The St. Johns herald., 1889-05-16
Brain-POwer of Plants.

The modern student of plant life no longer regards the objects of his study as so many things which merely demand classification and arrangement, and whose history is exhausted when a couple of Latin or Greek names have been append ed to each specimen. On the con- trary, the botanist of to-day seeks to unravel the mysteries of plant life. For him the plant is no longer an inanimate being, but stands re- vealed as an organism exhibiting animal functions, such as breathing, circulation of blood or sap, various complex movements, and sleeping, which are as certainly equally well defined as are the analogous traits in the existence of the animal. We have seen that all these functions in
 the animal kingdom cannot be per
 formed except by the agency of the various nerves, etc.. and that there
 must be source of power behind
 the different nerve cells of which
 the brain is composed. The brain
 itself can, therefore, be looked upon
 as an intermediate motion which
 only serves for the more perfect
 transmission of impulse. This mo- tor is absent in plants but does it necessarily follow that the power or force itself is nonresident? Ger tainly not. There is any amount
 of evidence to the contrary. Some say that this power is merely in sinct, great authority tells us, Is only blind habit or automatically carried out action. If this is so, then instinctive actions only move
 in one direction, and cannot adapt themselves to circumstances. But all those who have studied the hab- its of plants know full well that they have the power of adapting
 themselves to circumstances, and
 have many movements and traits
 that are the very reverse of auto matic. Numerous instances might be pointed out in which not only
 are the signs of sensibility as fully developed in the plant as in the animal, but many phases of animal life are exactly initiated. Take, for example, those wonderful plants the Mimosa, sensitive of the most delicate touch. The manner in which this plant closes it's stalks and leaves at the approach of dark ness is very interesting. As the gloaming gently falls the leaves move upward toward each other till they touch; the secondary leaf stalks slowly droop till they are nearly parallel with the main leaf stalks, which, in their turn, fall till they point to the ground. Thus it folds itself at the close of day, and there is no doubt if it were not al. lowed to sleep it would, like our selves, soon die. This is not only an example of the necessity of sleep for the repairing of nervous energy and recuperation of brain-power
 but a proof of the existence of the same in the vegetable kingdom
 Then there are the carnivorous plants, the Venus fiy-trap (DionRa) for instance, which will digest raw beef as readily as its insect prey
 From glands with which it's leaf is provided fluids are poured outwhich resemble the gastric juice of the animal stomach in its digestive properties. The matter of the in sect body or meat is thus absorbed into the substance and tissues ot the plant just as the food taken in to the animal stomach is digested and becomes part of the animal fabric. In the animal, digestion can only be commenced by the brain-force acting by means of q nerve upon the gastric glands; WIG may, therefore, concede that it is