And so on, story after story of "Appetency" or Mentation in plants might be told, until we reach the insect-catching species, when even the most conservative observer is forced to admit that: "Well, it does _almost_ seem like thinking, doesn't it?" Any lover of plants, flowers or trees, and who has been able to study them at first hand, does not need much argument to prove that plant-life exhibits traces of Mentation, some of it pretty far advanced, too. Some lovers of plants go so far as to claim that one must "love" plants before they will succeed in growing them, and that the plants feel and respond to the feeling. But the writer does not insist upon this, but merely mentions it in passing. Before leaving the subject of Mentation in plants, the writer is tempted to steal a little more space and tell you that plants do more than receive sensations of light and moisture. They exhibit rudimentary taste as well. Haeckel relates an interesting story of an insect-catching plant. He states that while it will bend its leaves when any solid body (excepting a raindrop) touches its surface, still it will secrete its acrid digestive fluid only when that object happens to be nitrogenous (meat or cheese). The plant is able to distinguish its meat diet (its food being insectivorous), and while it will supply its gastric juice for meat and cheese, as well as for the insect, it will not do so for other solids to which it is indifferent. He also mentions the fact that roots of trees and plants are able to taste the different qualities of soil, and will avoid poor soil and plunge into the richer parts of the earth. The sexual organism and life of plants also affords a great field for study to the student hunting for evidences of "life" and "Mentation" in that kingdom. The motion or circulation of the sap in trees and plants was formerly considered to be due to capillary attraction and purely "mechanical laws," but recent scientific experiments have shown it to be a vital action--an evidence of life and Mentation--the experiments having proven that if the cell-substance of the plant was poisoned or paralyzed, the circulation of sap immediately ceased, although the "mechanical principles" had not been interfered with in the least. And now on to the mineral kingdom. "What," you may cry, "Mind and Mentation in the mineral and chemical world--surely not?" Yes, even in these low planes may be found traces of mental action. There is Life everywhere--even there. And where there is Life there is Mind. Away back among the chemical principles, and the minerals we may go in our search for Life and Mind--they cannot escape us--even there! CHAPTER IV LIFE AND MIND AMONG THE ATOMS