96 GENERATION OF INSECTS 
is subordinate, and which enables them to produce animal 
life. Democritus, who, according to Petronius Arbiter, 
" omnium herbarum succos expressit, et, ne lapidum vir- 
gultorumque vis lateret, aetatem inter experimenta con- 
sumpsit," did not disdain to concede sentient powers to 
plants. Pythagoras and Plato were of the same opinion, 
as were also Anaxagoras and Empedocles, if we are to 
believe Aristotle's report in the first book on plants. But 
the recreant Manicheans impiously went further, as St. 
Augustine tells us, maintaining that plants possess a 
soul; hence it was a crime to pull fruits or flowers, or 
to tear off their leaves and branches, or uproot them. 
Plotinus was more moderate, for in his writings, though 
admitting that plants have the sense of feeling, he de- 
scribes it as being of a dull, latent form as in the case of 
oysters, sponges, and similar animals, that are called 
" plant-animals " by the schools. I might cite T. Cam- 
panella and many other moderns in favor of this opinion. 
But I shall not bring in proof Pliny's account, that 
Pythagoras commanded his followers to abstain from 
beans, because the souls of the dead took refuge in them, 
nor shall I tell you about the fabulous power ascribed 
to these vegetables when macerated and exposed to the 
sun, which according to the Chaldean philosopher, 
Zareta, then give forth an odor similar to that of human 
semen, or if the bean-flowers be buried in a vase under- 
ground, they assume the appearance of a child's head. 
I shall not quote here the precise words of the Greek 
text, because if you have the curiosity to know further, 
you can find them in commentaries on L. Diogenes, 
written by our mutual friend, the academician, Egidio 
Menagio. 
As further proof of the sensibility of plants, it will be 
