192 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
bly do not require any command of the will, but are 
merely natural to the plants. 
If, however, these seven senses are but passive 
powers, and not in any way an evidence of intelli- 
gence in the plant, there are certain actual and 
purposeful motions of the plant which might be 
called its “active” mentality. It is in the existence 
or non-existence of this “active” mentality that we 
find question for consideration; plant sensation has 
been proved, and must be accepted as existing in 
the plant nature; plant action, instances of which 
have been shown repeatedly, cannot be explained 
by any theory other than that of the existence of a 
mentality, or reasoning power, which commands 
such action. 
The habits of the carnivorous plants give strik- 
ing examples of the existence in plant life of this 
power to reason, to realise, and to take action upon 
the realisation. Consider the insect-eating sundew. 
When a fly or other insect alights on the leaf of a 
sundew, it is immediately grasped by the tentacles 
which thickly cover the leaf’, is flooded by a peptic 
fluid which exudes from glands in the leaf, and is 
slowly digested by the plant. But drop a tiny 
pebble into the tentacles. They instinctively close 
over it, Just as the human hand, expecting to re- 
ceive something, closes mechanically over an ob- 
