382 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



about the facts. The roots of plants taste, feel, and select 

 from the soif only the material necessary to build the 

 plant and reject all other material. It is also evident that 

 a great number can taste and feel with their leaves as is 

 evidenced by the fly catching plants. Even Haeckel 

 admits that much intelligence and makes the following 

 remarks in reference to it : 



"The digestion corresponds to the gastric juice in the 

 animal and is only secreted by the corpuscles if the solid 

 foreign body is nitrogenous (flesh or cheese). Hence the 

 leaves of these insectivorous plants taste their meat diet 

 and distinguish it from other solids to which they are in- 

 different. In the broader sense, in fact, we may describe 

 the points of the roots of plants as organs of taste. They 

 plunge into the richer parts of the earth, which yield more 

 nourishment and avoid the poor parts." 



You see from this that the cells in the plant feel, taste 

 and digest with a gastric juice in precisely the same man- 

 ner as we do. In fact, after close investigation it has been 

 fully established that all cells whether living singly or in 

 colonies like plants and animals, digest, reproduce, re- 

 spire and perform all the functions of an animal. They all 

 have to have oxygen and food, the only difference is their 

 method of obtaining it. You can see the same process of 

 social development in all the lower animals, insects and 

 cells, as in man. There is no difference whatever, and on 

 this point Mr. Haeckel makes the following remark : 

 "Division of labor or differentiation, which has just 

 recently begun to be correctly valued, forms a sixth evo- 

 lutionary function of special importance. We have al- 

 ready seen that division of labor is the strongest impulse 

 towards progressive evolution, not only in civic and social 

 life but also in the social cell confederacy of every many 

 celled organism. A glance at any community or state 



