Elements of Botany, Plate 6

From Elements of Botany:

"This Plate is intended to show the wonderful effects of light upon vegetables. In the superior figure a leaf of a Vine is put through the hole of a stick, in a glass vessel filled with water. The leaf is placed horizontally in the water, with its upper page, or surface looking towards the bottom, and its under surface, towards the top of the glass. A taper is placed at a small distance from the vessel. After some time, owing to the action of the light upon the plant, it turns itself in the vessel, and presents its upper surface to the light.

"In the two lower figures, the effect of light is demonstrated in another way. A leaf of Mallow (Malva,) is suspended in a glass vessel, filled with water, in a perpendicular direction, in such a manner, that the upper page of the leaf, as in the former instance, regards the bottom of the glass. After some time the plant, in order to receive the influence of light, twists itself, and presents its upper surface to the light. This change is supposed to take place in one and the same vase, but it was thought proper to notice the phenomenon in two distinct drawings."