SOME CURIOUS WAYS OF PLANTS. 101 



other words, is incompatible with the constant desire 

 to press forward to the light. The plant cannot both 

 " have its cake and eat it ; " hence, as Darwin showed, 

 twiners and climbers must consider their supports, 

 and must let the question of light go by the board. 

 From these facts, we argue that the habit of growing 

 towards the light is really a universal habit of all 

 plants. It has merely been superseded, in some 

 cases, by another and newer habit, tinder which cer- 

 tain plants have contrived to flourish. It is like 

 parasitism among animals. The parasites, once upon 

 a time, were free and independent. Once betaking 

 themselves to the fixed life, away go their feet, 

 stomachs, eyes, and feelers ; and a new and lower 

 order of affairs is thus inaugurated. Still, in their 

 young states, we find evidences that the parasites 

 possessed all the appliances for movement and for 

 independent life. 



There is yet another point in connection with this 

 bending to the sun which we must appreciate. It is 

 this : that in all plants, which, as a rule, are less active 

 than animals, the one great means and mode of alter- 

 ing their states is by the production of curvatures in 

 their parts. This curvature we see when the tendril 

 or the stem clasps the support in the case of a climber. 

 We behold it equally well when we see a sensitive 

 plant droop its leaves, or a moving plant swing its 

 foliage right and left with an almost continuous oscil- 

 lation. Peering into the tissues of plants with the 

 aid of the microscope, we see the most vital parts and 

 layers to be composed of minute bags or sacs, called 

 "cells." 



Of these cells there is infinite variety. Inside them, 

 are the fluids of the plant, whereof water is the chief. 



