A VERY INTELLIGENT PLANT 



259 



tumbler, the floating green volvox, which whirls 

 about quickly through the water like a living wheel, 

 by means of its rapid vibratory hairs ; and there 

 are, on the other hand, fixed animals, such as the 

 oyster and the sea-anemone, which are far more 

 rigidly attached to one spot for life than, say, the 

 common field-orchid or the yellow crocus. For 

 field-orchids and crocuses do travel very slightly 

 from place to place each season, by putting out 

 fresh bulbs or tubers at the sides of the old ones, 

 and springing up next year in a spot a few inches 

 away from their last year's foothold ; whereas the 

 oyster and the sea-anemone settle down early in 

 life on a particular rock, and never stir ORC step 

 from it during their whole existence. Thus the 

 distinction which seems to most people most funda- 

 mental as marking off plants from animals the 

 distinction of movement turns out on examina- 

 tion to be purely fallacious. There are sedentary 

 animals and moving plants ; there are herbs that 

 catch and eat insects, and there are insects that 

 live a life more uneventful and more stagnant than 

 that of any herb in a summer meadow. 



Again, everybody who has studied plants in a 

 broad spirit is well aware that each act of the 

 plant's is just as truly purposive, as full of 

 practical import, as any act of an animal's. If 

 a child sees a cat lying in wait at a moose's 

 hole, it asks you why she does so ; it is told, in 

 reply, and truly told, " Because she wants to catch 

 her prey for dinner." But even imaginative 

 children seldom or never ask of a rose or a 



