THE SAGACITY 



AND 



MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I SHALL be met at the outset with the remark that 

 the term MoraUty can only be rightly applied to 

 conscious agents, and that plants cannot be classed 

 among that number. Has this commonly adopted 

 opinion been proved, or do we accept it as a tradi- 

 tional conclusion which to most people seems self- 

 evident ? Wordsworth did not think so. He said — 



" It is my faith that every flower which blows 

 Enjoys the air it breathes ! " 



Darwin, speaking of the sensitiveness of the root- 

 tips of plants, shows they have acquired diverse 

 kinds of sensitiveness, and that " it is hardly an ex- 

 aggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus 

 endowed, and having the power of directing the 

 movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the 



B 



