18 Ohjerrai'ions on the Jpomaa Hij'p'ida. 



mechanlfm, nor to local circumftanccs ; and they feeni equally 

 capable of moving on all fides. 



VI. Ivy is the only plant, and perhaps the only body, with 

 which they do not fynipathize : they are not fond of uniting 

 with it, or twifiing ihcnifclves around it. If any external 

 power unites them to that plant, and forces thcni to defcribc 

 around it a certain number of circumvolutions, they endea- 

 vour to avoid it, to difenibarrafs theinfelves from it, and they 

 remove from it as foon as circumitanccs will permit. 



VII. If a branch of the plants in qncllion be fufpended in 

 the air, it continues to defcend in a perpendicular direction, 

 unlefs it be very flcnder. In that cafe, it abandons the 

 ftraight line which it followed, and bends itfelf contrary to 

 the laws of gravitation, raifes itfelf up, and returns to its own 

 flem, that it may defcribe around it the ufual fpirals. 



VIII. Sometimes the extremity of thefc plants, after having 

 twilled itfelf feveral times around difibrent neiohbourins bo- 

 dies, abandons the fpirals it had bcsjun to form, and recedes 

 feveral inches ; efpecially if deranged in its progrefs, either 

 on purpofe or by the cft"c6l of Ibme local circumllances : but, 

 by a very wonderful mechanifm, it almolt always falls back 

 towards thofe bodies which it embraced, fearches for them 

 as if by natural inftinft, and again twifts itfelf around them, 

 following the fpirals it defcrlbed before. Thefc fpirals are 

 fituated in a diretlion from the top to the bottom, or from 

 the bottom to the top, according to the pofition of the point 

 which terminates them. InditVerent to every kind of direc- 

 tion, they confiantly follow that given to them, without 

 obeying either the laws of gravity, or thofe by which other 

 plants ieem to be regulated. 



IX. All thefc phenomena eannot be explained by fimple 

 mechanifm: they fecm to be the clTcCt of a principle of fcnfa- 

 tion and life; a principle which I dil'covercd icvcral vcars 

 ago in the tmnella: of Dillon, and fome other fraaller plants, 

 as yet little known, of the fainilv of li/i-rofis, and of which I 

 have demonllrated the exiik-nce by evident proofs, as may 

 be feen in mv different works. Tliefe proofs have never yet 

 been contefted by any obferver or philoiopher, 



X. Life and fenfalion are found to be obfcured among 

 certain animals which have verv little analogy with man and 

 with common animals, and to become the lefs apparent as 

 their organization dificrs from ours. Somclipics, even, it h 

 diRicuIt to believe that they enjoy real life ; and this difco- 

 very can be made onlv by the laborious refearchcs of the phi- 

 liolbphic obferver. Several of thefc animals are deftitute of 



the 



