MENTALITY AND SPIRITUALITY 193 
ject, whether or not the mind of the human wants 
that particular object; and as the human mind 
would realise instantly that its hand is clasping the 
wrong object, so the mind of the sundew realises 
that this pebble is an inedible thing. It instantly 
opens its tentacles and allows the pebble to fall 
out. How does the plant know that the pebble is 
not a fly? Its opening its tentacles and unclasping 
the foreign substance is a direct voluntary action, 
and must be at the command of an active, reason- 
ing mentality. 
Another carnivorous plant, Venus’s fly-trap, has 
been used frequently for a similar experiment. Its 
leaves will enclose anything with which it comes in 
contact. Even a tiny pebble, or a bit of dry wood, 
will be enveloped. But the plant soon detects its 
mistake, if it happens to catch something that is 
not edible, and the unwelcome substance is imme- 
diately dropped. On the other hand, if the leaf 
catches a fly or a bit of raw meat, it holds it tightly 
until all the food material is extracted. There 
seems no explanation for this discretionary power 
on the part of the plant unless the theory of plant 
intellect be accepted. 
In their response to the reproductive and paren- 
tal instincts, certain plants show a state of intellec- 
tual development which compares not unfavourably 
