192 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 



bly do not require any command of the will, but are 

 merely natural to the plants. 



If, however, these seven senses are but passive 

 powers, and not in any way an evidence of intelli- 

 gence in the plant, there are certain actual and 

 purposeful motions of the plant which might be 

 called its "active" mentality. It is in the existence 

 or non-existence of this "active" mentality that we 

 find question for consideration ; plant sensation has 

 been proved, and must be accepted as existing in 

 the plant nature; plant action, instances of which 

 have been shown repeatedly, cannot be explained 

 by any theory other than that of the existence of a 

 mentality, or reasoning power, which commands 

 such action. 



The habits of the carnivorous plants give strik- 

 ing examples of the existence in plant life of this 

 power to reason, to realise, and to take action upon 

 the realisation. Consider the insect-eating sundew. 

 When a fly or other insect alights on the leaf of a 

 sundew, it is immediately grasped by the tentacles 

 which thickly cover the leaf, is flooded by a peptic 

 fluid which exudes from glands in the leaf, and is 

 slowly digested by the plant. But drop a tiny 

 pebble into the tentacles. They instinctively close 

 over it, just as the human hand, expecting to re- 

 ceive something, closes mechanically over an ob- 



