29.03.2013 Views

Personality of plants

Personality of plants

Personality of plants

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

they can be partially paralyzed if certain spots<br />

on their leaves are pricked.<br />

Many people have no hesitancy in ascribing<br />

considerable intelligence to the higher animals;<br />

why do they balk at making the same concession<br />

to <strong>plants</strong>? If you concede intelligence to a sin-<br />

gle animal, you concede some measure <strong>of</strong> brainpower<br />

to all animals down to the one-celled<br />

Amoeba, and so must grant the same favour to<br />

the plant world. Plants and animals, besides<br />

having many habits in common, in their sim-<br />

plest forms are <strong>of</strong>ten indistinguishable. Both<br />

reduce themselves to single-celled masses <strong>of</strong><br />

protoplasm. The Myxomycetes are both so<br />

plant-like and at the same time so animal-like<br />

that their classification "depends rather on the<br />

general philosophical position <strong>of</strong> the observer<br />

than on facts." Possibly they are both animal<br />

and plant at the same time<br />

—<br />

a sort <strong>of</strong> u missing<br />

link" connecting the two kingdoms <strong>of</strong> life.<br />

Anent the same question Edward Step says,<br />

"Modern thought denies consciousness to <strong>plants</strong>,<br />

though Huxley was bold enough to say that<br />

every plant is an animal enclosed in a wooden<br />

box; and science has demonstrated that there<br />

[194]

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!