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Moreover, it
has been observed that sleeping plants in their native homes change their
times of sleep with the changing seasons.*
We may now turn to the systematic list. This contains the names of all the
sleeping plants known to us, though the list undoubtedly is very imperfect.
It may be premised that, as a general rule, all the species in the same
genus sleep in nearly the same manner. But there are some exceptions; in
several large genera including many sleeping species (for instance,
Oxalis), some do not sleep. One species of Melilotus sleeps like a
Trifolium, and therefore very differently from its congeners; so does one
species of Cassia. In the genus Sida, the leaves either rise or fall at
night; and with Lupinus they sleep in three different methods. Returning to
the list, the first point which strikes us, is that there are many more
genera amongst the Leguminosae (and in almost every one of the Leguminous
tribes) than in all the other families put together; and we are tempted to
connect this fact with the great
* Pfeffer, ibid., p. 46.


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