472 THE UNIVERSE. 



Electricity will kill tliem; narcotics paralyze or destroy 

 them. By siDrinkling oi^ium over certain species they 

 have been thrown into a profound sleep. Messrs. Goeppert 

 and Macaire, in their interesting investigations, have 

 observed that prussic acid poisons plants with as much 

 rapidity as it does animals. 



Does not the sensitive plant contract visibly when we 

 irritate it? Do we not know that vegetable tissues shrivel 

 of their own accord so soon as Ave bring them in contact 

 with any stimulant? Carradori noticed that exciting the 

 tips of the leaves of a lettuce was sufficient to make it 

 eject little drops of its own juice. 



If we divorce ourselves from all our old ideas of vege- 

 table life, and simply observe its phenomena, we shall 

 arrive at conclusions which will astonish us. We shall 

 be surprised to find that the energy displayed in the 

 biological actions of plants often surpasses everything seen 

 in the animal kingdom; a fact which has only remained 

 unnoticed, because Ave have Avrongly looked upon the 

 turbulent manifestations of animal life as the highest ex- 

 pression of this poAver. 



If toAvards the close of a burning summer day Ave enter 

 a greenhouse AA^here the long fluted stems of the Cactus 

 grcmdijlora tAvine in a spiny and tangled netAVork, Ave per- 

 ceive here and there on them lanceolated pointed knobs 

 of moderate size. There is nothing AAdiich would lead us 

 to think Avhat a spectacle is about to open to our sight. 



But toAvards half-past eight 'o'clock, the time Avhen 

 obscurity overspreads the earth, all at once every floAver 

 of the Cactus displays its innumerable long yelloAv and 

 white petals, and its corona of five hundred stamens Avaves 

 and trembles round the pistil; then its A^ast calyx exhales 

 an odour of vanilla Avhich perfumes the AAdiole greenhouse. 



