PLANT-ANIMALS 183, 
plants, growing harmoniously together in a garden, 
well tended by a skilled gardener. 
But do not try to pick them or disturb them in 
any way! They are animals, and somewhere are 
their elfish eyes peering directly at you with un- 
canny meaning. Should you move, they are pre- 
pared to defend themselves. Like many plants of 
the earth, they have peculiar methods of defence. 
Some sting, others twine and coil about their 
enemies, actually poisoning them; and the horrible 
Sea Rose sends forth delicate streamers filled with 
semi-paralysing fluid. Some of these marvellous 
plant-animals have countless numbers of defensive 
filaments! 
Even during the past century these strange crea- 
tures were so generally supposed to be flowers that 
the French Academy of Sciences withheld the name 
of Peysonnell, when he made the statement that 
they were animals. Like all exponents of new 
ideas, Peysonnell was ridiculed and his idea scorned. 
at first by those who later were forced to herald 
him as a discoverer and a scientist. 
Plants, like animals, have developed marvellous 
instincts in the choice of foods. The food of the 
plant evidently is chosen with as much foresight 
as is that of the animal or even the human being. 
Plants unquestionably have their likes and dislikes: 
