18 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



life would often be interrupted at its commencement, and 

 few individuals would reach the period of maturity. But 

 the same faculty which directs the fipst movements of the 

 organized body to obtain a supply of food, likewise assists 

 in removing or counteracting opposing difficulties. 



B. Obviates Difficulties. When the roots of a plant, 

 spreading in search of nourishment, meet with interruption 

 in their course, they do not cease to grow, but either at- 

 tempt to penetrate the opposing body, or to avoid it, by 

 changing their course. Thus, I have repeatedly seen the 

 creeping root of the Triticutn repens, or Couch-grass, 

 which had pierced through a potato that had obstructed 

 its course : and every one knows, that the roots of a tree 

 will pass under' a stone, wall or ditch, and rise again on the 

 opposite side, and proceed in their original direction. 



The Shipworm, Teredo navalis, an animal which perfo- 

 rates wood, in order to form for itself a habitation, and 

 which is well known as most destructive to the timbers of 

 ships and harbours, in general, lengthens its cell by boring 

 in the direction of the fibres of the plank. Should it hap- 

 pen to meet with the shell of another animal of the same 

 kind, or a knot in the wood, which it is unable to penetrate, 

 it changes its course, so as to avoid the obstacle, either by 

 a slight curvature, or by reversing its original direction. 



When two trees of the same kind are planted, the one 

 in a sheltered, and the other" in an exposed situation, we 

 witness the display of this faculty, now under considera- 

 tion, in a very remarkable degree. The former pushes 

 forth its roots in all directions, more especially where there 

 is the greatest supply of nourishment, and the highest tem- 

 perature; while the latter, which, were it to act in the same 

 manner, would be speedily overturned, multiplies its roots 

 in the direction of the strongest blasts, and these, acting like 



