February  3/  1898.  '/  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
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It  is,  apparently,  in  the  functions  rather  than  the  forms  of  life  that 
plants  possess  the  power  of  mimicry.  The  barrier  may,  indeed,  be 
great  between  the  great  order  of  carnivora  and  the  so-called  carnivorous 
plants,  but  the  functions  of  these  plants  appear  to  be  (juite  on  a  par  in 
the  scale  of  intelligence  with  some  of  the  lower,  not  the  lowest,  forms 
of  animal  life.  One  might  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  Sundews 
and  similar  plants  exhibiting  irritability  in  such  a  high  degree, 
coupled  with  their  powers  of  absorption  and  assimilation,  compare 
very  favourably  in  this  respect  with  the  mollusca  or  similar  orders  of 
beings,  which  after  their  infantile  migrations  settle  for  life  devoid  of 
voluntary  motion. 
Voluntary  motion,  the  absence  of  which  in  the  vegetable  kingdom 
is  the  most  important  of  the  missing  links,  means  the  possession  of 
Kelative  to  the  functions  of  life  there  is  one  phase  which,  as 
previously  remarked,  appears  somewhat  startling,  and  can  hardly  fail 
to  be  of  interest  and  service  to  the  practical  worker.  Duhamel, 
Humboldt,  and  Plenck  long  suspected  that  plants  possessed  the  power 
of  voiding  deleterious  matter,  a  power  common  to  the  animal  kingdom. 
This,  in  ratio  to  their  more  relined  functions  of  food  absorption  and 
assimilation,  must  of  necessity  be  obscure,  yet,  nevertheless,  has  far 
reaching  iniluences.  These  excretions  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  secretions  of  flower,  or  leaf,  or  stem,  being  quite  distinct  from 
them.  From  the  suspicions  entertained  by  the  above  learned  trio 
Macaire  was  induced  to  explore  the  matter,  and  obtained  sufficient 
proofs  to  leave  it  beyond  dispute  that  “  all  plants  part  with  a  kind  of 
foecal  matter  by  their  roots  of  a  nature  varying  with  species  or  laige 
Flti.  16.— SOBRALIA  LUCASIANUM. 
muscles;  but  irritability  points  very  strongly  .to  presence  of 
nerves,  which  most  vegvtable  physiologists  deny,  or  question  the 
existence  of  in  plant  life.  In  viewing  the  wonderful  structure  of  the 
Nepenthes,  and  in  considering  too  the  climatic  conditions  which  they 
love,  one  might  be  excused  the  passing,  thought  that  our  present 
species  are  but  the  degenerate  descendants  of  a  type  which,  under 
contemporary  conditions  producing  a  flora  and  fauna  now  extinct  or 
considerably  modified,  might  even  have  been  a  terror  to  prehistoric 
man.  In  the  matter  of  prickles  and  spines,  common  to  various  species 
of  plants,  such  may  be  regarded  without  any  wide  stretch  of  imagina¬ 
tion,  I  think,  as  a  means  of  defence,  on  parallel  lines  to  those  which 
Nature  has  provided  to  many  animals as  well  as  the  stinging 
properties  or  irritant  powers  characterising  certain  subjects  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom.  In  the  economy  of  plant  life  w'e  cannot  find  that 
either  prickles  or  spines  serve  any  other  purpose,  and  with  the  former 
their  brief  duration  of  life,  in  comparison  with  the  ])ermanent  character 
of  the  spine,  leads  to  the  inference  that  the  protection  is  especially 
intended  for  immature  growth. 
natural  orders.”  In  connection  with  this  may  be  noted  the  experi¬ 
ments  and  observations  of  Bischoff  with  spiral  vessels,  which  led  to  the 
conclusion  endorsed  by  others  that  their  purpose  in  the  anatomy  of 
plant  life  is  that  of  preparing  the  crude  fluid  for  its  nourishment  and 
support,  “just  as  blood  is  rendered  fit  for  that  of  animals.” 
The  similarity  of  life  in  the  two  kingdoms  appears  in  this  respect 
to  be  somewhat  startling.  Food  to  create  the  vital  fluid,  and  natural 
laws  in  operation  to  void  the  deleterious  matter.  Upon  this  hinges 
the  necessity  of  rotation  of  cropiung  to  prevent  that  soil-sickness 
which  Dr.  Lindley  remarrs  is  not  due  to  exhaustion,  and  that 
“  abundant  manuring  will  not  supersede  the  necessity  of  the  usual 
rotation.”  Of  the  interesting  experiments  carried  out  in  relation  to 
this  subject  one  more  may  be  noticed — viz.,  it  was  ascertained  that 
certain  plants,  like  certain  animals,  which  secrete  poisons  peculiar  to 
themselves,  cannot  absorb  them  into  their  systems  abnormally  without 
injury  or  death  resulting.  Thus,  Atropa  belladonna  is  killed  when 
absorbing  its  own  [)oison  by  its  roots. — Invicta. 
(To  be  concluded.) 
