22 VEGETABLE LIFE. 



tities this idea; and it cannot be denied, that the 

 effects of genial warmth and light are as fully felt 

 and enjoyed by vegetables as by animals. 



The constitutional sensitiveness of plants is also 

 evinced by the branches of a tree planted near a 

 wall turning away from, before reaching, it ; and also 

 all growth tending to the strongest light is in both 

 cases attributed to the attraction of, or the tendency 

 of vegetation to, that body, whether solar or ignes- 

 cent*. The tendency of radical fibres extending 

 themselves towards heat, moisture, or rich food, is 

 also curious ; and can only be explained by ascribing 

 it to the law of attraction, because all bodies, which 

 mutually attract each other, form between themselves 

 a current of their fluids ; and thus, while streaming 

 towards the recipient, induce the protrusion of the 

 spongioles of the latter to meet it hence their 

 elongation. 



From all these circumstances, we may rationally 

 conclude that, notwithstanding much of the pheno- 

 mena of vegetation may be traced to combined che- 

 mical and physical action, we must admit the exist- 

 ence of a vital principle, which seems independent 

 thereof ; more especially in its power of existing for 

 ages unimpaired in the bowels of the earth ; and, while 

 thus dormant, may be best defined by the remark, 

 that vegetable life is an excitable or fermentative 

 fluid, contained in an organised expansible body. 



* The flower of the Crocus may he opened by candle-light ; and 

 also by fire-heat, though partially shaded. 



