Chap. III.] tllC Movements of Plants. 



ments, though they gave no reasons for this classification ; it 

 rested evidently on an indistinct feeling outrunning clear per- 

 ception — that in the one they were dealing with growing parts 

 of plants, in the other with parts which had ceased to grow. 

 Dutrochet made no such distinction, but he was the only one 

 among the chief representatives of vegetable physiology be- 

 tween 1830 and 1840 who had thoroughly adopted the mecha- 

 nical view of phytodynamical phenomena. We have said that 

 Treviranus was a warm adherent of the theory of vital force. 

 De Candolle and Meyen, it is true, endeavoured to explain 

 each separate movement if possible by mechanical laws, but 

 in their more general speculations they readily lapsed into 

 antiquated views ; thus De Candolle speaks of the sensitive- 

 ness of Mimosa as a case of extreme 'excitability,' and Roeper, 

 in accordance with his other views, translated De Candolle's 

 expression, autonomous movements, by the term ' voluntary ' 

 movements. The movements he is speaking of are those of 

 Hedysarum gyrans, and Meyen also terms them ' voluntary ' 

 movements, and ranks them with those of Oscillatoria. That 

 he was influenced in this by a dim reminiscence of the old 

 vegetable soul is shown by the heading, ■ Of movements and 

 sensation in plants,' placed over the section of his work in 

 which the expression occurs ; and in the last chapter of this 

 section, he attributes some kind of sensation to plants on 

 account of the evident marks of design in their movements, 

 though he veils his meaning in obscure and tortuous 

 phrases. 



5. The mists of the nature-philosophy and the vital force 

 disappeared from the phytodynamical province of botanical 

 science after the year 1840. The methodical research of in- 

 ductive science, which had still to contend with them up to 

 that time, was once more acknowledged as the supreme guide 

 and ruler. A few stray dissentients were still to be found, but 

 the general voice was against them. There was an 1 

 desire for exact investigation of the facts, in order to lay a 



