Study of Plants. 245 



tongue, suggests the general nature of Darwin's 

 botanical studies. His researches were conducted in 

 his laboratory, in pots of plants at his window, in 

 his aquarium, in his greenhouse, in his garden. He 

 worked with instruments of precision, recorded his 

 observations with exactness, and employed every 

 mechanical device for making his results reveal im- 

 portant truths of which the genius of man would 

 seem to be capable. 



Darwin looked upon plants as living things. He 

 did not study their forms so much as their actions. 

 He interrogated them to learn what they were doing. 



The central truth, towards which his botanical in- 

 vestigations constantly tended, was that of the uni- 

 versal activity of the vegetable kingdom that all 

 plants move and act. He has, so to speak, animated 

 the vegetable world. He has shown that whichever 

 kingdom of organic nature we contemplate, to live 

 is to move. 



He blandly rebukes the vulgar notion that "plants 

 are distinguished from animals by not having the 

 power of movement," and still more modestly says 

 that " plants acquire and display this power only 

 when it is of some advantage to them." But is 

 this the whole ? Do animals display this power 

 except when it is of some advantage to them ? 

 Certainly not. 



Darwin shows us that certain parts of all plants 

 are at all times in motion ; not merely the molecu- 

 lar activities of their tissues and of the living pro- 

 toplasm in their cells, but organised movement of 

 parts. Every leaf, every tendril, every rootlet, pos- 



