Personality of plants

MYSTICISM IN THE PLANT WORLD
hind the other none, it will invariably bend its
creeping steps over the ridge hiding the wall.
The wall was invisible from the plant's start-
ing-point, and certainly betrayed its presence
through no odour or other manifestation. In
some mysterious way, the creeper simply knew
that a vital necessity of its life lay in a certain
direction. Ordinarily, we associate such phenomena
with psychic influences. It is quite
evident, that in certain ways, the plants display
a very practical knowledge of such mysteries.
For many years, man has instinctively been
aware of this psychic superiority of the members
of the vegetable kingdom, and has gone
to them for advice in various troubles and dif-
ficulties, even sometimes believing the plants
to have a direct control over the affairs and
lives of men. While the great mass of such al-
leged influence is classed by modern thought as
merest superstition, who can say that the wildest
of these fancies does not contain certain germs
of truth? At any rate, a brief investigation of
some of the more popular beliefs of former
years is very illuminating.
In ancient days, many flowers and plants were
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