PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
they can be partially paralyzed if certain spots 
on their leaves are pricked. 
Many people have no hesitancy in ascribing 
considerable intelligence to the higher animals; 
why do they balk at making the same concession 
to plants? If you concede intelligence to a sin- 
gle animal, you concede some measure of brain- 
power to all animals down to the one-celled 
Amoeba, and so must grant the same favour to 
the plant world. Plants and animals, besides 
having many habits in common, in their sim- 
plest forms are often indistinguishable. Both 
reduce themselves to single-celled masses of 
protoplasm. ‘The Myxomycetes are both so 
plant-like and at the same time so animal-like 
that their classification “depends rather on the 
general philosophical position of the observer 
than on facts.” Possibly they are both animal 
and plant at the same time—a sort of“missing 
link” connecting the two kingdoms of life. 
Anent the same question Edward Step says, 
‘Modern thought denies consciousness to plants, 
though Huxley was bold enough to say that 
every plant is an animal enclosed in a wooden 
box; and science has demonstrated that there 
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