PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 21 3 



their paramours ? How do either of them know that 

 the other exists in their vicinity ? Is this curious kind 

 of storge produced by mechanic attraction, or by the sen- 

 sation of love ? The latter opinion is supported by the 

 strongest analogy, because a reproduction of the species 

 is the consequence ; and then another organ of sense 

 must be wanted to direct these vegetable amourettes to 

 find each other, one probably analogous to our sense of 

 smell, which in the animal world directs the new-born 

 infant to its source of nourishment, and they may thus 

 possess a faculty of perceiving as well as of producing 

 odours. 



" Thus, besides a kind of taste at the extremity of 

 their roots, similar to that of the extremities of our 

 lacteal vessels, for the purpose of selecting their proper 

 food, and besides different kinds of irritability residing 

 in the various glands, which separate honey, wax, resin, 

 and other juices from their blood ; vegetable life seems 

 to possess an organ of sense to distinguish the variations 

 of heat, another to distinguish the varying degrees of 

 moisture, another of light, another of touch, and pro- 

 bably another analogous to our sense of smell. To 

 these must be added the indubitable evidence of their 

 passion of love, and I think we may truly conclude that 

 they are furnished with a common sensorium for each 

 bud, and that they must occasionally repeat those per- 

 ceptions, either in their dreams or waking hours, and 

 consequently possess ideas of so many of the properties 

 of the external world, and of their own existenoe." * 

 * ' Jioonouiia,' vol, i. p. Wl, 



