1 879-] 
Instinct and Reason. 
107 
present Mr. Darwin has investigated the same subject very care¬ 
fully, and found that when a fly was caught by one of these 
plants, it would be dissolved in a gastric fluid exactly like that of 
the animal stomach. Pieces of beef and the like, when subjected 
to the same process, were acted upon in like manner. Hard min¬ 
eral substances, like chalk, would, after a time, be rejected by the 
plant, though seized upon at first like the rest, shall we say as 
soon as it found out its mistake? 1 
In this country a lady has enlightened us greatly upon this 
subject by her interesting labors upon the bladder wort ( Utricu- 
Laria neglecta). Mrs. Treat has studied the habits of this plant 
very carefully, and learned that it allures animalcules by means 
of its bright flowers and leaves glistening with dew. The water 
bear and other microscopic forms of insect and vegetable life 
seem to be its food. 2 
Instinct and Reason .—On analyzing the various opinions formed 
at different times in the world’s history, in regard to the reason¬ 
ing power, or consciousness'of action displayed by plants, we 
shall meet with extremists on both sides of the question. Pass¬ 
ing over the mythological accounts of plant metamorphoses, so 
attractive to the refined Greek and Latin, we only advert to the 
mental faculties with which the ancients were pleased to endow 
many plants. 
Many in more modern times have lavishly bestowed souls upon 
plants, as did Adanson, Bonnet, Hedwig and Edward Smith. 
Martius and Fechner, of Germany, defended these views, and 
were very liberal in their supply of souls to plants, even regard¬ 
ing them as sentient beings. 
Another class, taking the opposite side oPtne question, among 
which may be reckoned Hiller, regarded plants as only suscepti¬ 
ble to the material influences of the universe. So Descartes 
made all animals, so far as he could, mere automatons. 
The views of naturalists of our own day are more consistent 
with nature and common sense; that all plants obey as infallible 
a law as do animals, and are subject to like influences as was 
observed above. Bichat in his great work on “ Life and Death,” 
- 
1 Huxley found in plants something comparable to a nervous system; Darwin 
something comparable to reflex action. 
- New York Trib.,Feb. 1, 1875; also Darwin’s “ Insect. Plants,” Sir J. Lubbock’s 
“ Brit. Wild. Flowers.” 
