animal existences. Low down in the scale of life are forms about which it cannot be predicated these are plants and these are animals. Scientists are unable to say where plant-life ends and animal-life begins. No hard-and-fast line can be drawn beween the two vast kingdoms of life, and it is often wholly impossible to decide whether we are dealing with an animal or a plant. There can be no question that the earliest life was vegetable by nature, and that its habitat was the primeval ocean. This is no less the teaching of science than that of the Scriptures. From some such life, originating de novo as the Spirit of God passed over the waters, the two great branches of animate nature may have taken their rise. What the form of this life may have been, whether cellular or a mere mass of formless protoplasm, the mind of man cannot asseverate. It is a mystery, and will doubtless ever remain as such to finite intelligence. That this life, no matter how apparently insignificant it must have been, breathed in its own simple fashion, that is, by the coetaneous operation of the ruach chayim and the neshemet chayim upon its simple substance in accordance with natural law, there can be no dispute. Breathing is not always conditioned by the existence of nostrils. Plants respire, or, in other words, take in carbonic acid from the air through their stomata, or mouths, which they separate into its components of carbon and oxygen, appropriating the former, which they build into solid matter, but usually throwing off the latter into the great receptacle of atmosphere from which it was extracted. Even a moner, which has no distinction of parts, may be said to breathe, but it breathes by means of its whole external surface, for neshemeh and ruach are as necessary to it as to man himself. It will thus be obvious that plants are living, breathing frames, or bodies of life, and hence are as much entitled to be considered as living souls as animals are. Let but God withdraw his ruach, or spirit, from them, and they die and to their dust return. Surely no more could be predicated of animals.

CONSCIOUSNESS IN PLANTS.

PLAN

ANTS, it has been vaguely asserted, differ from animals by not having the power of movement. Rather should it be stated that plants acquire and display this power when it is to their advantage. This will be found to be of comparatively rare occurrence, as they are affixed to the ground, and food is brought to them by the air and rain. Evidence of the very high position a plant may attain in the scale of organization may be seen when we look at one of the more perfect tendril-bearers. As a polypus adjusts its tentacula for action, so a plant places its tendrils. If the tendril be displaced, it sets to work to right itself. Acted on by the light, it bends towards or from it, or disregards it altogether, whichever course may be the most advantageous. For several days the tendrils or internodes of the plant, or both, spontaneously or otherwise revolve with a steady motion. should they strike some object, they curl quickly around it, grasp it with wonderful firmness, and in the course of a few hours contract into spirals, dragging up the stems, and forming most excellent springs. All external movements now cease, and by growth the tissues soon become surprisingly strong and durable.

But

Such a movement, as has just been considered, is a widely prevalent one in plants, and is essentially of the same nature as that of the stem of a climbing plant, which successively bends to all points of the compass, so that the tip is made to revolve. This movement has been called revolving nutation by some writers, and circumnutation by others. In the case of the circumnutating movement of the tip of the radicle of

some plants, there can be no doubt that it is it that affords the radicle some slight assistance in penetrating the ground. But whether or not a radicle, when surrounded by softened earth, is aided in making a passage for itself by circumnutating, one thing is certain, that is, that this movement, by guiding the radicle along a line of least resistance, can hardly fail to be of high importance. Should, however, a radicle in its downward growth break obliquely into any crevice, or an opening left by a decayed root, or one made by the larva of an insect, and more especially by worms, the circumnutating movement of the tip will materially aid it in following such open passages. Not only our own observation, but also those of such eminent authorities as Darwin and Hensen, conclusively show that roots commonly run down the old burrows of worms.

But radicles of seedlings, as well as those of more vigorous plants, would pass over stones, roots and other obstacles, which they must necessarily encounter in the soil. This they are abundantly able to do, for they are exceedingly sensitive just above their apices, and bend like a tendril towards the touching object. When, however, one side of the apex is pressed by any object, the growing part bends away from that object, and this seems a beautiful adaptation for avoiding obstacles in the soil, and for following the lines of least resistance.

So feeble is the circumnutating movement of the terminal growing part, both of the primary and secondary radicles, that it can assist them but little in penetrating the ground, excepting when the superficial layer is very soft and moist. But it must aid them materially when they chance to break obliquely into cracks, or into burrows that have been made by earth-worms or larvæ. Moreover, combined as it is with the sensitiveness of the tip of the radicle to contact, it can hardly fail to be of the highest importance, for as the tip is always endeavoring to bend to all sides, it will press on all sides, and will thus be able to discriminate between the

Earth Cut Away to Show Directions Taken by Tip of Kadicle in Avoiding a Stone.

harder and softer adjoining surfaces. Consequently, it will tend to bend from the harder soil, and will thus take the directions of the least resistance. So it will act if it meet with a stone or the root of another plant in the soil, as must incessantly occur. If the tip were not sensitive, and did not excite the upper part of the radicle to bend away, whenever obstacles were encountered at right angles to its growing direction, it would undoubtedly be liable to be doubled up into a contorted mass. But with radicles growing down inclined plates of glass, as shown by experiment, it has been

observed that as soon as the tip merely touched a slip of wood cemented across the plate, the entire terminal growing point curved away, so that the tip soon stood at right angles to its former direction; and thus, as far as the pressure of the surrounding soil would permit, would it be with an obstacle encountered in the ground. Thick and strong radicles, like those of the horse-chestnut, are endowed with less sensitiveness than more delicate ones, and would therefore be the better able by the force of their growth to overcome any slight impediment to their progress. Further, as radicles perceive an excess of moisture in the air on one side and bend towards this side, it is reasonable to infer that they will act in a similar manner with respect to moisture in the earth, for the sensitiveness of moisture resides in the tip, which determines the bending of the upper part. May not this capacity partly account for the extent to which drainpipes often become choked with roots? The direction which the apex takes at each successive period of the growth of a root, ultimately determines its whole course. It is therefore very important that the apex should follow from the first the most advantageous direction. We can thus understand why sensitiveness to geotropisin, contact and moisture should all reside in the tip, and why it should determine the upper growing part to bend either from or to the exciting cause. Darwin has compared a radicle with a burrowing animal, such as a mole, which wishes to penetrate vertically into the ground. By a process of circumnutation, or the movement of his head from side to side, he is enabled to feel any stone or other obstacle, as well as any difference in hardness of soil that may exist, and will therefore turn from that side; but if damper on one side than on the other, will turn thither as a more suitable hunting-ground. Nevertheless, after each interruption, he, guided by the sense of gravity, will be able to recover his downward direction and to reach to a greater depth. Destruction of the tip of a radicle does not prevent the adjoining part from bending, if this part has already received