462 KINSHIP AND ADAPTATION 



plants in their responses to outside influence are sometimes 

 capable of acting in one way rather than in another way which 

 is equally possible, then all that is essential to what is here 

 meant by choice will be conceded, and he jnay be willing to 

 entertain an hypothesis wdiich squares well w'ith what we 

 know of all living things. In such a hypothetical view we 

 need not suppose that every action of every creature is an 

 act of will. Many of our own acts are, as we say, mechanical 

 or habitual. We may well suppose that most of the behavior 

 of lower organisms, including the behavior of growth, is of 

 this sort. Nor do we need to suppose that consciousness 

 more than very remotely like our own accompanies any of 

 the actions or reactions of plants. All the hypothesis reciuires 

 is that sometimes, even with dimmest consciousness, any 

 organism may be free to choose at a critical moment between 

 alternatives profoundly affecting its constitution. 



By way of example let us suppose the seeds of a primitive 

 buttercup to be carried near the seashore and to begin to 

 sprout. Such plants are not accustomed to so much salt as 

 would then be in contact with their roots. Here is a change 

 of condition, favorable, as we have seen, to the occurrence 

 of mutations. It has been found b}' experiment that plants 

 of the same kind placed under the same conditions will absorb 

 different amounts of the same substance, as, for instance, 

 common salt. Thus of several seedlings the same in kind 

 and age, growing with their roots in the same salt solution, 

 some will absorb a larger percentage of the salt than others, 

 and, indeed, may be poisoned while others survive. Some- 

 times even the same individual may respond differently at 

 different times. Now, what we may suppose to happen, 

 according to our hypothesis, in the case of the buttercup 

 seedlings is that some of them might choose to keep out so 

 much of the salt that they could not get water enough to 

 live ; others might let in so much salt as to be poisoned by it ; 

 while still others might let in just enough salt to permit their 

 having sufficient water, but not so much salt as would kill 

 them. The survivors, as a consequence of their choice, 

 would have their sap saltish and thus every organ would be 

 affected in an unwonted way. Their seeds would start with 



