196 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



In the movements of climbing plants, there are 

 many examples of intellectual suggestion and con- 

 trol. The Virginia creeper, which in climbing seeks 

 to place its tendril feet in dark cracks and cran- 

 nies, is one of these. How does the plant separate 

 dark from light, a spot where it may cling from a 

 space that will not offer foothold, if not by some 

 mental action, some form of reasoning? 



A trumpet-vine grew in a corner of a Southern 

 garden. Twenty-odd feet from this vine, in the 

 centre of the garden, was an old pine stump; but 

 the vine in the corner apparently paid no heed to 

 its tall neighbour. One day a fire was built about 

 the foot of the stump, and all the bark was burned 

 from the surface, leaving the dark, smooth-charred 

 body standing. Promptly then the trumpet-vine 

 sent forth a long trailer, more than twenty feet 

 across open ground, to the charred stump, up which 

 it climbed. The parent vine formerly had divided 

 its attention among many small shoots and trailers, 

 but now it gave its entire attention to this single 

 trailer, which had found a good position. And 

 before long the whole of the blackened surface was 

 hidden beneath the leaves and blossoms of the new 

 vine. Was it blind instinct that sent out but one 

 long trailer, and that one in direct line to the old, 

 charred stump? Was it blind instinct telling the 



