" In the corporeal life of the plant there exist intention, 

 tendency, and means for their attainment ; nay, we even see 

 this controlled by the fitness of time, in the same way as in 

 more highly endowed man. The plant, like the animal, has 

 inward intentions to fulfil outwardly, fulfils them like the lat- 

 ter, and indeed, in the same way, more or less perfectly, ac- 

 cording to the various conditions of which they consist. There 

 is therefore only a difference of degree between the unknown 

 unity which predominates over all this activity, and which in 

 man is termed his soul, and the spontaneous power analogous 

 to this soul which the plant exhibits in action during its whole 

 life," &c. We do therefore an injustice to the plant when we 

 consider it as not being like the animal endowed with a common 

 primary force, penetrating through all parts and directing them 

 all to certain actions. From these views, however, it would 

 result, that all inorganic bodies are also endowed with a soul, 

 a thought, which has been already asserted in the most an- 

 cient times ; nay, Von Martius arrives at the conclusion, that 

 everything earthly, and therefore also the plant, possesses a 

 soul, and the numberless fraternity of similar creatures which 

 act so prominent a part in the universal life of our planet, are, 

 according to their scale, governed by a soft peaceful spirit, an 

 Anima blandula, trepidula. 



On the Phenomena of Nutrition and Growth in Plants. 



M. E. Ohlert* has published some observations on the 

 structure and growth of the fibrils of the root ; but deserving 

 of more especial attention are those experiments which he 

 performed on the function of the spongioles, and of the lateral 

 surfaces of the fibrils. The decortication of the spongioles 

 was also observed by M. Ohlert in various plants ; it is more 

 evident in roots which are developed under water. In other 

 cases these membranes split into small rags, which still for 

 some time adhere to the spongioles of the roots. M. Ohlert 

 very rightly observes, that the decortication of the spongiole 

 begins first at the upper end and then further downwards ; at 

 last the loosened membrane holds merely to the apex. I 

 know however of instances where the loosened epidermis has 



* Einige Bemerkungen iiber die Wuvzelzasern der hbhcren Pflanzen. 

 Linnaea, 1837, p. 609 631. 



