100 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
only one of the remarkable powers which are known 
to exist in plants. There can be no question that 
there also exists in plant life a well-balanced sense 
of time and direction. Many, many times through- 
out the writings of the poets we find references 
which concede such powers to different plants. 
Longfellow tells of the compass-plant, in these 
beautiful lines from “Evangeline”: 
“Look at this delicate plant that lifts its head from the 
meadow, 
See how its leaves * all point to the north, as true as the 
magnet; 
It is the compass-flower, that the finger of God has suspended 
Here on its fragile stalk, to direct the traveller’s journey 
Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the desert.” 
As a guide to the traveller perhaps the best 
known natural compass is the bark of trees. Na- 
tives of the woods know that the north or shaded 
side of the tree is usually coated with the green 
of moss; and, by this and other prominent markings 
of direction, they find their way through the appar- 
ently pathless forest. 
The sunflower is truly named! Not only does 
it radiate the golden colour of the sun, but it always 
* The flower of the compass-plant, not the leaf, is the in- 
dicator of direction, from which the plant receives its name; 
although the leaf does usually, not always, have its edges 
point north and south. 
