THE GREEN WORLD 233 



The ruthless power of these climbers and their 

 mysterious intelligence are worth the study we can give 

 them. A series of exact trials with the bryonies and 

 bindweeds might be of value. We want to know how 

 far they can feel a neighbour plant; and whether a 

 plant of large bulk attracts them more than a plant of 

 lesser bulk. It would be curious to try to cheat the 

 bryony trailer; on its return hedgeward, to fix a 

 support in the ground just behind, so as to lure it 

 back to the lane ; and then, if it turned back, to take 

 away this support, and see if the climber coiled round 

 towards its parent hedge once more. 



" The mind of a plant " how our fathers would 

 have scouted the bare idea of such a thing ! The idea 

 of a plant with any sensitiveness, or feeling even, would 

 have struck them as wholly absurd somewhat as if one 

 were to credit a pebble, say, with a desire for motion. 

 Even now with all our talk and theory about the 

 wonderful devices of plants, their sensitiveness, the 

 knowledge their roots often seem to have as to the best 

 paths to take for food and sure hold the mind of a 

 green thing is something we can only half imagine. 

 Perhaps the idea of a certain body or physical intelli- 

 gence distributed through the various parts of the 

 plant, root, leaves, and flowering machinery is easier to 

 entertain. A mind seems to need a seat in which to 

 sit, a place to be concentrated in. A plant has no 

 headquarters. " It has no head," we think, " how, 

 then, can it have a mind ! " But the physical or body 



