258 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



soon split and rot, the ground around the plants is 

 strewn with heaps of insects. 



Thus we have here plants, bloodthirsty, cunning 

 in the capture of their prey, and destroying animal life 

 on a large scale. " What mysterious forces," exclaims 

 the naturalist, Pouchet, "govern the life of a 

 plant !" These beings, now so graceful, and now so 

 imposing in form, adorned with dazzling colors, filling 

 the air with the sweetest perfumes, are they left desti- 

 tute of the faculties granted to the lowest of animals ? 

 There are two views on this subject, botli equally 

 guilty of exaggeration. One has been pleased to over- 

 rate what they call the inner essence of plants : the 

 other is guilty of degrading it beyond measure. 



The ancients were especially guilty of the first ex- 

 cess. Empedoclus did not hesitate to attribute to 

 plants the highest faculties ; and some of the successors 

 of the philosophers of Agrigentum have not stopped 

 here. The mysterious mandrake was considered by 

 them a being possessed of the most exquisite sensibil- 

 ity. At the least wound, the little-man plant was 

 supposed to give forth piteous groans. And those 

 who dared go in search of it preferred employing 

 ample precautions to withstand the dread it inspired, 

 and to escape from its malignant influence and harm. 



Nor are the crude notions of credulous antiquity 

 unknown to our own day ; on the contrary, they have 

 often assumed a still more fantastic shape. Adanson, 

 bold philosopher as he was, distributed souls largely 

 among the plants ; one he thought was not sufficient 

 for each and so to each he gave several. Hedwig, a 



