- OF NATURAL HISTORY. 21 



%vould pronounce to have been perfectly dead. It Is poflible, 

 therefore, that life may exifl: in many bodies which are com- 

 monly thought to be as inanimate as ftones. Hence it would 

 be rafh to exclude plants from every fpecies of fenfation* 

 The degrees of fenfation decreafe imperceptibly from man to 

 the fea-nettle^ gall-infe6ts, and what are called thq moft im- 

 perfect animals. Every vegetable, as well as the fenlitive 

 plant, fhrinks when wounded. But, in moft of them, the 

 motion is too flow for our perception. When trees grow 

 near a ditch, the roots which proceed' in a direftion that 

 would necefiarily bring them into the open air, inftead of 

 continuing this noxious progrefs, fink below the level of the 

 ditch, then flioot acrofs, and regain the foil on the oppofite 

 fide. When a root Is uncovered, without expofing It to 

 much heat, and a wetfpunge is placed near It, but In a different 

 dire<ftion from that in which the root Is proceeding, in a 

 Ihort time the root turns towards the fpunge. In this man- 

 ner the dlredllon of roots may be varied at pleafure. All 

 plants make the firongeft efforts, by inclining, turning, and 

 even twifting their ftems and branches, to efcape from dark- 

 nefs and fhade, and to procure the influences of the fun. 

 Place a wet fpunge under the leaves of a tree, they foon bend 

 downward, and endeavour to apply their inferior furfaces to 

 the fpunge. If a veffel of water be placed within fix Inches 

 of a growing cucumber, in twenty-four hours the cucumber 

 alters the diredlion of its branches, bends either to the right 

 or left, and never ftops till it comes into contact with the 

 water. When a pole is placed at a confiderable diftance 

 from an unfupported vine, the branches of which are pro- 

 ceeding in a contrary diredlion from that of the pole, in a 

 fhort time, it alters its courfe, and ftops not till it clings 

 around the pole. 



Facls of this kind excite our wonder ; but they by no 

 means prove that vegetables live, or that they are endowed 



