2 DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN ANIMALS 



air and food ; they consequently possess life, and are 

 subject to death ; they are moreover endowed with 

 sensation, and with spontaneous, as well as voluntary, 

 motion. 



Vegetables are organized, supported by air and 

 food, endowed with life and subject to death as well 

 as animals. They have in some instances spontaneous, 

 though we knon^ not that they have voluntary, motion. 

 They are sensible to the action of nourishment, air, 

 and light, and either thrive or languish according to 

 the wholesome or hurtful application of these stimu- 

 lants. This is evident to all who have ever seen a 

 plant growing in a climate, soil, or situation, not suit- 

 able to it. Those Avho have ever gathered a rose, 

 know but too well how soon it withers ; and the fa- 

 miliar application of its fate to that of human life and 

 beauty is not more striking to the imagination than 

 philosophically and literally true. The sensitive plant 

 is a more astonishing example of the capability of 

 vegetables to be acted upon as living bodies. Other 

 instances of the same kind we shall hereafter have 

 occasion to mention. 



The spontaneous movements of plants are almost as 

 readily to be observed as their living principle. The 

 general direction of their branches, and especially of 

 the upper surface of their leaves, though repeatedly 

 disturbed, to the liglit ; the unfolding and closing of 

 their flowers at stated times, or according to favourable 

 or unfavourable circumstances, with some still more 



