108 The Bible of Nature 



characteristically change potential energy into 

 kinetic energy in locomotion and external work. 

 Plants show a relative preponderance of construc- 

 tive, upbuilding processes, and are hampered by 

 the abundance of their riches. From another 

 point of view, they are inhibited by their own in- 

 ternal waste-products, and slumber like hibernat- 

 ing animals, or like a fire too carefully banked up, 

 half-smothered in its own ashes. But we prob- 

 ably under-appreciate the vegetative life. Al- 

 though the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin, 

 they are intensely active internally. Although 

 plants do not walk about, many of them swim 

 about. Young shoots move round in leisurely 

 circles; the rootlets twist away from sharp edges, 

 and on a piece of smoked glass they may be got 

 to keep a diary of their daily movements; twining 

 stems and tendrils bend and bow to the different 

 points of the compass as they climb; leaves rise 

 and sink, flowers open and close with the growing 

 and waning light of day. In a large number of 

 plants undeniable sense-organs are now known. 

 Tendrils twine around the lightest threads, the 

 leaves of the sensitive plant respond to a gentle 

 touch, the tentacles of the sundew, the hairs of the 

 fly-trap, the stamens of the rock-rose, the stigma 

 of the musk, compare well with the sensitive and 

 motile organs of many animals. They have some 

 power, too, of profiting by experience. It is not 



