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DO PLANTS HAVE "FEELINGS" TOO?

You know how your legs kick when somone kicks your feet.So all living things, including plants respond to touch, but some, like the sensitive plant, show their feelings more than others. Choloroform has the same effect on plants it has on people—after taking it they stop "showing their feelings." Some plants get food by closing their leaves on insects that touch them. In the circle is a leaf of a big pitcher plant that grows in California and catches insects in its pitchers. Notice the flange that guides the insect into the pitcher.

This man is chloroforming a sensitive plant. On the left is the Trumpet Leaf.—a plant that catches ants—and on the right the Huntsman's Cup, that "eats" cockroaches.

The Venus fly trap has leaves like jaws that snap up insects touching them. On the right is another kind of pitcher plant. The picture shows its pitchers full of sweetened water are kept open to attract insects. (See Sensitive Plants and Carnivorous Plants.)