246 Scientific Intelligence. 
ing to circumnutate will [successively] press against the earth on 
- all sides, and this can hardly fail to be of the highest importance 
to the plant” (being supplemented by another faculty, that of 
sensitiveness at the tip presently to be mentioned) ; for “ when 
the tip encounters a stone or other obstacle in the ground, or 
form so narrow an ellipse that they move up and down in nearly 
the same vertical plane, a movement describing a circle beimg 
converted into one up and down. 
e circumnutatory movements are of the most fundamental 
and therefore mysterious character. Although most commonly 
connected with growth, they are at bottom independent of It. 
This—contrary to some German physiologists—we must conclude 
from both DeVries’ and Darwin’s investigations, They are pro 
