CONSCIOUSNESS IN PLANTS. 
LANTS, it has been vaguely asserted, differ from animals 
by not having the power of movement. Rather should 
it be stated that plants acquire and display this power when 
it is to their advantage. This will be found to be of com- 
paratively rare occurrence, as they are affixed to the ground, 
and food is brought to them by the air and rain. Evidence 
of the very high position a plant may attain in the scale of 
organization may be seen when we look at one of the more 
perfect tendril-bearers. As a polypus adjusts its tentacula 
for action, so a plant places its tendrils. If the tendril be dis- 
placed, it sets to work to right itself. Acted on by the light, 
it bends towards or from it, or disregards it altogether, which- 
ever course may be the most advantageous. For several 
days the tendrils or internodes of the plant, or both, sponta- 
neously or otherwise revolve with a steady motion. But 
should they strike some object, they curl quickly around it, 
grasp it with wonderful firmness, and in the course of a few 
hours contract into spirals, dragging up the stems, and form- 
ing most excellent springs. All external movements now 
cease, and by growth the tissues soon become surprisingly 
strong and durable. 
Such a movement, as has just been considered, is a widely 
prevalent one in plants, and is essentially of the same nature 
as that of the stem of a climbing plant, which successively 
bends to all points of the compass, so that the tip is made to 
revolve. This movement has been called revolving nutation 
by some writers, and czvcumnutation by others. In the case 
of the circumnutating movement of the tip of the radicle of 
