LIVING PLANTS 



Eighteenth 



century 



opinions 



view in the sentence : '^Planta est corpus viv- 

 ens non sentiens.'' A hundred years later 

 Linnaeus gave his famous definition of the 

 three kingdoms of nature: "Minerals grow, 

 plants grow and live, animals grow, live and 

 feel . ' ' These great leaders of scientific thought 

 inclined to deny sentience to plants as a mat- 

 ter of definition, but did not wholly discoun- 

 tenance some of the vagaries of their predeces- 

 sors. 



At the beginning of the present century- gen- 

 eral students of plant life were inclined to 

 admit greater range of the plant's powers. 

 Sir J. E. Smith, in his ''Introduction to 

 Botany," a work which met wath such favor 

 as to pass through seven editions within 

 twenty-six years, has voiced the uncertainty 

 of the period regarding the plant's status in 

 the form of a query : "As they possess life, ir- 

 ritability and motion, spontaneously direct- 

 ing their organs to what is natural and bene- 

 ficial to them, and flourishing according to 

 their success in gratifying their wants, may 

 not the exercise of their vital functions be at- 

 tended with some des^ree of sensation, how- 

 ever low, and some consequent share of hap- 

 piness?" Erasmus Darwin, a few years be- 

 fore, and J. E. Tupper, a few years later, ex- 

 pressed similar sentiments in works that met 

 with popular recognition and approval. 



