Evolution, Old & New: Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck,; as compared with that of Charles DarwinButler, Samuel
Philosophy
Evolution, Old & New: Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck,; as compared with that of Charles Darwin
Butler, Samuel
Evolution (Biology) -- History
"Professor Kalm, in his travels in New York, observes that the apple
trees brought from England blossom a fortnight sooner than the native
ones. In our country, the shrubs that are brought a degree or two from
the north are observed to flourish better than those which come from the
south. The Siberian barley and cabbage are said to grow larger in this
climate than the similar more southern vegetables; and our hoards of
roots, as of potatoes and onions, germinate with less heat in spring,
after they have been accustomed to the winter's cold, than in autumn,
after the summer's heat.
"II. The stamens and pistils of flowers show evident marks of
sensibility, not only from many of the stamens and some pistils
approaching towards each other at the season of impregnation, but from
many of them closing their petals and calyxes during the cold part of
the day. For this cannot be ascribed to irritation, because cold means
a defect of the stimulus of heat; but as the want of accustomed stimuli
produces pain, as in coldness, hunger, and thirst of animals, these
motions of vegetables in closing up their flowers must be ascribed to
the disagreeable sensation, and not to the irritation of cold. Others
close up their leaves during darkness, which, like the former, cannot be
owing to irritation, as the irritating material is withdrawn.
"The approach of the anthers in many flowers to the stigmas, and of the
pistils of some flowers to the anthers, must be ascribed to the passion
of love, and hence belongs to sensation, not to irritation.
"III. That the vegetable world possesses some degree of voluntary powers
appears from their necessity to sleep, which we have shown in Section
XVIII. to consist in the temporary abolition of voluntary power. This
voluntary power seems to be exerted in the circular movement of the
tendrils of the vines, and other climbing vegetables; or in the efforts
to turn the upper surfaces of their leaves, or their flowers, to the
light.
"IV. The associations of fibrous motions are observable in the vegetable
world as well as in the animal. The divisions of the leaves of the
sensitive plant have been accustomed to contract at the same time from
the absence of light; hence, if by any other circumstance, as a slight
stroke or injury, one division is irritated into contraction, the
neighbouring ones contract also from their motions being associated with
those of the irritated part. So the various stamina of the class of
syngenesia have been accustomed to contract together in the evening, and
thence if you stimulate any one of them with a pin, according to the
experiment of M. Colvolo, they all contract from their acquired
associations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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