260 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



subject thoroughly, agree on this point, that plants 

 enjoy a life as active as that of most animals, and that 

 they show signs of more or less sensibility. Bichat, 

 in his magnificent work on Life and Death, admits 

 this without hesitation. .Numerous experiments prove, 

 beyond doubt, that there is evidently in plants a de- 

 gree of sensibility analogous to that of animals. Elec- 

 tricity affects them, and narcotics paralyze, or kill 

 them. If sensitive plants are watered with opium, 

 they are put to sleep like men. Prussic acid poisons 

 plants with as much rapidity as animals. Let us 

 throw aside the antiquated ideas respecting vegetable 

 life ; let us simply examine the phenomena, and we 

 must arrive at conclusions which are astonishing. 



" Although the existence of nerves in plants may 

 be still doubtful," continues the same author, " yet it 

 is certain that the irritability manifested by sensitive 

 plants seems absolutely under the control of organs 

 which are analogous to those of animals, since they 

 are impressed in the same manner and by the same 

 agents as those of animals. 



Among plants endowed with marvellous qualities, 

 one may be cited that has furnished powerful tools to 

 quacks and charlatans. It is the Anastaiica, or Res- 

 urrection Plant, commonly called the Hose of Jericho. 

 It is a truly marvellous sight to watch this plant, when 

 apparently dead and dry, assuming once more the 

 color of life as soon as the root is plunged into wa- 

 ter. Its buds swell with new life, the leaves of its 

 calyx open, the petals unfold, the flower-stalk grows 

 and the full-blown flowers are before us like the work 



