378 DIRECTION or THE GRO^VTH OF ROOTS. 



Death the ground, and hence it not nnfrcquently happens, 

 that a tree, in the most sheltered part of a Tallcy, is up- 

 rooted; while the exposed and insulated tree, upon the 

 adjoining mountain, remains uninjured by the fury of the 

 storm. 

 Plants voia of In all the preceding arrangement, the wisdom of nature, 

 passfon "na-'^ and the admirable simplicity of the means it employs, are 

 loi^ous to those conspicuously displayed; but I am wholly unable to trace 

 « anima e. ^^^ existence of any thing like sensation or intellect in the 

 plants: and I therefore venture to conclude, that their 

 roots are influenced by the immediate operation and contact 

 of surrounding bodies, and not by any degrees of sensation 

 and passion analogous to those of animal life ; and I reject 

 the latter hypothesis, not only because it is founded upon 

 assumptions, which cannot be granted, but because it is 

 insufficient to explain the preceding phenomena, unless 

 seedling plants be admitted to possess more extensive in- 

 tellectual powers, than are given to the offspring of the 

 most acute animal. A young wild-duck or partridge, when 

 it first sees the insect upon which nature intends it to feed, 

 instinctively pursues and catches it; but nature has given 

 to the young bird an appropriate organization. The 

 plant, on the contrary, if it could feel and perceive the 

 objects of its wants, and will the possession of them, has 

 still to contrive and form the organ by which these are to 

 be approached. The writers, who have contended for the 

 existence of sensation in plants, appear to have been sen- 

 sible of the preceding and other obstacles, and have all be- 

 trayed the weakness of *^Aeir hypothesis, in adducing a few 

 facts only which are favourable to it, and waving wholly 

 the investigation of all others. 



In the description of the preceding experiments, I fear 

 that I have been tediously minute; but, as I have selected 

 a few facts only from a great number, which I could have 

 adduced, I was anxious to give as accurate and distinct a 

 view of those I stated, as possible; 

 I am, dear Sir, 

 with great respect, 



sincerely yours, 



THOS. AND. KNIGHT. 

 Downion, Jan, 15, 1811. 



IX. On 



