262 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



with fly-traps is this, that it is not always the pure neces- 

 sity of the case which prompts the cells to build any par- 

 ticular structure, as they can live without these insects, 

 just as qther plants do. They have produced these fly- 

 traps for mere sport and luxury. 



In this particular they also resemble man in his most 

 highly civilized state. Where can you find any traps or 

 snares invented and constructed by man to catch ani- 

 mals that can beat these for skilful construction and in- 

 ventive genius? 



Think of the trick employed to fool the insect in the 

 California pitcher-plant. First the flaring colored flag 

 hung out to attract his attention, to make him think it is 

 a flower, then the sweet smell coming from the inside of 

 the trap to tempt him to enter, the glazed surface on 

 which he will slip, the spikes to keep him going straight 

 on in, after he gets started, the transparent covering on 

 the top, to fool him to fly or go ia in the wrong direction, 

 so that he never can get out. Then there is the water in 

 the bottom where he will drown, and where the cells 

 swim in and devour him, and feed his drowned carcass to 

 the other cells in the body of the plant. 



The cells who build this plant with this fly-trap attach- 

 ment need take no back seat for any being on earth, even 

 an inventor, Edison not excepted. The intelligence of the 

 cell is the same in all places, whether he is in charge of a 

 plant, insect or animal or living singly in the water and 

 killing his fellow cells with weapons at a distance, or in 

 the human brain directing the actions of the German 

 army. 



