PART X 



SOME REMARKABLE WAYS OF PLANTS 



I — Plant Movements 



The movements of plants, and of their various parts, 

 are very curious. These alone would be enough to 

 prove that they live. Things without life do not move 

 and stir and turn round of themselves, any more than 

 they grow or change in shape. 



Something of the above we found in earlier chapters. 

 We saw how a leaf or a flower will try to follow the 

 sun in his daily journey across the sky ; and this is true, 

 not only of a leaf or a flower, for the whole plant generally 

 is inclined to bend towards the sun, or towards the best 

 light it can find. If we keep one in a window, and 

 never turn the pot round, it will grow all to one side, 

 and its shape is spoilt. 



Again, we noticed how leaves and petals droop 

 and close in dull weather, or when night is near. Not 

 all in the same manner or to the same extent; for 

 different kinds are as unlike in their ways as different 

 people are unlike in theirs. Still, more or less and in 

 one fashion or another, they all have their own little 

 movements, regularly carried out. 



Also, we saw how roots move, how the delicate tips 

 circle about in their hunt for food. And it is the same 

 with other parts. 



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