Woe= SZ 
ADs ah ye. 
Re nat ule He Yi 2 a 
Whee a Ty 2 — 
as 
' Sy 
T may be fairly claimed that during the last half- 
century our prevailing notions respecting plant- 
life have been greatly modified, and concerning 
flowering plants have been entirely changed. Fifty 
years ago there could be found very few botanists 
who were not satisfied with the generalisations 
crystallized in the Linnean axiom— 
Stones grow, 
Vegetables grow and live, 
Animals grow, live, and ‘feel. _ 
There, in less than a dozen words, was a handy and 
easily remembered formula, serving as a kind of 
touchstone which, when appled to any doubtful 
organism, would detect whether it were plant or 
animal. But other times, other methods; the 
‘Linnean formula is absolutely obsolete to-day. The 
increase in bulk of crystals by additions to their 
surfaces would not be regarded to-day as analogous 
to the growth of plants and animals. The modern 
botanist can bring to your notice numberless 
examples of plant-life which not only exhibit 
17 
