all shut, and had
been so some time, thinking to observe the liquor should come from that
I had broken off, but finding none, though with pressing, to come, I,
as dexterously as I could, pull'd off one whose leaves were expanded,
and then had upon the shutting of the leaves, a little of the mention'd
liquor, from the end of the sprig I had broken from the Plant. And this
twice successively, as often almost as I durst rob the Plant.

But my curiosity carrying me yet further, I cut off one of the harder
branches of the stronger Plant, and there came of the liquor, both from
that I had cut, and that I had cut it from, without pressure.

Which made me think, that the motion of this Plant upon touching, might
be from this, that there being a constant _intercourse_ betwixt every
part of this Plant and its root, either by a _circulation_ of this
liquor, or a constant pressing of the subtiler parts of it to every
extremity of the Plant. Upon every pressure, from whatsoever it
proceeds, greater then that which keeps it up, the subtile parts of
this liquor are thrust downwards, towards its _articulations_ of the
leaves, where, not having room presently to get into the sprig, the
little round _pedunculus_, from whence the _Spine_ and those oblique
_Fibres_ I mentioned rise, being dilated, the _Spine_ and _Fibres_
(being continued from it) must be contracted and shortned, and so draw
the leaf upwards to joyn with its fellow in the same condition with it
self, where, being closed, they are held together by the implications
of the little whitish hair, as well as by the still retreating liquor,
which distending the _Fibres_ that are continued lower to the branch
and root, shorten them above; and when the liquor is so much forced
from the Sprout, whose _Fibres_ are yet tender, and not able to support
themselves, but by that tensness which the liquor filling their
_interstices_ gives them, the Sprout hangs and flags.

But, perhaps, he that had the ability and leisure to give you the exact
_Anatomy_ of this pretty Plant, to shew you its _Fibres_, and visible
_Canales_, through which this fine liquor circulateth, or is moved, and
had the faculty of better and more copiously expressing his
Observations and conceptions, such a one would easily from the motion
of this liquor, solve all the _Phaenomena_, and