Southern planter - The W&M Digital Archive

TH E
Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts.
Agriculture is- the nursing mother of the Arts. 1 Tillage and
[Xenophon. J
the
Pasturage
State.--Sully.
are the two breasts of
J. E. WILLIAMS, Editor. AUGUST & WILLIAMS Prop' RS.
Vol. XIX. RICHMOND, VA., JULY, 1859. No. •
Mr. Editor :
For the Southern Planter.
Guano Controversy.
I am at a loss for a " caption" to this ar-
ticle, that will designate my subject at pres-
ent, and still bear some relation to the
original inquiry, out of which these collat-
erals have sprung. One would scarcely
suppose from the points now under discus-
T
sion between } our correspondent " B." and
myself that the discussion had its beginning
in an inquiry into the " Stimulating
properties of Guano j" and yet the connec-
tion is natural, inasmuch as its operation
for good or evil depends in a great degree
upon the susceptibilities of vegetables to
these unwonted effects. And thus we are
led off into a physiological discussion concerning
the susceptibilities of plants, and
as susceptibilities imply functions and func-
tions organs, it brings us directly to the ques-
tion, Do plants possess an organization analagous
to the nervous system of animals ?
Says " B.," " I have not asserted that
there exist an organized nervous system,
but such susceptibilities as sustain to the
vegetable, a relation similar to that of a
nervous system to animals." The meaning
we extract from the foregoing sentence
is, that plants either possess a nervous appa-
25
i
ratue or some organized structure whose
functions bear a certain relation to the functions
of a nervous system : for what he
calls susceptibilities must be the properties
or functions of some organ from which it
derives its susceptibilities.
Now, if he hesitates about calling it a
nervous system, we must call upon him for
a name for this new structure in the anatomy
and conformation of plants, and then
to demonstrate its functions and show us
its relations to this system in animals.
In the meantime, we will endeavour to
show that plants do not possess certain func-
tions or properties that are possessed by all
animals, in greater or less degree, and that
arc universally referred by all physiologists
to an organized system of nerves, viz : sen-
sation and locomotion. U B." stated in syllogcstic
form in a previous communication,
that as some animals do not possess locomotion,
they, too, must be destitute of nerves;
but wc deny the fact that there are any animals
totally destitute of either of these
functions. Wc are ready to admit that they
are very feeble and of the lowest order, but
that they are totally absent no physiologist
has ever asserted. In the higher orders of
animal existence, both the functions and
their organs are so palpable as to be read-
ily demonstrated, and always bearing the