SOME CURIOUS WAYS OF PLANTS. 103 



seed, seeks the ground by an instinct as natural as that 

 whereby the young stem seeks the light. There is 

 curvature seen here again ; and there are alterations of 

 cells at work in the root as in the leaf or flower. That 

 tendency we call, in botany, " seeking the earth " is as 

 real a fact as the instinct of seeking the light ; and 

 both we have seen to be effected by the mechanical 

 alteration of the plant's microscopic cells. 



Yet, beyond all this, we have to deal with quantities 

 and qualities which are not so easily to be estimated. 

 I have said that the living matter of the cells has to 

 play its part before we can have any manifestation of 

 life at all. Beyond this, also, lies the mystic ten- 

 dencies we name inheritance and instinct. The 

 plant lives and conducts its affairs as did its parent 

 before it. The offspring live on the lines of their pro- 

 genitors until changed habits come to bring alteration 

 into the ways of life. 



Hence, even when we ask ourselves why a sun- 

 flower follows the sun, our answer is at best a tenta- 

 tive one. It does so because its cells are acted upon 

 by the light, as were the cells of its ancestors. Beyond 

 this, the " why " is all a mystery to us. The " flower 

 in the crannied wall" still presents to our waiting 

 eyes the problem of all the ages, and the puzzle which 

 the wisest and best of men have attempted, but in 

 vain, to solve. 



