THE HIGHER LIFE OF PLANTS 
veritable agony. Plants about to die undergo 
a violent spasm and then by making no response 
at all to outside influences, show that they have 
actually given up the ghost. 
Sir Jaghadish is satisfied that a plant pulled 
up by the roots experiences a shock comparable 
to that of a man being beaten into insensibility. 
Many trees and plants, as every gardener 
knows, fail to survive transplanting and die 
from pure shock, even if their tissue has been 
in no way injured. Sir Jaghadish has performed 
the interesting experiment of administering a 
powerful chemical to act as an anesthetic to 
trees about to be transplanted. Such specimens 
have stood the re-location well but in some 
cases have shown an apparent loss of memory 
and a general state of upset habit, exactly as 
would a man or animal coming out of a stupor. 
All this strongly suggests a soul or driving 
spiritual force in every living creature. Regard- 
ing its exact nature there are many opinions. 
Maeterlinck believes that there is a general 
scattered intelligence, a sort of universal fluid, 
which penetrates all organisms in an amount 
proportionate to their conductivity. Man offers 
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