XXII 
THE MENTALITY AND SPIRITUALITY OF PLANTS 
And ’tis my faith that every flower 
Enjoys the air it breathes! 
—WorpbsworTH. 
N the preceding chapters numerous characteris- 
tics of members of the plant kingdom have 
been considered in comparison with similar charac- 
teristics of the human kingdom. It has been shown 
that plants eat and drink, sleep and wake, climb, 
walk, run, swim, fish, hunt, and set traps; that they 
see, hear, feel, taste, and smell; that they keep and 
pay servants, own slaves, and employ many kinds 
of fighting forces; that they have their courtships 
and marriages, and systematically reproduce their 
kind; that they have strong parental instincts, and 
care and provide for their children; that they have 
developed to a science the arts of bribery, mimicry, 
and trickery; that they carry on a continual ex- 
change and barter, and work according to business 
contracts; and, finally, that they leave behind them 
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