THE VOICE OF It is true, there may as yet be insufficient 

 evidence of a decisive character, as the scien- 

 tist understands evidence, of the correctness 

 of Darwin's view, but there are indications 

 which no true scientist will ignore. All recog- 

 nize certain responses of plant life to various 

 influences which are "selective" rather than 

 mechanical. Consider the beautiful adapta- 

 tions by which plants have secured favorable 

 conditions, adaptations which, to use the elder 

 Darwin's words, "in manifold ways transcend 

 in an incomparable manner the contrivances 

 and adaptations which the most fertile imagi- 

 nation of man could invent." 



Consider how the roots of a plant choose 

 from the soil the food which it needs, one 

 selecting lime as its preferred food, another 

 magnesia, another potash. What close obser- 

 ver of plants does not know that they are sen- 

 sitive, and under certain conditions even irri- 

 table ? Observe them in their work and in their 

 rest, when they wake and when they sleep, and 

 see whether there is not something there very 



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