1862.] Mr. W. S. Savory on Motion in Plants and Animals. 433 



genera Cleihra, Bystropogon^ Cedronellay and Oreodaphne as common 

 to the Atlantic Islands and America. Japanese species, however, 

 have been described of Clethra and Cedronella ; and Messrs. Webb 

 and Berthelot limit Bystropogon to Atlantic Island species. Oreo- 

 daphne occurs in South Africa and adjacent islands. 



A connection between these Islands and Europe, at perhaps a late 

 period of the tertiary, may be considered as highly probable from the 

 predominance of Mediterranean forms in their flora. The few genera 

 characteristic of the tertiary which they possess may have been 

 derived during this connection ; but the hypothesis that a continent 

 should have extended westward as far as America, the speaker 

 considered the available botanical evidence did not in the least 

 substantiate. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Hooker the speaker was enabled 

 to exhibit numerous specimens, — living, dried, and fossil, illustrative 

 of his observations. 



[D. O.] 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 14, 1862. 



Sir Henry Holland, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. Vice-President 



in the Chair. 



William Scovell Savory, Esq. F.R.S. 

 On Motion in Plants and Animals. 



Vital motion is at once associated with our idea of an animal. We 

 speak of Voluntary motion as emphatically an animal function. And 

 this truly and naturally : for it is in the animal kingdom that we are 

 accustomed to witness motion which depends on the vital property of 

 a structure ; and those movements with which we are most familiar — 

 those seen in ourselves and in the higher animals — we know to 

 be usually under the influence of a will. But while the power of 

 producing motion, and motion too which depends on the vital property 

 of a structure, is an attribute of the vegetable as well as of the animal 

 kingdom, voluntary motion in the proper acceptation of the term is 

 restricted to a portion of the animal kingdom. 



Voluntary motion is therefore an animal function, inasmuch as 

 there is no evidence whatever that any movement in plants is volun- 

 tary ; at the same time it must be remembered that there is not a tittle 



2 G 2 



