m 
Perceptivity of Plants, &c. 7t 
importance to the healthy ftate of the vegetable world. But to 
make the connexion more complete between the two organic 
kingdoms, it.has not only been found that plants move towards 
their food like wile and intelligent beings, but they likewife turn 
afide from thole foils, &c. which are injurious to them, or at leaít 
afford them but a fcanty noutifhment. This is a’ deception: 
it is only the immediate confequence of their motion towards 
their nourifhment;. for. when the root of a tree or plant 
changes its courfe, on account of meeting with a rock, or 
with a hard, füff, and barren clay, or other object that docs not 
afford it proper nourifhment, it is owing not to.any dereliction 
of thefe objects, but to no attraction from abforption aéting im that 
direction, but one from a more favourable foil. The fmallnefs. 
of the refiftance of thefe fluids cannot be urged againft this theory:. 
the 1 motion to be. ae is only the tendency of the nafcent 
oots; no-one -the folid wood could alter its. 
eO; it this power, ‘however fetis i is Awan acting. Iam 
not ignorant that thefe are not the only motions which are 
thought to announce the perceptivity of plants The motions 
 obferved in the ftamina and other parts at the time of fecunda- 
tion, the fpiral direction of the ftems of fome*, theufe of the cirrhi of 
others, and the burfting of the capfules, have all, with many other 
powers, been thought to favour this opinion. Thefe are but powers 
nature has beftowed upon them for their prefervation and pro- 
* I have read, and heard it more than once afferted, that the Lonicera and other 
plants with the caulis volubilis, which are twifted either dextrorfum or finiftrorfum,, 
ean change this: natural direction ; fo that when two Lonicere, or two branches. of the: 
fame Lonicera; meet, the one turns to the right, the other to the left, that they may afford 
- t each other a better fupport. This is a miftake; and, if true, would only counteract the 
jntention of nature, which is a mutual fupport ; for this would prevent their uniting fo. 
firmly together, Some of the cirrhi of the Bryonia, &c. turn to the right, others to the 
left, but not to accommodate one another. 
wh VLE 7 duction, 
