Vegetal Causes. 165 



Section 5. The Evolution of Vegetal Form : 

 The forms assumed by plants are infinite ; but, in 

 normal outline, all adhere to a general type-plan, 

 which may be capitally parodied by a bar-magnet with 

 iron filings attached to both poles, especially if one 

 end be thrust into the ground, or, better still, into a 

 dish of water. Thus underneath the surface the lower 

 filings in out-stretching filaments represent the roots ; 

 above, the bar represents the stem, and the upper 

 outstanding filaments the branches and leaves. But 

 the bar-magnet is not altogether a parody, for it 

 clearly reveals the cause of vegetal design. Every 

 plant as composed of magnetic atoms, and possessed, 

 as shown, of a magnetic battery in the soil, is in effect 

 a living magnet ; hence the roots and branches are 

 but opposed magnetic poles. This is well illustrated 

 in the banyan-tree, and many small plants where the 

 branches or stalks are drawn to the ground, take root, 

 grow up again, and so complete the magnetic circuit. 



Throughout the vegetal kingdom the influence of 

 polarity thus shows itself from the least to the greatest. 

 Every root and root-hair repels each other and pene- 

 trates independently into the soil ; every branch, twig, 

 and leaf fights shy of each other and pursues its own 

 course to the sunshine ; every petal in every flower 

 spreads its own gorgeous canvas to the bees ; while 

 the ovules in every ovary, the pollen on every anther, 

 the veins in every leaf, the vessels and cells in every 

 tissue, each and all indicate the same predominating 

 principle of polarity, leading us by analogy to deduce 



