Ebook The Sagacity Morality of Plants

The life of a plant, like that of an animal, is a series of constant adjustments between internal strue ture and organisation and external surroundings. The latter are of such an almost infinitely variable and varying character that we cannot wonder the adjustments, or in other words the fiabz'tr, of plants are so infinitely numerous — especially when we remember the long geological periods of time during which the constant adaptations and modifications have been taking place. We sometimes hear people Speak of the instinct of plants: But how can instincts arise unless there be some kind of consciousness? For instinct is now generally regarded as the experience of the moo, as distinguished from that of the individual. The registration of experience may be in itself an in telligent rather than an automatic act. To Speak of the tendencies on the part of plants to assume a certain habit is merely to coin a word to disguise our ignorance of the process. A tendency for a plant to behave in a certain manner is merely a habit based upon the past experience of its ancestors as to what has proved best for them as a Species.