THE BEHAVIOUR OF PLANTS 25 
from them, yet there can be little doubt that the natural 
archegonia owe their attractive influence to the same chemical 
agent which has proved efficacious in experiment.”* In the 
light of Dr. Jennings’s observations, it is perhaps not im- 
probable that this so-called attractive influence is similar to 
that seen in Paramecium ; and that the spermatozoids enter 
the organic acid in the course of their random movements, and 
there remain. Be that as it may, the male elements collect in 
the mucilaginous mass, and pass down the neck of the flask 
until one reaches and coalesces with the female element, or 
ovum, and effects its fertilization. Here we have organic 
behaviour unmistakably directed to a biological end—behaviour 
which may indeed be accompanied by some dim form of 
consciousness, but which is due to a purely organic reaction. 
It is scarcely satisfactory to say that the spermatozoids “ possess 
a certain power of perception, by which their movements are 
guided.” + If consciousness be present, it is probably merely 
an accompaniment of the response, and has no directive in- 
fluence on its nature and character. 
In the higher plants, as in the higher animals, the 
differentiation and the orderly marshalling of the cell-progeny 
arising from the coalescent male and female elements, afford, 
during development, examples of corporate organic behaviour 
which can be more readily described than explained, but which 
not less clearly subserve definite biological ends, and in many 
cases, such as the direction of growth in radicles and roots, the 
curling of tendrils, and the reaction to the influence of light 
and warmth, are related to and evoked by the environing con- 
ditions. More closely resembling familiar modes of behaviour 
in animals are such movements as are seen in the “ tentacles” 
which project from the upper surface and margin of the Sun- 
dew leaf. Their knobbed ends secrete a sticky matter, which 
glistens in the sun, and to which small foreign bodies readily 
adhere. If particles of limestone, sand, or clay, such as may 
* D. H. Scott, “An Introduction to Structural Botany,” part ii., 
“ Flowerless Plants,” pp. 70, 71. 
+ Ibid., p. 71. 
