PLANT-ANIMALS 183 



plants, growing harmoniously together in a garden, 

 well tended by a skilled gardener. 



But do not try to pick them or disturb them in 

 any way I They are animals, and somewhere are 

 their elfish eyes peering directly at you with un- 

 canny meaning. Should you move, they are pre- 

 pared to defend themselves. Like many plants of 

 the earth, they have peculiar methods of defence. 

 Some sting, others twine and coil about their 

 enemies, actually poisoning them; and the horrible 

 Sea Rose sends forth delicate streamers filled with 

 semi-paralysing fluid. Some of these marvellous 

 plant-animals have countless numbers of defensive 

 filaments ! 



Even during the past century these strange crea- 

 tures were so generally supposed to be flowers that 

 the French Academy of Sciences withheld the name 

 of Peysonnell, when he made the statement that 

 they were animals. Like all exponents of new 

 ideas, Peysonnell was ridiculed and his idea scorned 

 at first by those who later were forced to herald 

 him as a discoverer and a scientist. 



Plants, like animals, have developed marvellous 

 instincts in the choice of foods. The food of the 

 plant evidently is chosen with as much foresight 

 as is that of the animal or even the human being. 

 Plants unquestionably have their likes and dislikes : 



