The Soul of Plants [pp. 397-398]

1869.] LITEBA TUBE SCIENCL AND A1?T 397
with Marjoram's attention to business; and it is only just to say that
they never interfered with it at all during the lengthened period when
the interests of others so vitally depended upon his diligence and
exertions. During that crisis, for the first time in his life, he almost
forgot his flowers, or thought of them only on the one welcome day of
the week, when he rested from his professional labors. But he indemnified himself amply for the sacrifices of that busy and trying time by
the redoubled ardor with which he returned to his pinks and roses as
soon as prospects brightened and the firm began again to prosper. He
was always, however, a conscientious, hard-working attorney, and,
though far inferior in ability to his young partner, was so indispensable to him that, even had the ruling passion betrayed itself more provokingly or inopportunely than in fact it ever did, Alexander would
have borne it with the most good-humored equanimity. On the whole,
they worked admirably well together; they were not only strongly
attached to one another, but they were thoroughly agreed upon the
principles on which their business was to be conducted. Prudent
men, involved in litigation, will always look narrowly to the reputation of their solicitors; but Messrs. Marjoram and Alexander looked
just as narrowly to the reputation of their clients. They shunned the
business of the greatest mercantile houses, whose system of trading
they had reason to suspect of being fraudulent and hollow. They refused to have any thing to do with the banks that commenced the
business of the day with prayers and psalmody, and took only evangelical clerks into their service. Thus, when such a house broke and
spread misery and ruin far and wide, they were in a position to throw
their talents and activity into the scale of the widow and orphan, instead of being committed to the defence of the blackest criminals that
can stand at the bar of the Old Bailey. In prosecuting cases of this
description, they had repeatedly distinguished themselves; and it was
notorious that they never looked to pecuniary remuneration alone
when once they were engaged in tracking the mazes of a dishonest
bankruptcy, or arresting the career of a bubble company. But for
some time back, owing to Alexander's versatility, and the necessity
his active mind was under of finding new scope for the ability which
had been diverted from its original proper destination, the firm had
been to some extent engaged in the management of landed property.
This, which began with mere auditorship and by degrees went further,
was particularly Alexander's province. It was not an extension of the
business which Mr. Marjoram quite relished, and latterly Alexander
himself had been rather disposed to contract than increase it. But
more than enough has been said of these dry matters.
The handsome youth of the Orta days was now one of the finest
men of mature years in England. His personal attractions, with his
social qualities and old devotional dispositions to the fairer part of
the creation, led him, it will easily be believed, into many other resorts
besides the courts of law or the committee-rooms of the House of
Commons. Such a man was sure to be a welcome guest wherever he
appeared. Whether it was accident, as probably it was, or whether
it was owing to his popularity with the sex, certain it is that he had
not been many years in his father's shoes before his office counted an
unusual number of lady-clients-dowagers, heiresses, fair wards-inchancery, etc., the only serious result of which as yet was that it
gained for Alexander the sobriquet, by which he often went in legal
circles, of "the Lady's Attorney."
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
THE SOUL OF PLANTS.
T HE veneration with which some plants and trees were regarded in
the earlier ages of the world survives; and, although one of
our modern bards has complained that The earth is rife
With the teeming life
Of the golden tribes no more,"
we find that the old-time love of the people,still clings to many a
shrub and tree and flower, even in our matter-of-fact generation.
Madame Dudevant has written some very pleasing letters on botany
in the Revue des Deux Jfondes; and Victor Meunier, a graceful writer in
the outskirts of the scientific world, comments upon them. Both
refer to a very attractive and original work, by the botanical savant
Boscowitz, entitled "The Soul of Plants "-the designation which
is placed at the head of this sketch.
Says Meunier, with a touch of sarcasm at the point of his pen,
"In our time, the human soul is so frequently a subject of dispute,
that it is not without some surprise that one hears any thing said
about the souls of plants! We are ready to believe that the phrase is
merely a figurative expression, and that, by the word soul, are meant
the hue, the grace, the charm, the attraction, of the plant; its
vivacious, majestic, or languishing attitude and presence-in fine, all
that goes to make up its external aspect and effect. But, no; it is
really the vegetative psychology of plants that the author means.
Professor Boscowitz propounds the following clearly-defined question: "Is the plant an animated creature, capable of voluntary
acts?"
In replying to this query, he cites some of the most curious facts
of vegetative life. Studied with penetration and sagacity, grouped
with skill, and poetically interpreted, these facts seem absolutely new
to us, although they are taking place before our eyes every day.
The opinion, that the motions of plants are not merely mechanical
and physical, or, in other words, produced by blind force, but are determined by a perceptive intelligence, partaking of the nature of the
instinct that governs animals, has already been enunciated by several
men of learning, and, among them, by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of the celebrated naturalist of our time, the elder philosopher
having lived in the eighteenth century. The two most fervent partisans
of the same doctrine, nowadays, are De Martius and Theodor Fechner, in Germany.
Among the ancients, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Plato, and others
scarcely less eminent, acknowledged their belief in the existence of an
intelligent principle, or soul, in plants. The laws of Manou, even, consecrate the idea, for, they say:
" Plants and animals have, within them, a sense of their existence, and
have also their pains and pleasures."
Admitting this doctrine, for a few moments, if we suppose that the
variety of sensations is as multiple in plants as their varieties of species, what an enchanting stir of life must play through that vegetative
realm which comprises within its vast boundaries the violets and daisies
of our meadows, the superb flowers of our gardens, and the odd or
magnificent products of the tropical flora, and embraces those mysterious plants whose sensitiveness and capacity for transformation of
hue and shape border on the marvellous.
Professor Boscowitz particularly mentions two or three of these
exceptional plants, which reveal a wonderful vitality.
The 3limosa is the first he selects. It, upon the slightest shock, or
the least agitation of the ground it stands in, closes its leaves, bends
its tendrils downward, and seems to fade with terror, as a frail child
might turn pallid in swooning.
The Flower of Mary, also called the Rose of Judea, the Rose of
Jericho, and, scientifically, the Anastatica, is another of these remarkable plants. The Arabs give it the name we have first used,
and hold it in great reverence. When it has expanded in a soil not
well adapted to the fructification of its seeds, it detaches the root
that kept it in its place, holding on by a very delicate little fibre
only, and, at last, letting that go, abandons itself to the wind, that
sweeps it away to some moister and more invigorating soil, in which
it may drop its ripened seed without apprehension.
Prone on the ground, and withered after having disengaged its
roots, it at once brightens up again, and recovers its freshness for the
duration of this new but brief existence. Sometimes it repeats this
process several times, but the exhaustion experienced during its journey through the air leaves it sterile ever after.
The Resurrection Flower is still more amazing. Only two individuals of the species have been known, and they grew on the same plant.
The latter was given to Dr. Deck, the naturalist, by an Arab whose
life he had saved. Some time afterward, the doctor gave one of these
precious flowers to the celebrated Humboldt.
The Arab's gift was by no means attractive, at first sight-a
slender stalk supporting two small, dry and scorched-looking pellets!
But the son of the Desert strenuously affirmed that this treasure had
been found in a tomb, upon the bosom of an ancient Egyptian priestess, and loudly vaunted its wonderful properties. In truth, the professor had hardly moistened the flower, ere he saw that "the
Arab was right. This plant exerts a powerful, an ineffable charm
over the man who beholds it for the first time. Scarcely has one
sprinkled a little water on it, ere it begins to stir; the stalk rises
erect; the flower slowly opens; and the frail petals unfold one by one,
1869.]
LIT. ERATUREF, SCIENCE, AND) ART.
397