XVI. 

 THE SENSES OF PLANTS. 



WHERE plants can be kept under subjection as 

 they are in temperate regions men are apt to think 

 of them as almost inanimate, and to use the word 

 vegetate as if it meant little more than a slow 

 mechanical process. Here in the tropics, however, 

 trees refuse to be treated with contempt they are 

 sentient beings very much alive to the circum- 

 stances of their surroundings It is all very well 

 to ascribe this energy to the action and reaction of 

 temperature, sunlight, and rainfall, but if the 

 multitude of variations were produced by these 

 agencies alone we should expect something like 

 uniformity instead of the almost bewildering varia- 

 tions of the forest creatures. Here, if anywhere, 

 the atmospheric conditions are uniform, at least for 

 any given area, yet the differences between species, 

 and even individuals, are pronounced in the highest 



degree. If some particular end were generally 



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