Diana Wells:
The Jesuit Pierre d'Incarville had been sent to China to convert the emperor, Chien Lung, to Christianity. China at the time had mostly barred Westerners, but the emperor accepted d'Incarville, who was a skilled clockmaker as well as a botanist. The priest was frustrated in his attempts to collect new plants and only got round the emperor by presenting him with two plants of the Mimosa pudica that he had raised from seed sent from Paris. The leaves of the Mimosa pudica collapse when touched and this, we are told, greatly diverted the emperor, who laughed heartily. D'Incarville was now given access to the imperial gardens and was free to export plants until he died, soon afterward, in 1757.[100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names]