminently suitable to give life to the suffering patient. The lifeless inorganic mineral has none, and can give no vital element.