. Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Botany, Economic; Jamaica; Periodicals.; Plants; Jamaica; Periodicals.; Agriculture; Jamaica; 224 The p^ant belongs to the Leguminosae, and its leaves undergo the move- ments for adjustment to the intense sunlight and to the cool night air in the same general manner as the Guango, or the Shameweed. If an examination of the compound leaf is made it will be found to consist of one large terminal leaflet, and one or two small lateral ones. (See Fig. 7.) The small lateral leaflets keep up a rather rapid con- tinuous jerking movement a
. Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Botany, Economic; Jamaica; Periodicals.; Plants; Jamaica; Periodicals.; Agriculture; Jamaica; 224 The p^ant belongs to the Leguminosae, and its leaves undergo the move- ments for adjustment to the intense sunlight and to the cool night air in the same general manner as the Guango, or the Shameweed. If an examination of the compound leaf is made it will be found to consist of one large terminal leaflet, and one or two small lateral ones. (See Fig. 7.) The small lateral leaflets keep up a rather rapid con- tinuous jerking movement at times when the tempe rature Kglb ^ant°f is between 72 and 104° F. modium gyiahs.) (Des- The movement continues even in the night and these leaflets do not' undergo " J-leep movements". The tip of the leaflets move up- ward and downward through an arc of one hundred and eighty degrees and at the same time twists on the "stalk so that an irregular oval or ellipse is described. From two to five minutes are nece ssary to complete the movement. W e are not only unable to ascribe any useful purpose to this move- ment of the Telegraph Plant but do not understand the mechanism by which ir is produced. Such marked and continuous movements are by no means common among the higher plants. It is necessary for every green plant to lift its leaves aloft into the sunlight To accomplish this more or less rigid stems and branches are constructed upon which the leaves are displayed. A comparatively enor- mous amount of mate- rial, energy and time are used in this process, and the plant which gets up to the sunlight with- out this expenditure will have a great advantage over other forms. One group of plants, the air plants (epiphytes) obtain exposure to the light by growing on the elevated branches of other plants. A not h er g oup of par- ticular interest in con- nection with this discus- sion, accomplish the Fig. 8. Tendril of Granadilla (Passiflora quadrangu- same purpose by
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