XVIII. 



Some Curious Mass of plants, 



EVERY one is familiar with the legend of the sunflower 

 how it turns its yellow face towards the orb of day. 

 Perchance it was the look of the flower which suggested 

 the story, but, curious as the tale may be, the presumed 

 habit of the plant finds many a parallel in the vegetable 

 world. There is a scientific term " heliotropism," 

 which means turning towards the sun (or light), and 

 this term is, nowadays, used by botanists to indicate 

 a very real and very interesting habit of plant-life. 



Our sunflower rotates with the sun, it is true, and 

 in so doing obeys what is really a primary law of vege- 

 table existence. For ordinary observation will show 

 us that most plants bend to the light if they are placed, 

 say, in a room whereof one aspect is dark and the 

 other open and bright. At the foundation of a plant's 

 relations to light, to heat, or to any of the other 

 conditions of its life, there lies of course the fact that 

 it contains living matter, or protoplasm. We are given 

 too much to regard plants as purely vegetative and 

 half-living things, so to speak. We do not remember, 

 until science forcibly reminds us of the fact, that the 

 plants form one of the two great divisions of the living 

 world, and that they rank equally with animals in at 

 least possessing the matter of life. This habit of 



