PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
sions, tone of voice and bodily posture, so we 
can guess at plant emotion by external mani- 
festations. When a flower greets the morning 
sun with expanded petals, uplifted head and a 
generally bright appearance, why should we not 
say it is happy and contented? When an ap- 
proaching storm causes a plant to droop its 
body and contract its petals and leaves into the 
smallest compass possible, why is not fear, ap- 
prehension and melancholy indicated? When 
the jaws of the Venus Fly-Trap close on its hap- 
less victim, they must do so with a savage joy 
akin to that of a Tiger springing on its prey. 
There are those who relegate a certain 
amount of intelligence to plants but deny 
them consciousness. They are unwilling to ad- 
mit that plants are aware of their own physical 
and mental processes. ‘This would seem to be 
the merest quibbling over terms and an entrance 
into that metaphysics which does away with all 
consciousness. 
If plants were not conscious, at least under 
stimulation, they would have long since per- 
ished from the earth through inability to react 
to new conditions. Francis Darwin says: “We 
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