434 



THE UNIVERSE. 



These views have in our day been ardently upheld by 

 two of the most celebrated savants of studious Germany, 

 Von Martius and Theodore Fechner, who consider a plant 

 a sentient being endowed with an individual soul ; the latter 

 having carried his temerity so far as to found a sort of veg- 

 etable psychology. 



197. The Mandrake: Atropa Mandrayora (Linnaeus). 



Camille Debans, in his charming little work, makes an 

 allusion to the system of these two botanists, which is full 

 of poetry and freshness. He draws the picture of a rose 

 so weakened and languishing that the least breath of air, 

 as light as the sigh of a virgin, tears away the suffering 

 and faded petals. And when the murderous breath has at 

 last slain the flower formerly so sweet and perfumed, the 



