full of little short white hairs, which wear off as the leaves grow,
and then they are smooth as the Branch.
Upon each of these sprigs, are, for the most part, eleven pair of
leaves, neatly set into the uppermost part of the little sprig, exactly
one against another, as it were in little _articulations_, such as
Anatomists call _Enarthrosis_, where the round head of a Bone is
received into another fitted for its motion; and standing very fitly to
shut themselves and touch, the pairs just above them closing somewhat
upon them, as in the shut sprig; so is the little round _Pedunculus_ of
this leaf fitted into a little cavity of the sprig, visible to the eye
in a sprig new pluck'd, or in a sprig withered on the Branch, from
which the leaves easily fall by touching.
The leaf being almost an oblong square, and set into the _Pedunculus_,
at one of the lower corners, receiveth from that not onely a _Spine_,
as I may call it, which, passing through the leaf, divides it so
length-ways that the outer-side is broader then the inner next the
sprig, but little _fibres_ passing obliquely towards the opposite
broader side, seem to make it here a little muscular, and fitted to
move the whole leaf, which, together with the whole sprig, are set full
with little short whitish hairs.
One of these Plants, whose branch seem'd to be older and more grown
then the other, onely the tender Sprouts of it, after the leaves are
shut, fall and hang down; of the other, the whole branches fall to the
ground, if the Sun shine very warm, upon the first taking off the
Glass, which I therefore call the _humble Plant_.
The other two, which do never fall, nor do any of their branches flagg
and hang down, shut not their leaves, but upon somewhat a hard stroke;
the stalks seem to grow up from a root, and appear more _herbaceous_,
they are round and smooth, without any prickle, the Sprouts from them
have several pairs of sprigs, with much less leaves then the other on
them, and have on each sprig generally seventeen pair.
Upon touching any of the sprigs with leaves on, all the leaves on that
sprig contracting themselves by pairs, joyned their upper superficies
close together.
Upon the dropping a drop of _Aqua fortis_ on the sprig betwixt the
leaves, ff all the leaves above shut presently, those below by pairs
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