The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-03-30
JACKSON G. H., OHIO, THURSDAY, MARCH 30 1876.

immense array Of facts which may be ad.
/ duced in support Of it, Endow them
/ alphabetically with consciousness, and
/ they appear in a new and altogether diff
ferent aspect. His conclusion is that
they are undoubtedly in the same cate
| CORY in this respect with the lower forms
of animal life, respecting which it is i'm.
| possible to determine whether they have
consciousness or not.
DR.. Lander Lindsay goes further, and
/ regards mind and all its essential or con-
comitant phenomena as common in vari-
Gus senses to plants, the lower animals,
and man; and he backs his belief with a
cogent array of evidence, which, while it
fails to demonstrate absolutely his posi-
ton, shows very clearly the drift Of sci
entific opinion.
DR.. Asa Gray, after speaking Of the
transmission Of the excitability of sensi-
tive plants from one part of the plant to
another, the renewal of excitability by
repose, and the power which the organs
OF plants have to surmount obstacles to
positions favorable to the proper exer-
else of their functions, goes on to say
that, when we consider in this connec-
ton the still more striking cases Of spon-
exhibit, and that all these motions are
arI ested by narcotic or other poisons-
the narcotic and acid poisons producing
effects upon vegetables respectively anal
ogous to their effects upon the animal
economy-we cannot avoid attributing
to plants a vitality and power of max
ing movements towards a determinate
end, not differing in nature, perhaps,
from those of the lower animals. Prob
ably, he adds with Characteristic eau
tIousness, life is essentially the same in
the two kingdoms; and to vegetable life
faculties are superadded in the lower an
imals, some Of which are here and there
indistinctly foreshadowed in plants.
Darwin has observed in the droSera T0-
t,fadifoiia a faculty for selecting its food.
which in animals would certainly be at
tributed to volition. Mrs. Treat has
described the same trait in the plant.
On being deceived by means of piece Of
chalk, the drosera curved its stalk glands
towards it. but Immediately discovering
its mistake, withdrew them. The plant
would bend toward q fly held within
reach, enfold it, and suck its juices; but
would disregard the bait if out Of reach.
showing not only purposiye movement
Tor a refusal to move, as the case might
warranty but also a certain power OF es-
timating distance.
Again, Darwin has shown that the
more perfect tendril bearers among
plants bend toward or from the
light, or disregard it, as may be most ad- |
vantageous. Also, that the tendrils of
various climbers frequently attached |
themselves to objects presented to them !
experimentally, but soon withdrew on |
nd hn ffah Haa
Of the bignOnia capreokata that its tendrils /
"soon recoiled, with what can only call |
disgust, from a glass tube or a zinc /
plate, and straightened themselves. OF /
another bignonia, he says that the ter /
minal part of the tendril exhibits an odd 4
habit, which in an animal would be 1
called an instinct, for il continually /
for any little dark hole in which
10 insert itself The same tendril would
withdraw from one hole and
insert its point in another. In like man
ner, spirally twining plants seem to
search for proper supports, rejecting
hose not suitable.
Speaking of phenomena Of this sort,
DR.. Lindsay makes this strong remark
In caTnivorous and climbing plants,
here is a choice or alternative between
lction or inaction, acceptance or refusal;
md the choice made is not always judi
,ious. There may be an error, and the
error may be corrected; but in order to
Iuch correction, there must surely be
Iome kind of consciousness or perception
hat a mistake has been committed: an
exercise of will in making further efforts
It success. and a knowledge Of means to
IN end, with their proper adaptation or
application"
According to Professor Laycock, organ
C memory is common to both animals
md plants, and certain HdHas seem to
exhibit il in a marked degree in their
Intipathy to certain trees. The botanist
Brown has remarked that the trees
which the lianas refuse to coil round are
physically incapable of supporting the
climbers
And not only do many plants act, as
,ne might say, reasonably, but some ex-
libit the opposite quality. In his Veg
,table Physiology" Professor lawson
pealxs of the eccentric movements of the
Iide leaflets of hedySarlna gyrdaS, which
make it appear as though the whole
plant were actuated by feeling of ca
price.
In many cases observers are, no doubt,
and mistake a mechanical
md wholly unconscious mimicry of in
,elligent action for an actual exhibition
of intelligence: still such men as DR..
Gray and Mr.. Darwin are not apt to be
leluded by mimicry or figures of speech;
md however much it may run counter
10 popular notions Of what is proper to
plant life. the hypothesis that intelli-
gence does not cad with animal life
seems by no means inconsistent with
Of trustworthy observations.