444 JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



one disputes is found among at least the higher groups of animals. A 

 few words on the mechanism connected with animal consciousness may at 

 this point not be out of place. 



Including the genus homo, each individual of the higher genera is, in 

 a greater or less degree, the owner of a mass of grey and white matter, 

 generally contained in the head, known as the brain. This brain is the 

 seat of all its energy, movement, and sensibility. It is divided into 

 centres, each of which is an area for the conscious perception of the 

 different forms of sensory impressions, and also for the transmission of 

 energy to the various muscles. Ferrier, Horsley, and others have mapped 

 out the brain into motor areas and centres. The term " centre " involves the 

 following mechanism : — A sensitive surface ; a nerve going to a nerve-cell 

 or group of nerve-cells, from which passes a nerve-fibre to a muscle. 

 These nerve-cells discharge impulses to, and receive impressions from, the 

 nerve-fibres. Each centre has nothing to do with transmitting to, or 

 receiving impulses from, any other part of the body than that to which it 

 is connected. For example, it has been proved that the nerve called the 

 pneumogastric is the sensory to the muscles of the heart, lungs, and 

 stomach, and for these only. Similarly the olfactory nerve is entirely 

 devoted to the sense of smell, the optic nerve is the nerve of sight, and so 

 on, every portion of the brain has been proved by experiment to have 

 exclusive functions. So the brain may be looked upon as a motor or 

 engine, which keeps the wonderful machinery going that produces all the 

 various complicated movements of the animal frame. But all motors 

 must, in the first instance, be under the control of some power. In the 

 mechanical world we have the powers cf steam, water, and electricity. 

 What, then, is the power at the bottom of the movements, &c, of 

 organised beings ? Its existence and effects cannot be doubted. It 

 permeates not only tha animal but also the vegetable kingdom, and may 

 be described, in a word, as brain-power. It must be quite evident that 

 the brain itself is not the source of this power, but merely acts, I repeat, 

 as an intermediate motor. This motor is absent in plants ; but does it 

 follow that the power or force is itself non-existent ? It is entirely 

 absent in some members of the animal kingdom ; but in these cases it is 

 admitted that the power is present. For instance, none of the creatures 

 known as Protozoa have any signs of specialised nerves or brains, and 

 the same remark applies to the next more highly organised sub-kingdom 

 — Coilenterata. But we do not dispute that these lowly animals have a 

 certain amount of consciousness, or even that they can develop that 

 accumulated experience of theirs which we call instinct. 



It is, perhaps, sometimes difficult actually to define whether a given 

 action is instinctive or intelligent. A great authority tells us that instinct 

 is only "blind habit or automatically carried-out action." If this be so, 

 then instinctive actions only move in one direction, and cannot adapt 

 themselves to circumstance. Again, it has been defined as " reflex action 

 into which there is imported an element of consciousness." But where 

 one finds variation in action according to varying circumstances, a state 

 of things which is seen over and over again throughout the plant-world, 

 there seem ample grounds for believing that plants are capable of intelli- 

 gent action, and are endowed with consciousness to perceive and feel the 



