A CURIOUS THEORY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1906, 4 February 1885, Page 2

A CURIOUS THEORY.

A a meeting of the Linncen Society which was.-held very recently Mr A. A',. : Tylor submitted a paper entitled "On the; Growth- of Trees and ;Protoplasmicbut only that part of the paper which, dealt with the growth of trees was read. Mr Tylor's chief object was to show the principles that underlie the iiidividualty of plants, and to prove that plants have a dim sort of intelligence and are not merely an aggregation of tissues responsive to the direct influence of light. . Not only this, but that the tree as a whole knows more than itß'branches, just as the' speqies knows more than the individual, and the community than the unit.' The result of Mr Tylor's experiments, whioh have extended over many years, has beon to, show, that many plants and trees can adapt themselves to unfamiliar circumstances, such .as avoiding obstacles artificially placed in theb? way by bending asido before touching or by altering the leaf arrangement, so that at ieast' as much voluntary power must be accorded to such plants as to certain lowly prganised animals. Finally, Mr Tylor contends that a connecting systoii),' by means of which combined movements take place, is to be found in the threads p'f protoplasm which unite the various cells, and that this connecting system is found even in the new wqod of trees, He hag observed that most new wood points upwards, hut year after year it. changes its position, showing great, mobility even in old wood.