248 On the Campus 



"We've quaffed the soma bright 

 And are immortal grown, 

 We've entered into light 

 And all the gods have known; 

 What mortal now can harm 

 Or foeman vex us more? 

 Through thee, beyond alarm 

 Immortal god, we soar. ' ' i 



We started out in this discussion with, the concept 

 that much folk-lore originated in the thought entertained 

 by prehistoric men that plants were not unlike them- 

 selves ; all the more wonderful powers since attributed to 

 flowers and trees would seem to confirm that view. The 

 wonder-working twig or bloom or fruit is endowed with 

 personality, may confer pain or joy, bring bane or bless- 

 ing, even the penalties or blessing of the Lord. 



Just how far we have left these idle though ofttimes 

 poetic fancies my hearers may judge if I cite a little 

 of the plant lore of the present. 



Gustave Theodore Fechner, 2 the philosopher of Leip- 

 sic, died in 1887. He is regarded as the founder of 

 scientific psychology, Wundt and Paulsen and Lasswitz 

 call him master. In his earliest book, Nanna, Fechner 

 tells of plants. He holds that plants are conscious, 

 "they spread their organs abroad; they drink in light 

 and air with their leaves, ' ' and ' ' feel their rootlets draw 

 the sap" they "enjoy something like what we call 

 pleasure in ourselves." "How scanty and scattered 



1 Translated by Sir William Jones; The Foils-lore of Plants, by 

 T. F. Thiselton Dyer, N. Y., 1889, p. 246. 



2 These notes of Fechner are from James, A Pluralistic Uni- 

 verse, Lecture IV- 



