466 CHARACTER OF VEGETABLE VITALITY. CHAP. XI. 



ing up of the flower on the approach of rain, the 

 rising and falling of the Water Lily, and the pe- 

 culiar and invariable direction assumed by the twin- 

 ing stem in ascending its prop, are among the phe- 

 nomena that have been attributed to instinct.* I 

 have myself endeavoured to establish the doctrine of 

 the existence and agency of an instinctive principle 

 in the plant, upon the ground of the direction in- 

 variably assumed by the radicle and plumelet respect- 

 ively in the germination of the seed ; and to my 

 paper on this subject I must for the present be 

 content to refer my reader.-}* 



SECTION V. 



Definition of the Plant. 



BUT if vegetables are living beings endowed with 

 sensation and instinct, or any thing approach- 

 ing to it, so as to give them a resemblance to ani- 

 mals, how are we certainly to distinguish the plant 

 from the animal ? At the extremes of the two king- 

 doms the distinction is easy ; the more perfect 

 animals can never be mistaken for plants, nor the 

 more perfect plants for animals, but at the mean, 

 where the two kingdoms may be supposed to unite, 

 the shades of discrimination are so very faint or 

 evanescent that of some individual productions it is 

 almost impossible to say to which of the kingdoms 



* Tapper's Probability of Sensation in Vegetables, 

 t Lin. Trans, vol. xi. part ii. 



