98 GENERATION OF INSECTS 



But when, at eve, the Odyssey you read 



And learn of fearful wars you can't abide, 



Where some fair god is wounded in the head, 



Or lovely goddess — don't be horrified; 



For Homer did not mean just what he said; 



The good man often to the public lied, 



To misle fools, who, even with a glass. 



Can hardly tell a horse from a dull ass. 



Hence, for fair Reason's sake, do not stop short 



At what you first perceive, but pass along. 



Under the hull there's stuff of different sort : 



To judge a thing by the outside is wrong. 



By Jupiter ! You'll never come to port. 



If you give ear to every tale and song. 



Therefore, I pray, take up the hoe of mind. 



Dig hard, and sweat — something, mayhap, you'll find." 



But, who knows, perhaps Virgil, Dante, and the other 

 Tuscan poets, combined truth with fable in alluding to 

 the sensitiveness of plants. I know very well that there 

 is no conclusive proof on either side of the question, but 

 it is true that plants consume food, grow, and produce 

 seed and fruit, like animals. They eagerly seek the sun 

 and fresh air ; they avoid unhealthy shade, twisting them- 

 selves aside to escape it, and perhaps, if they had legs, 

 and were not so deeply rooted in the ground, they might 

 flee from attack, or, possessing the proper organs, they 

 might complain and break into lamentations on being 

 injured. 



I remember, in connection with this, that being in 

 Leghorn, in the month of March, I saw a sea-fruit, 

 round like an apple, that had taken root in the mud be- 

 tween the cracks of a rock. This fruit resembled an 

 orange in size and shape, and was of the color of pig 

 fungi, but is called sea-fungus by the fishermen. Hav- 

 ing gathered it, and wishing to examine its internal 



