Some Anomalies 



and so the plant, to correct this defective 

 order, twists the necks of all its leaves by 

 the spiral deformation of the leaf-stalks. 



The rays of the sun provoke this reversal. 

 If we intervene with our artificial devices, 

 they may undo what they did at first. With 

 the aid of a light prop and a few ligatures, 

 I bend a shoot of the lily and fix it head down- 

 wards. As a result of exposure to the sun, 

 the leaf-stalks in a few days' time untwist 

 themselves and become flat ribbons, which 

 turn their smooth, green sides towards the 

 light and their pale, veined surface towards 

 the shade. The torsion has disappeared, 

 the normal direction of the leaves is restored, 

 but the plant is upside down. 



In the case of the Inca lily, with its leaves 

 set the wrong way round on the stem, are we 

 confronted with a blunder which the plant, 

 aided by the sun, does its best to correct by 

 twisting its leaf-stalks? Are there such 

 things as organic frivolity, mistakes, the sig- 

 nature of disorder? Is it not rather our 

 ignorance of cause and effect which regards 

 as erroneous what is actually correct? If 

 our knowledge were greater, how many dis- 

 cordant notes would become harmonious! 

 And so the wisest course is to doubt. 

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