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LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



remarks, "Analogy may be a deceitful guide;" and the 

 observation of similarity or resemblance in results, does not 

 necessarily carry with it the assumption that the cause of 

 action or modus opcrandi is the same. In the present case, 

 however, dealing as it does with the means whereby living 

 beings of one grade or another are brought into relation 

 with the outward circumstances of their life, there exists a 

 strong and natural presumption that the sensitiveness of 

 the plant and that of the animal depend on similar causes. 

 The contrary supposition, in fact, is one which receives no 

 support whatever from physiology at large, there being 

 nothing to warrant the belief that sensation in the one group 

 of living beings should be subserved by different means 

 from those which prevail in the other group. The uniformity 

 and harmonies of nature, in fact, point directly in the 

 opposite direction ; and the consideration of one or two 



FIG. 45. Sea-anemones : A, expanded ; B, contracted. 



instances of animal sensitiveness will pave the way for a 

 clearer understanding of " how plants feel." 



When the tentacles of a sea-anemone (Fig. 45) are 

 touched, the animal, as every sea-side visitor knows, with- 

 draws these organs, and contracts its body into a conical 

 mass, exhibiting no trace of the graceful flower-like appear- 

 ance which characterises the placid and undisturbed state 

 of anemone existence. When the margin of the body of 

 a jelly-fish is brought in contact with rays of light, active 

 movements take place in the body ; and when the sensitive 



